For Pate Steele, the pandemic doesn’t stop the music

While enduring and adapting to the many disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, pianist Pate Steele has managed to continue studying, albeit virtually, at the New England Conservatory School of Continuing Education (NEC’s SCE).

For the 48-year-old Clinton resident, whose talent recently earned him a third-place showing in the adult amateur category of the 2020 Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition, playing music has become a refuge of sorts in a chaotic world. “Every time I sit down to play, it means recovery,” he says. “It means sanity and a break from a world gone crazy.”

Steele’s road back to music has been long and winding, but satisfying, thanks in large part to the quality programming, high level faculty, and flexibility offered by NEC’s SCE, which offers lessons, classes, and ensembles for adult students of all levels. One of Steele’s primary reasons for enrolling was his health, and true to research confirming the physical and mental health benefits of music making, it worked.

“Before this past year, the last performance I gave as a musician was 25 years ago during the Christmas season with The Pops,” says Steele. “It was close to Christmas Day and I was probably on my ninth or tenth holiday performance with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. The audience went wild and we received five or six standing ovations, but all I could think about was how much my feet hurt and grabbing a chicken sandwich at Boston Market before it closed. That’s the moment I knew my passion for music was completely gone.”

Steele subsequently embarked on various career paths, including working as a temp, an administrative assistant, a web designer, a spreadsheet guru, and an executive compensation and benefits analyst. Meanwhile, he struggled with depression and two transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) that took a staggering toll on his health and well-being. “I was left again at a beginning with a choice to make,” he says. “Get help and start over or stop trying.”

He chose the former, and in 2019 returned to the piano, an instrument he had learned as a boy, to support his recovery. “After talking to my doctor and family,” he says, “we decided playing piano again would be a good way to help my brain recover and give me an outlet for self-expression. What I didn’t expect was for it to unleash my younger self, the one that still had hopes and dreams and things to look forward to.”

Steele says the benefits of renewing his studies have been even greater than expected. “It has given me a social outlet where I get to meet incredible people with shared interests. It’s the cornerstone of my recovery.” He continues to pursue music while also working as a book editor and writing screenplays. “I don’t plan on stopping any time soon,” he says. “I have a second chance at life and I don’t plan to waste a single moment of it.”

When COVID-19 hit, Steele worried that this pivotal aspect of his life would be compromised, but he was relieved to discover that NEC’s SCE adapted to the pandemic quickly and efficiently. “We haven’t missed a beat,” he says. “Without my lessons connecting me to the outside world,” he adds, “I definitely would have had a harder time dealing with the isolation from the pandemic.”

Steele notes that this period of quarantine and social distancing offers opportunity for those willing to take it. “What people should know about NEC SCE’s is that they accept students of all ages and abilities, and ensure a proper match with the right teacher for each student,” he says. “As I’ve told my friends, if you’re interested in taking music lessons before you go back to work full-time, now is the time.”

To transition from in-person to online study, Steele and NEC’s SCE both needed to work out a few kinks. Once that occurred, certain perks—like not having to deal with busy Boston traffic or simply finding a place to park—came to the fore. As a result, Steele happily reports, “I have an extra 30 minutes to practice, and I Skype my lesson from the comfort of my own home. Pandemic or no, we’re still creating music uninterrupted.”

Before Steele sits down at the piano to compose for a few hours each day, he first takes out his dogs, a red Doberman named Max and a mutt named Roscoe, and checks on the 180-gallon fish tank where Sly, his two-and-half-foot-long Tessalata eel, lives. Once the day’s chores, studies, and work are completed, he makes dinner, enjoys an evening stroll and sometimes unwinds with a little television.

At the Conservatory, Steele takes classical lessons from renowned pianist Xuerong Zhao, who’s become both a friend and mentor. “If creating music is about chemistry and passion,” Steele says, “having the right teacher is fundamental to making progress, and NEC takes the time to get it right.”

During his isolation, Steele decided to enter the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition. “When I found out I could enter, even during the pandemic, I jumped at the chance,” he recalls. “With the help of my teacher, I channeled [classical pianists] Horowitz and Argerich into my rusty middle-aged fingers and went for it.”

Where music is concerned, the pianist says that getting older has brought newfound perspective. “I’ve come to realize that whether you’re great or terrible at anything you want to do, never listen to critics,” he says. “My advice to anyone, young or old, talented or not, is do what you love and don’t waste any time thinking about what others say. Just do it.”

Steele’s own goals for the coming months—which he’ll pursue with the help and support of the staff and teachers at the Conservatory—include learning two new pieces and creating new recordings. “Once the recordings are made,” he says, “I’ll know whether another competition is in my near future or whether I should hold back another year. Only time will tell.”

For more information about New England Conservatory's School of Continuing Education, visit https://necmusic.edu/ce.