'I need to play, to perform for myself'

The square window lets in just enough light to negate the need for overhead fixtures in the small room at the School of Music. The room is home to a well-used piano, a small table and three chairs. This room is a study, an office and a classroom belonging to Janet Ross -- one of two winners in 2003 who earned the Vision, Strength, and Artistic Expression Panasonic Young Soloists Award.\nBut it's hard for Ross to see her accolades. She's legally blind.\nWhen she was born, cataracts marred one of the five-senses people take for granted. Later came the glaucoma, which stole more of her precious vision. Though she is challenged with this disability, she moves around the halls of the music school with the precision of Bartolomeo Dias when he rounded the Cape of Good Hope.\nRoss is a graduate student in piano performance and was awarded the VSA, an honor bestowed on musicians under age 25 who have been diagnosed with a disability.\nAs part of the award, Ross will give a 15 to 20 minute recital May 21 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the nation's capital. \nWhen Ross applied for the award, she sent in recordings of three contrasting works from three different periods. Her choices included work from her junior and senior year recitals, which she said showed off her abilities. Those selections paid off big time with a $5,000 scholarship from the Panasonic Corporation.\nHer daily practice tickling-the-ivory will become an hour longer as she prepares for the upcoming event at the Kennedy Center.\n"A recital isn't something you can cram for," Ross said. "The week before a recital, you should pretty much be ready."\nRoss doesn't know yet what pieces she will perform at the Kennedy Center, though several options have already been submitted to the awards committee.\n"My favorite pieces to play are slow and beautiful," Ross said. "But 15 to 20 minutes of slow and beautiful might put everybody to sleep."\nRoss also said she's trying to find a Chopin and Brahms balance.\nTaking into account her impaired vision, her music learning method is unorthodox. She can read only one line of music at a time. The sheet has to be close to her face -- very close. She must memorize notes one hand at a time before she can play the piece.\nThe method is often frustrating and time consuming. Her attitude, though, remains upbeat and typical of a person used to overcoming adversity.\n"I've learned to rely on my tactile sense of the keyboard," Ross said. "I just have to come up with different ways to figure things out."\nA short stint with the violin led to Ross' piano-playing beginnings at age six. She regularly practices piano for four hours a day, gives piano lessons and accompanies the IU Children's Choir. She also works in the IU School of Music's Office of Admission and Financial Aid, serving as an associate instructor in the Piano Department. Ten hours, she says, is considered a short day at the School of Music.\nRoss, a native of Amherst, Mass., seems to be gifted in not only music, but academics as well. She graduated from IU in May 2002 with a GPA of 3.9 and a triple major including piano performance, flute performance and children's music pedagogy, said a statement from the School of Music.\nBut despite all this success, Ross is still realistic when it comes to considering her future with her sight impairment. She doesn't know where her future in music will take her, but she does know piano will always be a large part of it.\n"The only thing I know is that I don't want one job to define me," Ross said. "I need to play, to perform for myself, even if it is not how I am going to make my living. I know I am always going to do it, because it's what makes me happy"