Nora Arias Schmied
1919 -
Nora Arias Schmied, a pianist, has been an active performer and teacher for over eighty years, several of which she taught in college programs in Chile and the U.S. In the last few decades she has maintained a private studio where she teaches piano using the Suzuki approach.
Nora
was born and raised in Chile, the oldest of six children of Emeterio
and Catalina Block Arias, both of whom were teachers and amateur musicians. Her
mother, a 1913 graduate of the Seventh-day Adventist college
in Argentina, was a pianist and singer who taught piano, organ, and voice. Her father, a 1913 graduate of the SDA
college in Chile when it was located in Pua, played
violin, piano, flute, cello, and zither. Music was an important activity in
their home and there were frequent “musicales” involving family and
friends.
Her
mother died from complications following delivery of her sixth child, a girl,
when Nora was eleven, and she played the role of mother until her father
married two-and-a-half years later. Her stepmother, Aeschli
Mann, was a pianist who taught the children from Emeterio’s
first marriage and two from her marriage with him. Nora had started piano
lessons at age five from her mother and, following her death, studied privately
with two teachers. She particularly enjoyed her studies in 6th grade
with Juan Sepúlveda. She enrolled at the National Music
Conservatory in Santiago, where she studied with Herminia
Raccagni, a senior student-teacher under Rosita Renard, an acclaimed pianist and pedagogue. Raccagni would
later become director of the conservatory.
The
two children from the second marriage, Hellmuth and
Werner, also later attended and graduated from the music conservatory and then
pursued careers in medicine and journalism, respectively, as well as in music.
Helmuth, a pianist, organist, and string player was organist in one of the
Lutheran churches in Santiago for 34 years. Werner, a pianist and string
player, is a choir director.
Nora received all of education in SDA schools except for her training at the conservatory. She graduated from Chillán Academy in 1937 and from Chile Junior College, now Chile Adventist University, in 1939. While in the academy she taught piano during her last two years, enabling her to pay for most of her school expenses. That experience led to a decision to pursue a career as a pianist and teacher.
A
year after she graduated from CJC she married Jose Daniel Schmied,
an amateur musician who played violin and viola and conducted choral groups.
They both taught at CJC until 1950, when they were encouraged by former CJC
principal Carl D. Christensen to attend Walla Walla College, where he had
become a member of the theology department. Christensen was aware of Jose’s
interest in becoming an engineer and at that time WWC was the only SDA college offering a degree in that area.
Nora
graduated in 1953 with a degree in music education and he in 1954 with a degree
in architectural engineering. She studied piano with both Stanley E. Walker and
Sterling Gernet and in the year following completion
of her music degree took a class in library science. At the time of her graduation she was listed
as one of seven seniors who had achieved outstanding scholarship while at WWC. Although she had taught music theory and
appreciation for six years in grades 7-12 while at CJC and given piano lessons
while attending WWC as a student, she would not teach in a school system after
graduating from WWC but would be active as an accompanist and soloist, teach piano
privately and become involved with church music as a pianist and music
coordinator.
Following
graduation from WWC, The Schmieds moved to Helena,
Montana, where he worked as an engineer and she worked as a secretary and
assistant to the Purchasing Agent at Caird
Engineering Works for thirteen years.
They moved to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1968 where they lived for the next 21
years before moving to Mayer, Arizona.
It was during this time that she became aware of the Suzuki method for
teaching piano, a life-changing experience for her, one about which she would
recently write:
One afternoon after moving to Arizona, I was
watching the early evening news. It was
announced that after the next break for commercials a surprise treat awaited
which would delight music lovers. And, indeed it was.
Two 5-year-old little girls appeared on
stage, bowed to the studio and television audience then sat at two pianos,
looked smiling at each other and then happily started playing in perfect unison
the “Twinkle Variations” with such perfect technique, beautiful tone, and
phrasing! I was amazed! Some other pieces from Book 1 of the Suzuki
Repertoire followed, all played in the same perfect way.
At the end of the TV program we were told
that for information about the Suzuki program, we should write to the Suzuki
Association of the Americas. This I did
without delay. I subscribed to the
Suzuki Journal, Suzuki World, bought
books, attended seminars and institutes, observed master classes, and Suzuki
concerts to learn more. As I read the
book written by Dr. Suzuki, Nurtured by
Love, many times with tears blocking my vision, I
was converted, I was hooked, I had caught the Suzuki Spirit!
Since
Jose died in 1998 at age 83, having retired earlier after serving for thirteen
years as an engineer for the Department of Transportation in Arizona, she has
taught Suzuki Piano without charge to children and adults in her church and
community. She regards it as both her
“outreach ministry” and therapy over the loss of her husband.
ds/2016
Sources: Information provided by Nora Schmied, June 2014; Note from Nora Schmied, 2015; Completed IAMA biographical questionnaire with extensive accompanying notes, 24 June 2016; obituary for Omar Arias (older brother), www.cpcleburne.com, January 2015; Obituary for Jose Daniel Schmied, The Daily Courier, Yavapai County, AZ, 15 January 1998, 3; Social Security Death Records, Ancestry. Com.