A former Eastern student is returning to campus to play the piano and help students.

Andre Loss, a former international student from Brazil, will be playing the piano at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Doudna Fine Arts Center.

Marilyn Coles, a professor of vocal music, said Loss was working on his degree in the early 1990s.

While at Eastern, Loss helped with master classes while he attended Eastern.

Loss is a professor of piano and piano literature at the Federal University in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Coles said Loss has performed at Eastern before.

“Loss contacted me and told me he wanted to come and play a concert here at Eastern, so he came and played in 2010 and now again this year,” Coles said.

Coles said Loss will be performing “The Twelve Transcendental Etudes” by Franz Liszt, which is made up of 12 movements.

“The reason he chose all one composer is because it is the 200 birthday year of Franz Liszt,” Coles said. “These works are extremely difficult; only really exceptional pianists can play them.”

Coles said anyone who plays the piano will appreciate the pieces in the recital.

“Music students, of course, should know about Franz Liszt and should know that these are very difficult works that they don’t get to hear live very often,” Coles said.

Coles said students can learn from the recital.

“Piano students should especially get a lot out of it, because they know the technical difficulty of it,” Coles said.

Coles said other students can benefit from hearing him perform as well.

“They don’t get to hear professional level pianists or musicians that often,” Coles said. “They get to hear the faculty, we are all professionals, but they don’t get to hear much outside of Eastern. Whenever they have the opportunity to hear musicians, they benefit.”

Coles said as a music student, they work on a lot of techniques and Loss will demonstrate them.

“The purpose is to play beautifully, so the end result is what they hear in the performance,” Coles said. “All that hard work they do all the time, they may not realize the end result can be so beautiful unless they hear some professional quality performances.”

Loss will also be teaching a master class on Monday.

“The piano majors gain the most, because they get to hear how he works with other students, what he corrects, how he helps improve them,” Coles said.

Coles said Loss asked to perform at Eastern so he could see the school again.

“He has such good memories of Eastern that he wanted to come back,” Coles said.

Samantha McDaniel can be reached at 581-2812 or slmcdaniel@eiu.edu.