One of the ways the U of A will be celebrating the reopening of the Fine Arts Center is with live musical performances from both students and faculty. One of those performers is Claudia Burson, a Fayetteville native, professional jazz pianist and current professor at the University of Arkansas School of Music. She is an alum of both the U of A and Berklee School of Music in Boston, and spent 20 years in Houston, Texas, before returning to Fayetteville to teach in the late 1990s. Burson visited KUAF's Firmin-Garner Performance Studio ahead of the reopening to perform a couple of her favorite pieces on the Mary Baker Rumsey Steinway piano and to talk with me about her career in music. We'll hear that conversation. But first, here is Claudia Burson performing "Stella by Starlight," originally composed by Victor Young.
Claudia Burson: I'm Claudia Burson. I was 8 years old when I started learning classical music, and by the time I was 10, I was tired of that. Well, it wasn't so much that I was tired of it. It was just that I knew somewhere inside of me that there was other music besides what was on the printed page, because if someone came up with that, then, you know. And so my uncle was a professional jazz guitarist and had a combo here. I guess destiny would have it for me to have moved with my parents to another part of town, which was on the west side of Fayetteville. And lo and behold, the pianist that he worked with was on the same street where we moved. And so then I started lessons with him. His name was Milton Turner, and he was great. And he turned me on to Erroll Garner and Dave Brubeck and then took me to a concert. I was like 10. So that was around '56, '57, '58, somewhere in there. Dave Brubeck came to Fayetteville and performed with his quartet, which was making hits right and left. I mean, he was very famous by that point. And I said, oh, I want to do that. That's what I want to do. That's so amazing.
Sophia Nourani: Oh, I'm sure you were inspired by that.
Burson: Oh, I was. It was very inspirational. And it was his all original quartet.
Nourani: So you continued to play, you picked up other styles of playing as well. And then you eventually were learning music at the U of A?
Burson: Oh, yes. I had a professor, Beatrice Pilapil, and she helped me immensely with classical repertoire and technique.
Nourani: And you took classes in the Fine Arts Center at the U of A when you were there.
Burson: Oh, yeah. We didn't have the music building as it is now. We were on the third floor of the art building. I enjoyed that. I still had a yearning to go to — there weren't very many jazz schools available, but the one I picked that I wanted to go to was Berklee in Boston. And there was another great one I was trying to decide. It didn't take me long because I've always been pulled to the East. For some reason, although I've done most of my living in Mid-South areas like Arkansas and Texas. And that's where I learned to play the blues, right?
Nourani: Yes. Because you didn't grow up playing the blues here in Arkansas. What was that like?
Burson: Oh, it was an eye opener because there were so many great musicians and there were so many musicians who were much better than I was. And so I could learn from them. And so it was quite a learning experience in the field.
Nourani: How long were you in Boston and in Texas?
Burson: Well, I went up to Berklee for the summer of '76 and studied there. And then I came back and then in '78 moved to Houston. When I moved back up here in '98, my dear friend Jim Greeson, who I think had been department chair at UA, and I think by this time he not only was teaching guitar and bass, but he was also director of the Jazz Ensemble, which Rick Salonen, you know, filled that chair. And through him, I was hired.
Nourani: And how is it being back in Fayetteville? How was it going back and bringing all of that knowledge that you had acquired and coming back to where you had felt that you were just a novice and just beginning in your learning experience?
Burson: Oh, it was quite exciting for me because when I moved back, I found out that there were some children born the year that I left, and they had grown up and were musicians and great musicians at that. Keith Jackson and Claire Starr and myself and Steve Wilks formed a little group and played around Fayetteville for a while together. And then Keith moved away and Claire developed his musicianship and sadly, we lost him a few years ago. I didn't know you all were here. This is just great, you know, to come back home and be able to play music because I was en route to Chicago. That was my next choice. And then I had family responsibilities. So I decided to stick around for a while, and I stuck.
Nourani: And what's it like teaching at the U of A?
Burson: Oh, it's rewarding. Believe me, I have great students. I have always had great students there. They are so smart.
Nourani: Kind of bringing it back to the Fine Arts Center — are you excited for that performance?
Burson: Oh, I am. I teach a combo class right now and they're going to perform. There are 10 in that class, sometimes 12. And we're going to perform together. And other combos are going to perform. And of course the UA Jazz Ensemble under Dr. Salonen is going to perform. And we've just got a busy three or four days that we're going to do music. Live music. It's real exciting.
Nourani: And does it feel cool in any way to be here setting the tone or celebrating the reopening of a building that you were at whenever you were a student?
Burson: Oh, yes. One thing exciting about it is the sound in the concert hall. One of my students gave his junior recital recently, and they did an all-acoustic performance. And you could hear every instrument. It was lovely. It was exciting. So you've seen everything already, kind of been able to look around at stuff in addition to the concert hall there.
Oh, it's nice. It's really nice. When I was in Houston, I taught quite a bit. And then I worked with the jazz director at the University of Houston and did several events with him. The thing that makes it so rewarding is that I get to share what I've learned, because I've learned a lot from masters. And so I'm getting to share, and the university enables me to do that. And the things that I share aren't written in a book. They're there from experience.
That was Claudia Burson, jazz pianist and professor at the University of Arkansas School of Music, discussing her career and upcoming performance at the reopening of the Fine Arts Center on the U of A campus. Here is her performance of "Red Top," composed by Lionel Hampton, recorded in KUAF's Firmin-Garner Performance Studio on the Mary Baker Rumsey Steinway piano.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
