WHEN ORGANIST AND TEACHER Anne Heath Oliver '62 fell and broke her wrist at age 38, she feared she'd never play the keyboards again. Instead, a Cinderella tale of sorts began -- with Frederica von Stade as fairy godmother -- and from that day in 1978, Oliver's life evolved in quite a different direction. Today, 21 years after the accident and a "potpourri career" as clinician, accompanist, vocal coach, choral conductor and musical theater director, Oliver has embarked on a new career as solo concert artist. The new beginning has much more to do with Oliver's indomitable passion for music than it does with fairy tales. It's a passion she feels she shares with other Connies: "It's like a flame that never goes out."

Oliver has studied music in many forms, all over the world. "I guess I've been on a quest my whole life," she said. "I didn't want to miss anything." At Oberlin, she majored in organ performance, studying with Fenner Douglass. She studied with organist Claire Coci in New York and Andre Marchal in Paris. Oliver studied harpsichord with Isolde Algrimm in Salzburg, and choral conducting with Robert Fountain at Oberlin and Abraham Kaplan at Juilliard.

But her abiding love affair since the age of six has been with the piano.

wanted to study the harpsichord again."

Oliver immediately ordered a harpsichord from John Leek, had one shipped from Pennsylvania to use in the interim, and arranged private study. In 1978, Leek's harpsichord arrived; the tunings were secured. She was preparing to make music a priority again.

She thought those plans had been destroyed one day when, roller skating with her son, she hit something in the road, flew in the air, and landed on her

"Frederica had been invited to sing for a local group and asked me to look at the music. 'Can you do it?' she asked. I could read almost anything&emdash;learning to sight read at an early age to cut down on practicing, plus four remarkable years of theory at Oberlin serve me well."

Other concerts followed, but a performance for an audience of 4,000 with von Stade at the Oregon Bach Festival served as a turning point. Von Stade helped Oliver work through fears about returning to the stage and coached her on changing her lifestyle to accommodate a solo career. After numerous recitals throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, Oliver currently performs concerts around her home near San Francisco, including in the Old St. Mary's Noontime Concerts, and studies with "incredible coaches" Eliane Lust and Julian White.

"Do I wish I had concentrated on a solo career from the beginning? A big part of me says yes. Can I do this at age 56? On the other hand, there's now a wonderful intensity in my studies and performances. For example, I recently performed the Sonata Op. 81a, "Das Lebewohl," in a recital in San Francisco. I am completely mesmerized by it. I don't

"I slowly realized that I was never going to play again. I had been all set to put music back in my life and then this accident happened! For three years I did almost everything with my left hand. Then one day I noticed that every time I went through the living room, I was making a wide sweep just to avoid the harpsichord. I decided the only way I could get my fingers moving again was to force myself to play."

"As a child, we lived near the beach in Southampton, N.Y. Watching the movement of the grasses through the window as I sat at the piano inspired me to express my feelings through the music, which is still easier for me to do than through words."

Following her studies at Oberlin, she spent a year in New York until marriage to David Oliver '62 brought them back to Ohio. Here, David studied medicine at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) while Anne immersed herself in the Cleveland music scene, studied, taught at CWRU and had their first child. In 1969, the family moved to California where David completed his medical residency and Anne took a sabbatical from the keyboard.

"With studies, performances and a baby, I needed a break. We had two more children so I was busy being a mother. I still performed now and then and taught piano, but it was a low-key music connection. In my 30s, I began to realize how much I missed music and the incredible energy it brought to my life. So in the summer of 1977, I returned to Oberlin for the Organ Institute. But after hearing Lisa Crawford perform, I

right hand. Even after surgery her hand was frozen in place for more than two years. Movement of any kind, even for therapy, was simply too painful.

"I slowly realized that I was never going to play again; I had been all set to put music back in to my life and then this happened. For three years I did almost everything with my left hand. Then one day I noticed that every time I went through the living room, I was making a wide sweep just to avoid the harpsichord.

"I am mesmerized by it. I don't want to clean the house. I don't want to go out to dinner. And when the dog wants to take a walk, I say, 'Dog, it's me against you!' I would much rather work on the sonata."

I decided the only way to get my fingers moving again was to force myself to play."

Returning to her first love&emdash;the piano&emdash;Oliver began volunteering as a rehearsal pianist in a community theater despite the continuing pain. She couldn't touch her fingers to the palm of her hand nor could she turn or move her wrist. Eight years passed before the pain subsided completely. About this time, Frederica von Stade, who lived nearby, entered her life. The two women's daughters were best friends.

want to clean the house. I don't want to go out to dinner. And when the dog wants to take a walk, I say, 'Dog, it's me against you!' I would much rather work on the sonata. Every time I sit down to play, I feel like it's a book I'm never going to get to the end of. Last night I thought, I've finally finished it! But there's always another chapter."

Betty Gabrielli is a poet and senior staff writer in the Office of College Relations.