Jackson Free Press

For most young people who aspire to a career in music, the trend is going into a studio to make beats. But one local Jackson State student chooses a more traditional form of music. Eddie Gates, a 22-year-old junior from Jackson, has been playing piano since age 6.

Gates, a piano performance major, recalls his early days as a piano-playing prodigy: "When I was younger, my mother bought me a little 25-key toy piano, and she says I would never get off of it. She says that it was my life, and that's when she knew something was up."

As he tells his story, the glimmer in his eye and the smile on his face show that he still has as much of a true passion for his craft as he did back then. As Gates grew older, he attended Callaway High School. When he was a sophomore, he began private piano lessons with Gisele Gentry, who now owns her own studio in Jackson, and Dr. Karen Laubengayer, an associate professor of music at Jackson State University. Soon, though, he transferred to the Booker T. Washington School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, Texas, when his mother moved there for a job.

Upon returning to Jackson from Dallas to attend JSU, Gates continued his lessons with Dr. Laubengayer. His favorite type of music to play is, without a doubt, classical. "Strictly classical," Gates says.

Gates has attended and performed in numerous competitions throughout the Southern United States. His victories were only limited to first place in local competitions until recently at Tennessee State University when Gates won first place honors at the "President James A. Hefner HBCU National Piano Competition" after performing two movements: Sonata in C-Minor K457 by Mozart and Concert Etude No.3 in D-Flat Major by Franz Liszt.

"I was very nervous," he admits. "I didn't think I was going to win."

Gates is modest, but he has plans of becoming a great musician. Gates believes most great musicians know how to play more than one instrument. He is taking flute lessons, and he enjoys a little singing. He says he is trying to decide between careers in teaching and performing, but his main goal is to finish his education.

"I want to get my master's and, hopefully, my doctorate," he says. "I'm looking into auditioning at schools such as Cincinnati College Conservatory, Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and Julliard in New York."