By Janelle Gelfand
Enquirer staff writer

Carl Gales

Carl Gales taught himself piano at age 8. Well, sort of.

"I always asked teachers around me to teach me how to play," says the 26-year-old pianist, a graduate student at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. "But they wouldn't, because I was always the class clown. They thought I wouldn't have the attention span."

So he went to his school library, checked out a music dictionary, and taught himself the notes by drawing the keyboard on a cardboard box.

"A month later, I went to my teacher at school and said, 'I know how to play the piano,' " he says, laughing at his audacity.

IF YOU GO

Who: Carl Gales, pianist When: 2 p.m. Sunday Where: Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church Admission: Free. Information: 281-5945

Gales, a native of Phoenix, is pursuing a dream to be a concert pianist. Recently, he got a boost: He was selected as one of a handful of pianists to study in Paris at the elite Ecole Normale de Musique, where he'll work with some of the world's great pianists. He'll preview some of the music that he will perform in Paris at a recital Sunday at Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church.

Gales' dream hasn't come easily. His blue-collar family had no piano at home, but his mother took him to church, where he loved sitting next to the organ and piano.

A talented boy singer, he was a member of the Phoenix Boys Choir. When an elementary school teacher's mother was killed in a plane crash, he sang a solo at her memorial service. The teacher was so moved, she gave her mother's piano to the young boy, then 10.

Gales progressed quickly. By age 12, he had made his debut with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23.

Gales put himself through Indiana University with scholarships, loans and work as an accompanist for the distinguished opera singer Martina Arroyo. Attracted to CCM by its faculty, he won the school's concerto competition and performed the Schumann Piano Concerto last year.

Gales, says Frank Weinstock, chair of CCM's piano department, "is a uniquely gifted pianist with an unusually original and interesting musical personality."

"I find myself at times seriously disagreeing with what he does at the keyboard, but nevertheless being won over by it," Weinstock says. "This is one indication of true artistic playing."

Sometimes it's tough to keep pushing ahead. Gales knows he is in the minority when it comes to African-American concert pianists. But he wouldn't do anything else.

"It's not an option. It never was an option," he says. "I've had some bumps here and there, but it's always be my desire to be a concert pianist. That's my ultimate goal."

E-mail jgelfand@enquirer.com