MUSIC OVERCOMES POLITICS

SPRINGFIELD -- Rosario Andino grew up in a family of intellectuals in pre-revolutionary Cuba, and at age 4 boldly asked one of her parents' accomplished friends to teach her the piano.

"I learned how to read music before words," she says.

Since then, Andino has performed through much of the Western world, with annual tours through Europe, Mexico and the United States.

She will perform works by Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt at 3 p.m. Sunday at Academic Auditorium.

Andino was performing concerts in Cuba by age 6 and graduated from the St. George's School in Havana before landing a scholarship to attend the Chatham Square Music School in New York City. The school educates only talented musicians who are training for the concert stage.

She left for New York just before Castro came to power and soon afterward lost her scholarship when the United States and Cuba broke relations. Her parents weren't allowed to send her money.

The Cubans offered to send her to Russia to study instead. "I answered that I did not think that was a good idea," she said. "I still had a lot to learn in New York."

Andino survived by working odd jobs -- she was a dental assistant for a time. No big break came along to turn her into a concert pianist.

"This is not a Hollywood movie," she said. "This is hard work and it's a gradual process."

Along the way she won the Music Critics Circle Prize in Cuba and the Pittsburgh Society of Musical Arts Prize in the United States. In 1994, the Missouri Arts Council nominated her to the Mid-America Arts Alliance Foundation and she was the only pianist chosen for the foundation's roster.

Andino, who became a U.S. citizen, now lives in Springfield, where her father was offered a teaching position after leaving Cuba as well many years ago.

"I have my base here, but I spend half of the year abroad and half in the States," she said.

She has never returned to Cuba and doesn't know whether she would be allowed to. "I have no desire to go back," she says.

Music, not politics, is the most important thing in her life. "Every concert is a high point," she says. "I try to do my very best. It's a matter of life and death."

The concert is sponsored by a grant from the Missouri Arts Council in cooperation with the College of Liberal Arts at Southeast Missouri State University.

The concert is open to the public. Tickets are $10 general admission and $7 for seniors. The concert is free to members of the Southeast Missouri Concert Association and to children 12 and under.

Southeast students also may attend free.