Local musician bidding farewell to community with live concert at ISU

POCATELLO — Piano notes slowly but deliberately drift down the hallway of the Idaho State University Fine Arts building Monday.

It’s nine days after graduation and the halls are silent.

The musician at the piano in room 220 is Gabriel Lowman. The 2021 ISU music performance graduate is performing a farewell concert in Goranson Hall on May 31 before he leaves for graduate school in Colorado this summer.

Ahead of his trip, Lowman says Room 220 is where he feels most at home. It’s his favorite place to play and the piano keys are like toys to him.

“In the highest complimentary form, the piano is a toy. It is a vessel for playing,” Lowman said. “Adults call them hobbies, or we call them interests. We find a way to avoid calling it play.”

The piano is a toy Loman has been interested in since childhood. He was just a curly-haired toddler when he started banging on the keys and flipping his head wildly to the noise.

When Lowman was a little older, his piano teacher asked if he knew the difference between the high side and the low side. His answer was wrong.

“I distinctly remember thinking, oh no, I’m doomed. I’m gonna mess this whole piano thing up,” Lowman said.

But he kept practicing and kept improving.

He took a stab at songwriting for the first time in eighth grade. At his friend’s suggestion, he wrote it for the girl he had a crush on.

“It was a really horrible love song, and I showed it to her and about a week later she sent her friend to break up with me, and I wonder if it was the quality of the song (that caused it),” Lowman laughed.

Despite that, Lowman was hooked. That year, he wrote a few dozen of what he now describes as “garbage songs.” He didn’t feel that way then, but says time has changed his perspective.

Creating music that makes people “cringe” is part of the natural process for aspiring artists, he says.

The song Lowman was playing on Monday is one he wrote in 2020 called “The Absence of Ritalin.”

He was trying to find a doctor to treat what he believed was ADHD at the time. His brother called him after getting his diagnosis and prescription for the condition, and told Lowman he should do the same.

Writing this piece helped Lowman deal with his frustration while he spent two and a half years trying to get medicated. For him, playing the piano is a good way to process emotions.

“It brings emotions out in a really beautiful way that you may not have been facing or that you may not have been aware of,” Lowman said.

Lowman is now preparing to study collaborative piano classical music at the University of Colorado Boulder. As he reflects on his childhood in Pocatello and time spent at ISU, he has mixed emotions about leaving.

“There’s a lot of excitement. I’m ready to move, but I’m trying to enjoy the present moment,” Lowman said.

He’s grateful for the chance to perform at ISU one last time during his farewell concert. It’s a “do over” of his senior recital that he’s calling “Recital Redux.” The concert will start at 7:30 p.m. on May 31.

“The Absence of Ritalin” is one of the songs Lowman will be playing. He’s never played it for a live audience before and he’s proud to present it to the community.

Though the concert is free to the public, he’s hoping to fundraise for his trip. Any funds people donate will go towards any unexpected expenses.

But regardless of whether people donate, he’s just excited to show the community what he’s been working on for the last four years.

“I learned 100 minutes of music. I want to perform it somewhere,” Lowman said. “I want to perform and just share music with people.”