Humble Maestro Sweeps Them Away
Don’t let Louis Fromherz’s rough working man’s hands fool you.
They dance across piano keys as gracefully as a prima ballerina jetes across a stage. His rugged fingers flutter with hummingbird speed.
The hands that polish floors and scrub classrooms most evenings make the music of a gifted and long-trained pianist the rest of the time. Except that Louis, 36, is hardly trained.
“He’s something fantastic, one in a million,” says Christine Waleska, a concert cellist in New York who has guest-soloed with top symphonies around the world.
Christine met Louis during a visit to a girls’ school in Post Falls. He asked her to play one of his compositions.
“He has God-given talent,” she says.
That’s exactly what Paul and Christine Settanni thought when they heard Louis playing the piano at the Immaculate Conception Church in Post Falls three years ago.
“Friends had said he was good, but we didn’t pay much attention until we heard him,” Paul says. “I was just amazed.”
Louis himself paid little attention to his gift until he passed his 32nd birthday. From the time he was big enough to crawl onto a piano bench and mimic his seven older siblings, Louis was at home with music.
His mother taught piano and singing, but she died during his birth. Louis never learned technique or how to read music.
He played the music he heard in his head, entertaining friends at parties, dorm buddies at Oregon State University, kids at the junior high he cleans in Spokane and friends at his church in Post Falls.
His compositions were his alone and an ear-pleasing blend of classical and contemporary. The piano was his outlet, but the music in his head was for a full orchestra.
The Settannis gushed when they heard their janitor friend play and inspired Louis to take lessons. He could afford only a few, but he learned finger exercises and to read music a little.
Mostly he learned that he wanted to develop his gift. He began reading about music history and theory and talking to professional musicians he encountered, including Waleska.
He played his work for her on piano, and she played it back for him on her cello. He composed the work for cello, he says.
Louis’ wife and Christine Settanni named the pieces he’d stored in his brain for 15 years and couldn’t write down.
“I’m inspired by what happens more than by nature,” he says, acknowledging that his artistic influences are different from those of most of classical music’s greats.
His “IV Waltz,” with a ponderous bass beat, came to him as he lay in a hospital bed listening to the beat of a fluid-monitoring machine.
“Janitor in C Minor” was inspired by his job sweeping the stage at Spokane’s Horizon Junior High every night.
His music is as complex as it is simple, with hints of Beethoven’s heavy chords and Mozart’s light melodies. His wild, flyaway eyebrows give him the rumpled genius look so appropriate for a janitor-turned-pianist.
Last month, the Settannis convinced Louis to perform a concert. He’ll play his repertoire at North Idaho College’s Schuler Auditorium this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $8 for adults and $6 for seniors and children.
His dream is to perform in Carnegie Hall.
“I realize that through the grace of God, I can play,” he says. “This talent isn’t really mine. I owe it to him to make use of it and share it with my fellow man.”
The band played on
The North Idaho Youth Symphony features about 100 of the area’s best young musicians under 20. The symphony’s two orchestras will perform free at 7 p.m. Monday in North Idaho College’s Schuler Auditorium. Treat yourself.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MEMO: Sing the praises of your favorite music teacher to Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814; fax to 765-7149; call 765-7128; or e-mail to cynthiat@spokesman.com.