Eight state titles are the permanent property of Shalina Clarke’s spring-loaded legs. A record-tying four of them arrived two weekends ago in a performance that was almost banal in its dominance. And still, one opponent haunts her.
The key to besting the Evanston track standout? C minor, apparently.
See, Shalina Clarke has Romantic issues. There’s this guy, Chopin. He’s a little old for her–just shy of 200, actually–and he’s giving her this problem. It’s called Etude Op. 10, No. 12, commonly referred to as the Revolutionary Etude. It’s one of the most challenging and revered pieces of piano repertoire.
“It’s kind of kicking my butt,” Clarke admits.
Future adversaries? Take, uh, notes. As Clarke eyes summer tryouts for the U.S. junior team, as she prepares to continue her career at Southern California come fall, the WGN-Ch. 9/Tribune Athlete of the Month for May might indeed have a flaw–albeit one not entirely likely to strike a chord during a competitive meet.
Of course, even as Clarke concedes having trouble cracking one of the premier composers of the Romantic era, she is about to pull up a bench that evening for a lesson and take another run.
“Music is almost like a language of its own,” says Clarke, who has been playing since grade school. “Once you master a piece, it’s like, `Wow.’ You remember what you started off with and how you end up.”
“She seems to enjoy the perfection of the whole thing, the playing and playing for others,” says John Hunter, her piano instructor for the last five years.
“In the most current years, especially, where she was very much excited about comparing what she was doing at piano with what she was doing in athletics, many times we talked about those comparisons–taking little things and trying to perfect them and trying to perfect them. I think music has helped her athletics and athletics has helped her music.”
Not that she needed much help from the music, frankly. Among high school performances, her 300 hurdles time of 40.68 is the best non-wind-aided time nationally in 2006; her top 100 hurdles time of 13.75 is second-best, non-wind-aided, by two hundredths of a second.
And as if to further embarrass their perpetually self-effacing classmate, Evanston seniors voted Clarke the North End Mother’s Club award last month. Basically, they chose her the top female senior at their high school. Period.
“I was glad that they recognized the hard work I put in over last four years,” Clarke says. “But this is a really, really big award. It was really surprising to win it.”
The track exploits should continue under the California sun in college, and the music will not stop either. Clarke plans to minor in the subject, selecting USC in no small part because of a recommendation she received from one of Hunter’s friends, an accomplished pianist.
“After playing for so long and learning so much,” Clarke says, “my mother and I discussed it and said that it’d be such a waste if I didn’t continue playing.”
Perhaps there is time enough to solve that pesky Chopin, just another hurdle to leap.
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bchamilton@tribune.com
– For more on Shalina Clarke, watch WGN’s “Instant Replay” at 9:40 p.m. Sunday and the “WGN Morning News” from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. Monday.
