Instead of hotel rooms for the MSIPC competitors, local families open their homes to host the performers.

For an entire week, families rearrange their lives to receive the performers free of charge. Some even take off work to make sure their guest is well cared for.

“The minute they get here, the host families take over,” said Vivian León, director of the MSIPC. “All in all, they become a part of Missouri Southern because they’re always here.”

The process of choosing a family isn’t always easy. Polly Scoutaris, chairman of hosting families, makes sure the environment in each home is appropriate for a pianist.

The committee screens the waiting list of families who might host a foreign guest. However, a quiet environment isn’t all a competitor needs.

“Usually many of (the families) have a good piano at home,” León said. “But if they don’t Steinway supplies the home with a piano.

“It’s amazing, we’ll have a couple of semis pulling onto campus full of pianos.”

Pianos are shipped from all over the United States. For Dr. Tatiana Karmanova, director of international language resource center, who hosted the 2006 MSIPC winner, Tatiana Tessman, the new addition to the home was necessary.

“We had a 100-year-old piano, so it was a very beautiful piece of furniture, but not a very good piano,” she said. “We knew we wanted a new piano so we just bought it.”

The situation of a talented visitor in the home is considered a win-win experience. The performer is financially helped and the hosts catch a glimpse of a competitor’s life.

“The children (of the home) get a totally different perspective in how to be excellent, and how to work hard,” León said. “What it takes in the mind, dedication and the hard work. It’s good for everyone.”

Karmanova said her experience opened her eyes to a competitor’s outlook as well as growing close to the visitor.

“It was very exciting and also a rollercoaster of emotions,” she said. “I never realized how much energy it takes to be a competitor, because you really root for your host child as if they were your own child; you really want that person to win so badly.

“I have much more sympathy for all athletes that perform in front of everybody, because you think they do it so effortlessly.”

León said she was grateful for the amount of help the program has received from the community and different parts of the campus.

With interpreting skills from Mila Lichman, freshman nursing and Russian major, and several others, the competition would not be what it is today.

“We do want to host again because we think it’s a great, great program and a great contribution to the community,” Karmanova said. “It takes rearranging of your life; it’s demanding but it’s very rewarding as well.”