Globe-Circling Pianist

Several years ago Prof. James Sykes of the Music Department agreed to play some jazz numbers at Variety Night on campus. These were so well received that he gained the sobriquet "Jelly Roll Jim" from admiring undergraduates. It's not a title he relishes, but - to his credit - he wears it with patience and aplomb if little enthusiasm. He would prefer to be known as a serious concert pianist, music scholar and educator and as an advocate of American composers.

Fortunately, the students' appellation hasn't reached Washington and his reputation there is based on his serious accomplishments as musician and scholar. This latter role is taking him away from Hanover this fall for a round-the-world concert and lecture tour. It is sponsored by the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Exchange. Between September 15 and December 21, he is scheduled to appear in eleven countries - Malaysia, Viet Nam, Laos, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, the United Arab Republic, Greece, and Israel.

The tour - his fourth for the State Department - is a labor of love in that he has been working for 30 years to create a wider audience for gifted but little-known American composers. On this trip, for instance, in addition to the "traditional" piano works of such composers as MacDowell, Ives, Griffes, etc., he will perform several pieces by younger men. One of these is Antiphonies X, a work for electronic tape and solo piano by 23-year-old Gerald Shapiro, a student of Darius Milhaud.

However, American composers are not his only interest. En route to Singapore for his first appearance, Professor Sykes planned to visit Japan to do research on contemporary Japanese music. This is an extension of work he did last spring in the Comparative Studies Center during the Japan program.

And three years ago he was the first Westerner since World War II to be given access to an East German collection of the writings and musical manuscripts of Robert Schumann, 19th century German composer.

Such travel, even in the name of cultural exchange, is not without its hazards. Before leaving last month he was fretting about the India-Pakistan dispute, the Viet Nam situation, and Arab-Israeli tensions. He recalled the red tape involved in a visa mix-up in East Berlin that threatened to prevent his return to the West. And on his present tour he found he couldn't travel directly from Israel to Egypt because of the disputes between these countries.

If he is delayed, though, he hopes that another effort on behalf of American composers catches up with him. His latest recording for the Folkways label, made in the Hopkins Center and called PianoSonatas by Roger Sessions and RobertKurka, is scheduled to be released while he is gone. If it doesn't, he can use a previous Folkways release, The ShortPiano Pieces of Charles Ives, which is available in U.S.I.A. libraries around the world.

Prof. James Sykes