Pianist and essayist selected as winners for 2015 Brosseau Creativity Awards

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Essayist and pianist selected for 2015 Brosseau
Creativity Awards
By: Madi Schulz | @Mad_Dawgg | Posted: Wednesday, July 8, 2015 3:29 pm
University students Luke Rhodes and Melanie D’Souza are the winners of this year’s Brosseau Creativity
Awards for “outstanding creativity and originality.”
The awards are open to any students for writing and multimedia projects, according to the Spencer
Museum of Art website.
Rhodes, a senior piano performance major from Lawrence, was awarded in the diverse media category
for his album of solo piano concert music. D’Souza, a junior architecture major from Muscat, Oman, won
the writing category. Her essay, “He’s Definitely Good with Words,” discussed international Scrabble
competition.
Celka Straughn, director of academic programs at the Spencer Museum of Art, said a review group of
three faculty members reviewed the applications from more than a dozen students who came from a
diverse group of different departments including English, art and music. Two applicants stood out.
“For the essay [by D’Souza] there was really strong writing, and it brings readers into the story really
quickly,” Straughn said.
As for Rhodes, his musical piece stood out because of its professionalism and his obvious musical talent.
“Luke’s performance was great, and he’s technically so accomplished,” Straughn said. “Just how he put it
all together and packaged it was so professional and extraordinary for an undergraduate student.”
Neither students’ entry was something they just stumbled upon — D’Souza’s essay has been two years in
the making.
Two years ago in D’Souza’s freshman English class, the professor assigned an ethnography assignment in
which the students would study a certain subculture.
“For example, some people who were not greek would go and interact with people from Alpha Chi and
study the greek subculture for a month and then write about it,” D’Souza said.
D’Souza knew she wanted to do something different with the assignment. Around the time of the
assignment D’Souza was close to her childhood family friend, Sherwin Rodrigues, one of the world’s top
professional Scrabble players. D’Souza would often write letters to him from Oman after he moved to

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India.
“I wrote the paper as a token of our friendship,” D’Souza said. “My teacher really enjoyed the idea as
well.”
Two years later, she originally planned to enter in the diverse media category, but a chance encounter
changed her mind.
“I was walking on Jayhawk Boulevard one day and I met my English 102 teacher from two years ago.
She was asking me about Sherwin […] and as we were talking we decided it would be a good idea to
submit that paper,” D’Souza said. “So before I knew it I was back in her office looking at it and seeing if
I needed to make any changes. That’s when I decided.”
In the essay, D’Souza questions why “any 20-something would be serious about playing a game that was
reserved for kids who did well at English in elementary school. Or, for that matter, retired grandparents
who have nothing to do on a rainy day.”
But, as the eight-page paper goes on, D’Souza explores the intricacies of international scrabble play,
while also discussing her friend Rodriques as a competitor and as a friend.
For Rhodes, it was not a simple process to perfect his entry, either.
He said it’s common for a lot of musicians, or more specifically pianists, to dedicate albums to a style of
music or a particular composer. However, this is the route he didn’t wish to take.
“To be honest, I'm not particularly fond of that model because I feel that unless the listener is totally
steeped in classical music it can easily become monotonous and unenjoyable,” Rhodes said.
Instead, Rhodes wanted the listener to feel that when they listened to the tracks in order, they would feel
like they had just gone to a live recital and heard a variety of different styles.
Rhodes said he spent about three weeks recording and mastering all the pieces on the album and then
spent another week on the artwork for the album. But aside from the process of putting together the
album, Rhodes thinks his piano recital has actually been the culmination of years of work.
“Unlike many artistic fields, such as painting where there is a definitive point of completion, […] once a
musician learns a piece of music they will often spend years, or in many cases their entire lives, allowing
their concept of the music to change and mature,” Rhodes said. “For that reason it could be said that
‘Piano Recital’ is the result of several years of work.”
“Piano Recital,” available for sale, features five songs, including an arrangement of Mozart’s “Turkish
March.”

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Rhodes plans on pursuing a master’s, and eventually a doctoral degree, in piano performance.
After the winners were announced, both students were overjoyed with the results.
“It’s always good to be appreciated for your writing,” D’Souza said. “I was really glad that Sherwin’s
success story could make for such a great read.”
Rhodes also expressed his enthusiasm to win an honor such as the Brosseau Creativity Award.
“I was very surprised to learn that I had not only placed, but won in my category. I feel incredibly
honored to have been selected,” Rhodes said.
Currently, Rhodes works at the International Institute of Young Musicians, a summer camp and piano
competition for pre-college students hosted by the University, as a second-year counselor. D’Souza is
interning with an architecture firm in Dubai.
Honorable mentions for the award were also given to junior Spencer Crouch, an Italian major, and junior
Nicholas Shaheed, majoring in computer science, music composition and music theory.