By Cyanna Rosa
After 60 years studying piano, UC Santa Barbara senior lecturer Charles Asche received the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2020 by the California Association of Professional Music Teachers.
Pianist and UCSB senior lecturer Charles Asche with his students at an annual department barbecue.
This award celebrates his vast success through performing, teaching, and serving the California Association of Professional Music Teachers or CAPMT. For five years, Asche ran a concerto competition for CAPMT bringing a full orchestra to several conventions to play for the winning students. As the pianist said, finding an orchestra willing to perform at a hotel ballroom is “strenuous logistical work but rewarding for the ears.”
Asche shares this historical moment with his former teacher John Perry, who won the award in 1994 winner and is currently a professor at Rutgers University and the Glenn Gould School in Toronto. It is the first time in history a teacher and former student have both won the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Asche has taught at UC Santa Barbara since 1991, dedicating 30 years to teaching in the Department of Music. He has performed as a recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber musician throughout the United States, Russia, Asia, and South America.
Pianist and UCSB lecturer Charles Asche performed in a 2018 recital with alumna violinist Chiao-Ling Sun, now professor of violin at Taiwan University of the Arts in Taipei, Taiwan
Asche says patience fueled his passion for piano at a young age. He watched his older sister play piano early in his childhood and when his mother told him he could not start until the age of six, his desire to play grew exponentially. When he finally got the chance to start piano lessons, he was more than ready to go and got serious about his art at age 12.
Asche believes composer Ludwig van Beethoven best defined music when he said, “Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks, and invents.”
In an interview, the UCSB lecturer recently expressed his gratitude for both the lifetime achievement award and for his lifetime of playing and teaching piano.
Please click on the video.
Cyanna Rosa is a third year UC Santa Barbara communication major. She conducted this video interview for her Writing Program class, Journalism for Web and Social Media.