‘See where it takes me’: Helena Rosa’s future rests on piano keys

The backstage jitters vanished the moment Helena Rosa sat down at the grand piano on a stage with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra.

Launching into the third movement of Grieg’s “Piano Concerto in A minor,” her mind cleared, her skills took over and she started having fun.

“I’ve loved this concerto my whole life. I think it’s the first piano concerto I ever listened to. So actually playing the piece—and playing the third movement specifically because it’s a very colorful and lively piece—it came to life in a way,” said Rosa, a UTC freshman in piano performance.

Rosa was one of the featured soloists during the UTC Winter Concert earlier this month. At 18, she has been playing piano for about 13 years, but the concert was her first time performing with an orchestra, which brought a new intensity to the Grieg piece.

“In that setting with the live audience, it’s all very vibrant,” she explained.

While her family has moved several times to several states in her life—her parents are travel nurses—Rosa took her first piano lessons in Chattanooga when her mother, Christine, was earning a master’s in nurse anesthesia at the UTC School of Nursing.

Rosa also plays violin and took her first lessons in that instrument when she was 11 and living in the city, too.

“When I growing up, I had always wanted to play violin, but we only had a piano at the house,” she recalled, “but I’d say now that I’m at the collegiate level, piano’s obviously more important.”

When it came time to enroll in a university, she was living in Greenville, South Carolina, but her memories of Chattanooga and her mother’s studies at UTC brought her back.

“I knew the school pretty well, and Chattanooga was my favorite place. I’d lived in so many places growing up, so I just thought I’d come back.”

Assistant Professor Lynn Worcester Jones, keyboard area coordinator in the UTC Department of Music and Rosa’s primary instructor, calls her “a fabulous student to teach.”

“It is the rare freshman that matches their talent with hard work and perseverance,” Jones said. “One of my favorite aspects of working with Helena is that she has never backed down from a challenge.

“Adjusting to life as a freshman, plus the expectations and rigor of the piano performance degree, can be overwhelming, but she has overcome one barrier after another, coming out stronger on the other side.”

As she pursues her bachelor’s degree, Rosa’s ultimate goal is playing piano professionally. How she gets there depends on the possibilities that open in front of her, she said.

“I kind of just want to see how far I can go with piano. See where it takes me.”