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ASU Insight and www.asu.edu
December 10, 2004
Talented young pianist wins top scholarship, despite blindness
 The piano notes that flow from Scott MacIntyre’s fingers
tell the story of a young man whose passion for life overrides all obstacles. At 19 years
old, Scott has performed all over the United States and Canada, composes and sings his own
music, plays guitar and drums. Yet he has been virtually blind since birth. He is also the
winner of a 2005 Marshall Scholarship, among the most prestigious awards for graduate
study in the world. Scott is the latest in an amazing string of 12 Arizona State
University students who have won Marshalls in the last 13 years. Only 40 are named each
year.
Scott will graduate from ASU in May with a degree in piano performance before
beginning graduate studies at Britain’s Cambridge University and the Royal College of
Music. The Marshall Scholarship provides full funding for two years, amounting to
approximately $60,000.
Born with only two degrees of tunnel vision – as if he sees the world
through a tiny straw – Scott started playing the piano by ear at age 3 and began his
classical training at age 5. He can read sheet music note by note, and memorize it one
hand at a time. At 14, Scott was accepted into the ASU Barrett Honors College and
the Herberger College of Fine Arts. He made his orchestral debut at 15, performing as
guest piano soloist with the Phoenix Symphony to a standing-room only audience of more
than 2,000. A true prodigy, he has performed with the Phoenix Symphony six times,
won a number of top competitions and studied on full scholarship at the Royal Conservatory
of Music in Toronto, Canada, Tanglewood Institute at Boston University and the Mozarteum
in Salzburg, Austria. He has produced five CDs, the first when he was only 11.
“Scott is an amazing young man, very articulate, focused and
accomplished, and he has performed at hundreds of charity concerts all over the United
States,” says Janet Burke, associate dean of the Barrett Honors College. “Yet
he’s a very normal individual who likes to try all kinds of different things.”
He swims, hikes and skis – with a sighted guide in front of him – and
teaches salsa, swing and ballroom dancing. He performs in live drama and musical theatre,
gives motivational speeches, and has won debate honors as a YMCA student senator. Since
the age of 11, he has created his own computer games. The tall, blue-eyed young man
uses a cane to navigate around the ASU campus with confidence, and studies textbooks with
the aid of computer scanners, tape recordings and magnifying glasses.
Walter Cosand, ASU professor of piano performance who has worked with Scott
since he was 14, remembers how his own initial reluctance to work with such a young
student was quickly dispelled. “I remember how astonishing his ability to learn
and perform new music proved to be,” says Cosand. “I have been teaching talented
pianists for 28 years. Scott may be the most promising performer I have ever taught. One
would call his playing effortless, but for the knowledge that it is the result of great
diligence over most of his life. “Scott has great energy, enthusiasm and
confidence. He is never arrogant, although that might perhaps be a forgivable trait in one
so obviously gifted and admired by the many people around him.”
Scott calls the faculty at ASU “amazing,” and says he wouldn’t
trade his years on campus for anything: “I’ve had a wonderful experience here.
The professors really connect with the students.” Home-schooled along with two
younger siblings by his mother, Scott composes and plays rock and Christian pop music, and
has performed live for the Crystal Cathedral in California and Scottsdale Bible Church. He
has done hundreds of fund-raising concerts for such groups as Ronald McDonald Charities,
the Braille Institute and the Mayo Clinic.
“Scott’s attitude about life is so positive,” says his mother,
Carole MacIntyre. “He tackles whatever life throws at him. It will be a challenge for
him living in England, but he has a great ability to solve problems. I have confidence
he’ll do well and succeed.”
More information on Scott and his music is available on his Web site, "http://www.scottmacintyre.com/".Auffret, with Media Relations & Public Information, can be reached at
480-965-6991 or (sauffret@asu.edu).
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