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GSOA Scholarship Information The Eugenia Evans Scholarship Fund  | Gastonia Mayor Jennie Stultz presents GSOA piano instructor Genie Evans with the key to the city at her 97th birthday party in February 2006, celebrating the establishment of the Eugenia Evans Scholarship Fund at Gaston School of the Arts. |
Gaston School of the Arts awards between 10-20 scholarships a year in art, music and drama, based primarily on talent, with need considered. Scholarships are all partial and can vary from a small discount to almost a complete scholarship. The Scholarship Committee of the Gaston School of the Arts Board of Directors selects the recipients, with the major decisions made in late summer for the fall and winter semesters. However, a student may apply at any time during the year. Scholarships are usually given to children, but are occasionally awarded to adults as well.
Students in the scholarship program must reapply each year and must be recommended by their GSOA teachers to continue with the scholarship. Scholarships may be removed if a student misses more than two classes without calling the School or teacher with an acceptable excuse, which may include mandatory school events, sickness or accidents.
In February, 2006, a new scholarship fund, The Eugenia Evans Scholarship Fund, was begun at Gaston School of the Arts in honor of the School’s 97-year-old teacher, Mrs. Genie Evans, who continues to teach piano for the School.
To apply for a scholarship, the applicant must fill out a general information form and obtain two recommendations from persons who know the student’s talent, interest and commitment. These recommendation forms must be returned to the School directly by the person giving the reference.
Click here to get scholarship forms.
The Eugenia Evans Scholarship Fund
Genie Evans’s Biography
By Mary Layton, Genie’s daughter
Genie was born in 1909 in Odessa in Russia’s Ukraine. As a child, she watched Czar Nicholas II and his family driving in an open touring car through the city. She began her piano lessons at age four; by age 10 she was admitted to the Odessa State Conservatory. World War I and the Russian Revolution caused tremendous upheaval and Genie’s mother Sonia had to swap their Persian rugs for a pregnant sow who lived in the house with them.
In 1925, Genie and her mother moved to Prague, Czechoslovakia, where 14-year-old Genie became the youngest student admitted at the prestigious Prague Conservatory. She never again paid for her music education, which is why she strongly supports scholarship funding and has often taught students for free. By age 19, she was a piano instructor at the Masaryk Institute in Prague and began her Master’s in Piano Performance at the Prague Conservatory. After graduation, she did postgraduate studies with Professor Willem Kurtz until 1940. She also performed as solo artist with orchestras in Rumania and Czechoslovakia.
In 1940, Genie and her mother boarded the last refugee ship leaving Genoa, Italy, to come to America. My persistent mother (just ask her students!) had haunted the American Embassy in Prague to get the precious visas. They settled in Chicago, where mother was an accompanist and teacher at the Chicago College and School of Fine Arts. She was reunited with a young Czech research chemist and musician, Rudy Evans, whom she married on Valentine’s Day, 1942, in Maryland. The family moved to Miami and then to Winchester, Va. Mother continued teaching while raising my brother Tom and me. I remember playing with my kittens under the piano bench during her lessons!
In 1963, Genie joined the faculty of Shenandoah College and Conservatory and continued teaching music there until moving to Gastonia in 2000. She has received many music awards as well as the national Algernon Sydney Sullivan Humanitarian Award. My father died in 1982. Their marriage had been very special, based on their love of music and memories of Europe. They often gave two-piano recitals in the Northern Virginia area. I thought everyone’s parents could do that!
Genie joined the GSOA faculty at age 92. She teaches by the Leschetizky method, a European pedagogical style that dates back to Chopin. She belongs to the Leschetizky Society of New York and wrote, produced and narrated a teaching video on this method. She has also written a children’s operetta, Kittens, and a children’s book, Bobby’s Piano. Genie’s students have gone to prestigious graduate schools all over the world and held positions as conductors, teachers, performers and composers. They never forget her; she still receives piles of cards and letters from them.
As a teacher, she is encouraging and kind, but extremely demanding. Her students have that special touch – the Leschetizky method – that sets them apart. My mother, like Winston Churchill, believes that one should never give up. She won’t let anyone else give up, either!
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