. J) ea 0 honors College, r effrey opper began studying ia in the nrst grade, which has since evolved into quite the music career . Beyond a resume that includes a Masters degree in Piano Perfor mance, a PhD in Music History and Theory and '2.7 years of teaching in Harding' s Music department , Hopper has expan ded his repertoire with repeated playing tours overseas. "J got to play in Switzerland, Poland and Italy in 1971 as a Harding studen t, and I've never gone a year without a public performance of music some – where," Hopper said. A tour in the fall of 2009 was just another op– portunity for Hopper to continue doing sOlTIething he loved. Hopper was slated to perform at several churches and conventions in cities all around Eu– rope such as London , Copenhagen, Florence and 142 leadership Honors College & International Programs Hopper perform . As the director for the internatio al programs , Hopper 's performance tours often fit in well with his job responsibilities. "1 visit the European programs every fall, so this particular tour is a natural fit for the traveling 1'd be doing anyway," he said. Hopper also used his performances as motiva– tion to improve musically. "It's hard to find the time to practice and get better unless there is a performance motivation for the work," Hoppe r said. "This tour has motivated me to work since the middle of last summer. Some of the works are things I' ve played before, but many of them are n ew; I use the concerts to push myself to learn some great new music." Hopper took care to select pieces to play on this tour that had personal meaning to him and the po – tential to reach his audiences through his own love of music. "Every work I selected I think has either a pro– found or beautiful expression," he said . As music had affected Hopper to the point that he could not remember a time when he was not in – volved with it , he strove to share that impact with others through his performances. Hopper had sev– eral goals for his fall piano tour in 2009, saying he loo ked forward to "seeing our Harding students, vis i ting with the directors and possibly reaching out to touch some of the audience members with beau– tiful music." Emily Hauptl;
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