Stephanie Norris, high school piano student, with her teacher, Isabel Sparkman Isabel Douglas Sparkman looks back on "many wonderful years," she says, of nurturing piano students through musical training and development.

This Lower Richland resident has presided over her Yamaha grand piano for 40 years and has seen many of her students go on to success in the music world. "It's the best part of being a teacher," she says. "It's a thrill to see students learn and grow in their skills. Of course they don't all continue with it, but even a little music training can be a big asset for anyone."

Sparkman's students learn much more than the piano keyboard during their time under her tutelage. "I have them study the great composers and their works," she says. "They get some history, and they try their hands at composition. One of my goals is that they realize that music is a way of communicating without words.

"They acquire a sense of self, and of performing in public. My studio has a performance class once a month, and every student plays something for the group. I had one fiveyear- old who showed us what she had composed, up and down the keyboard; she was illustrating her grandmother's trip through the countryside to get to her house."

Now and then a Sparkman student goes on to notable success in music. "One of my students, Stephanie Norris, won a scholarship from Beulah Baptist Church and played in the band at U.S.C. Another, Madeliene Giess, composed two pieces which are now being published.

"Thomas Gilbert won a scholarship in compositions, and earned a graduate degree from California State U. at Northridge. He specializes in composition for the media and will appear on ABC TV this fall."

Sparkman likes to point out also that not all of her students are youngsters. "I teach adults also, in fact right now I have two young men in their 20s who are learning piano. Their enthusiasm is wonderful!"

A native of North Carolina, Sparkman arrived in Columbia in 1969 after graduating from St. Mary's School in N. C. and from U.S.C. Her local teachers were Anna Marian Stanley Tucker and Dr. Charles Fugo at U.S.C.

This long- time Columbia resident enjoys many community activities. She is a member of both the Afternoon and the Morning Music Clubs, which together with the Eau Claire Music Club, award scholarships to talented students. She is a national judge from the Mid- Carolina Hemerocallis Society, and a charter member of the Hemerocallis Garden Club. She also enjoys the Tuesday Afternoon Book Club, "although I can't get to all the meetings, since I give lessons most afternoons," said Sparkman.