Josh fulfilling his life's purpose: Winning "Name That Tune"

Freshman wins BYU's first 'Beyond Waterfall' competition 

By JUSTIN RITTER 

With his fingers rippling 

down the ivory keys of a 

piano, a BYU freshman won 

BYUSA's first "Beyond Water- 

fall" competition Thursday. 

Yeremy Turcios, a fresh- 

man from El Salvador study- 

ing information systems, re- 

ceived two free tickets to the 

concert, backstage VIP pass- 

es and will dine with Schmidt 

and the concert crew before 

the performance. 

"I've been wanting to meet 

Jon Schmidt since I was 14, 

so this is my dream come 

true," Turcios said. "When 

my piano teacher showed me 

the Jon Schmidt piano book, 

she was like, 'This is really 

hard. Don't play it. You're not 

on this level.' I started play- 

ing it and I fell in love with 

his music." 

Turcios was one of three 

pianists who competed in the 

event, part of BYUSA's Win- 

ter Concert Series, held in 

the Wilkinson Student Center 

Terrace. 

He and his fellow competi- 

tors were allowed to play any 

Schmidt song, with the excep- 

tion of his well-known piece, 

"Waterfall." 

"Jon Schmidt is not just 

'Waterfall,'" said Mindy 

Ward, a BYUSA committee 

member who helped plan the 

event. 

The contest aimed to bring 

together people who knew 

and appreciated Schmidt's 

other songs, she said. 

By chance, all three contes- 

tants played Schmidt's piece 

"All of Me," a song which re- 

quires the performer to use 

his or her forearm. 

Contestants were given a 

few minutes to play the song 

and were judged on their per- 

formance and personality. 

In addition, they were asked 

to do something original and 

answer a random question 

about themselves. 

Turcios strapped on a bi- 

cycle helmet and played a 

portion of another Schmidt 

song using his head, a tech- 

nique used by Schmidt while 

performing. 

Turcios said he had hurt 

his head the first time he at- 

tempted the feat. 

"I almost got a concussion," 

he told the audience. 

In addition to the piano 

competition, six students 

from the audience competed 

for two additional Schmidt 

concert tickets in a "name 

that tune" contest featuring 

Schmidt's music. 

Joshua Guest, a junior from 

Klamath Falls, Ore., won that 

contest. 

Jason Black, the event lead 

for the concert series, said 

the concert was a success. 

"It turned out pretty well 

for the first year," he said. 

Black said in future years, 

students should not be wor- 

ried about participating in 

the competition. 

"The people who played 

are all really good," he said. 

"We hope next year that we 

not only have people who are 

as good as them, but we also 

have people that are just be- 

ginning piano players, but 

just want to do it for fun." 

Schmidt will perform in 

the WSC Ballroom at 7:30 

p.m. Saturday. Photo by Andrew Van Wagenen 

Freshmen Yeremy Cabrera performs "All of Me" by Jon Schmidt in the WSC Terrace for a chance to win 

tickets to Jon Schmidt's concert this Saturday. 

Student gets free 

tickets to Jon 

Schmidt concert