Rudolf Budginas is a witty, high-energy pianist who turns the history of composition into an entertianing performance.

By Beverley Park

Rudolf Budginas is charming, witty, passionate and high-energy, and an audience captivator.  All of this in a man whose life had its beginning in the small Lithuanian town of Plunge on the Baltic Sea – and he has traveled the world sharing his talents. The accomplished pianist shared them with Bakersfield on Wednesday, March 24, at the Rabobank Theater as part of the Bakersfield Community Concert Association’s season.

Budginas could easily keep an audience spellbound for hours.  He is gifted with the ability to not only perform compositions with such exuberance and pleasure but to also engage his listener in his journey through life. Could it be that his birth town influenced his decision to settle on California’s central coast where he enjoys surfing and time with his family? Introducing his newborn daughter Sofia to the audience, he shared with us the pride he has in his family. Budginas’ own words describe perfectly the man we meet when he walks on the stage: “I wouldn’t say that music is important to me – it’s more than that. Music is my air, my food. For me, music is the process of growing. It’s my medium for expression.”

Budginas introduced the audience to the simplicity of early composers, their way of using the same melody over and over in variation to create compositions like “Revolutionary Etude” by Fredric Chopin and “Sonata No.17 mvt III” by Ludwig van Beethoven. Entranced as he played “Prelude in C Major” by Johan S. Bach, we were then treated to an arrangement by Budginas of Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5.”  Here he thrilled the audience with feet itching to dance as he used his harmonica to bring a “full swing band” to life on the stage and then moved smoothly to a mid-western variation with a “juice harp” (also known as a “mouth harp”) complete with a ten-gallon hat and a few “yee-has” from the crowd.

American composers were given new meaning to the ears of the crowd as he entertained with the music of Scott Joplin, crediting Joplin with being the father of the blending of the nations of people and their music, who gathered in the settlement of New Orleans in the mid-1800s.

Presenting his own rendition of “Carmen” by Georges Bizet, Budginas, made use of the audience’s talents to develop his own “Bakers Band” with a bongo player (who just happened to share that he is a professional musician), a woman with a tambourine, and a woman on the triangle who did well keeping her count to the quarter beat. The official shaker of the rhythm stick, aside from doing a great job keeping the beat, had a fabulous soprano voice which she spontaneously shared as the group played.

Included in the evening was George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and Fredric Chopin’s “Prelude” (arranged by Budninas). The evening closed with a wonderful encore of his rendition of “Sabre Dance” by Aram Khachaturian.

Information about future concerts can be obtained by calling 589-2478 or by visiting the website at www.bakersfieldcca.org. The next concert is ABBA Mania, a tribute concert at 4 p.m. Sunday, April 25 at Rabobank Theater.