In dean’s office, a fresh face
It was the piece that ended Raymond Ou’s piano career. Over a decade later, it was the piece that brought him to Yale.
In 1992, a nervous 17-year-old seeking a spot at Baltimore’s elite Peabody Institute, Ou chose as his audition piece Maurice Ravel’s “Gaspard de la Nuit,” often called the world’s hardest piece to play.
For Ou — whom the Yale College Dean’s Office selected in August as the head of its freshman-affairs division — it was a bold choice. Ravel stacked the composition with complexity. Parts of the piece required the pianist to play with the left hand crossed...
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