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Harrison Sheckler brings piano classics back to Iowa State Fair

Pianist Harrison Sheckler, of Charles City, and cellist Peter Chan Wang Cho, of Hong Kong, were scheduled guest musicians at 2016's Charles City Community Orchestra concert. Contributed photo
Pianist Harrison Sheckler, of Charles City, and cellist Peter Chan Wang Cho, of Hong Kong, were scheduled guest musicians at 2016’s Charles City Community Orchestra concert.
Contributed photo
By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

After growing up on the Bill Riley Talent Search stage, Harrison Sheckler has one more chance to be a Riley champion.

Sheckler is one of the semifinalists to perform at the Iowa State Fair this year, his last eligible year to compete as a senior for the annual talent search. Sheckler grew up in Charles City and has competed as a pianist nine times in both the sprout and senior divisions of the talent show, since he was eight years old.

“My sister and I would put shows on our our house, and we would nag our mom to put a sign out about a play at the Sheckler house,” Sheckler said. “I don’t think she really wanted that, so she said, ‘we need to find this guy a stage.'”

Sheckler’s dad drove him to Greene for his first-ever public audition of the talent search, where he placed second. Since the first-place sprout had already qualified for the state fair, Sheckler was also advanced to the semifinals.

“We had no idea what we were getting into,” Sheckler said. “We were just hooked.”

(“He was rather relentless about needing an audience,” his mother Ellen wrote in an email to the Press. “My plan back fired and now he’s grown up to be a concert pianist.”)

Sheckler will be playing three minutes of a Chopin Scherzo, a piece in his repertoire as a junior at the University of Cincinnati College — Conservatory of Music. It’s also his first year back to the talent search since the end of high school, when he took a break to focus on college piano auditions — but he would occasionally return for the Charles City auditions, to watch or to help out.

“[Bill Riley Jr.] would say, ‘Harrison, we miss you,'” Sheckler said. “I thought, why not, I’ll give it one last try.”

Sheckler was a semifinalist each year he competed, but he hasn’t been a champion of the talent search since 2008, when he won the sprout division — a year clearly memorable for him. His piece was a tarantella, derived from an Italian folk dance associated as “treatment” for poisonous spider bites. To stand out on stage, his mom made a vest with spiderweb patterns that he wore at the Iowa State Fair.

“I was proud of that moment, my mom had me looking pretty dapper for that,” Sheckler said. “That year I felt like everything was going right. The crowd, and being on Iowa Public Television for the first time, that was just a great experience.”

He also got to know his fellow competitors year after year, as they all returned to compete for the Bill Riley stage.

“You get to grow up with them through the years,” Sheckler said.

Now, Sheckler competes two to three times a year at piano festivals nationally, and he will soon be preparing repertoire for master’s degree auditions. Bill Riley and the high school drama productions he took part in all played a role is being poised and comfortable under performance pressure, he said.

The Bill Riley Talent Search takes place this Saturday at the Iowa State Fair — performance times are 12 p.m. for the sprout category (ages 2-12) and about 1 p.m. for the senior category (ages 13 to 21). Winners of the semifinal performances will be on Iowa Public Television during their Sunday performance.

“I want to say thank-you to the Charles City community for continuous support, and let’s have some fun at the state fair,” Sheckler said.

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