Tag: senior recital

REVIEW: Viola Senior Recital by Kirsten Riggs with Pianist Naki Kripfgans

Himaja 1 Comment

Before we dive in, a disclaimer: I played the cello in an orchestra in high school and therefore am hopelessly biased toward the superiority of that instrument.

HOWEVER! I am here today to begin to build an appreciation for the thousands of other instruments out there, starting with….the viola.

The viola gets made fun of a lot. Often mistaken for a violin, it’s actually slightly larger with a deeper sound and often plays the “inner voices” in a symphony. They’re crucial for harmonies in music composition but their voices are harder for the ear to pick out when playing in a symphony in between the deeper voices of the cello and bass and the melody voice of the violin. Over six year of playing in an orchestra, I can remember playing exactly one piece where the violas had either a melody or a solo part. They were very under-appreciated by music composers until the 20th century when more viola soloists came to prominence and people realized they should really write better music for this beautiful instrument!

PROGRAM
Suite No. 4 – Johann Sebastian Bach: https://youtu.be/70hcPBdzD1c

Sonata for Piano and Viola in E flat major op. 5 no. 3 – Johann Nepomuk Hummel: https://youtu.be/cFZyCna2vQA

Sonata for Viola and Piano op. 11/4 – Paul Hindemith: https://youtu.be/NxN2vrDeFjk

The performance venue was the McIntosh Theatre in the Earl V. Moore music building. The recital hall had a lot of seating and was acoustically resonant. Kirsten Riggs, the violist, had a great stage presence and seemed completely absorbed by the music. A stand with sheet music was set up in front of her but she hardly seemed to need it and often closed her eyes while playing. Something I noticed was that she would sometimes breathe in the pauses between phrases or at the very beginning of a piece before she played the next note. I thought it was interesting because it’s the same thing I was taught to do as a cellist when I played in an ensemble to help with keeping rhythm and synchronizing with the other players.

My favorite was the very last piece by Hindemith. It was so INTERESTING and dark and twisty, with a mood and tone that seemed to gain new dimensions every minute. Give the part from 10:25 to 11:30 in the video linked above to see what I mean. The piano part played by Naki Kripfgans paired gorgeously with the viola, and both musicians coaxed such a variety of moods out of their instruments. I loved their interpretation of the emotions.

I’ll be honest and say I don’t understand some of the stage mannerisms for classical music performances. For example, between each piece the performers would walk off the stage to a side room. Then a different person would walk out, remove the sheet music from the stand, and walk back. Then after a minute the performers would walk back on stage, set up their new sheet music, and resume their positions to start the next piece. It seemed like a lot of unnecessary walking to me! If there’s some important history behind this ritual and I have offended every classical soloist on Earth, please educate me so that I too can be in on the secret.

Tune in next time for when Himaja appreciates even more non-cello instruments! Up next….harp? tuba? kazoo? You decide!

REVIEW: Eric Schroeder, euphonium

Emma Pinchak Leave a comment

So as it turns out, I was the only one in the audience who was not a close friend or family of Eric. Luckily I only caught a few confused glances from his family, and his speech at the end thanking everyone for coming reduced the awkwardness. He offered the whole crowd a fabulous post-performance spread of cheeses and cookies, and he had done such a good job making me, the sole stranger, feel welcome that I felt comfortable taking a frosted eighth note on my way out.

This boy is certainly great at composing an atmosphere. Maybe he wasn’t the one who decided his performance location, but by the way he worked with the space it seemed he had. The whole room was gilded as if painted with liquid gold: the shine of the brass winking at me from the stage, the microphones ablaze in the light, the glowing reflection of the spotlights onto the walls was like being put inside a gleaming set of Saturn’s rings. The instrument’s mouth looked like a bowl full of tiny suns; the whole time I felt sleepily otherworldly.

Besides the environment though, his playing was enchanting. A novice to this type of brass, I was struck by how much the euphonium is like a human voice singing along the higher pitches. Many of the ending notes to sections of music are low, guttural, the periods between dainty and soulful. Schroeder worked this contrast well, keeping the tone rich and avoiding abrasion all too easy to involve when such sharp contrasts are at play. That being said, I would recommend he practice some breathing exercises to mitigate the audible jaggedness that sometimes crept into his performance.

Though Schroeder is still very young, he has the beginnings of worldliness about him already. He exhibits a confidence far beyond his few decades on the planet, a key quality necessary for any performer. His finger work is amazingly precise, and he shows great promise in his control of softness; the notes held out are clear and true (for a little proof, click this link: IMG_0029).

Eric is close to graduating, but like us all he will continue to learn for years to come. Whether his direction is to perform or teach (or both), he will have success, even if (as he says) the euphonium is a lot less employable than piano. He’ll learn more about stage presence, which is the only thing he really lacked. It isn’t necessary to remain stationary, even when playing a tremendous instrument; he could have kept the beat with a little dance, or done some interpretive work when there was a piano solo. It is understandable when one is so focused in performance–especially in your senior recital–that showmanship falls by the wayside. However, as a musician, Schroeder surely knows that performance is a dynamic conglomeration that demands precision in both each musical note and fostering an artist-audience relationship. Schroeder must find his style to establish himself as an individual in an overflowing industry.

Congrats grad!

 

PREVIEW: Senior Recital: Eric Schroeder, euphonium

Emma Pinchak Leave a comment

Too easy to fall prey to the Weekend Laze. Come with me to listen to tunes produced by a student of the euphonium. What’s that, you ask (so did I)? It’s sort of like a small tuba with a tenor sound, named after a Greek word meaning “sweet-voiced.” A player is called a euphoniumist, euphophonist, or a euphonist. Truly, this cute guy is an enigma.

Eric’s program includes: Cosma – Euphonium Concerto; Winteregg – Night Skies; Vivaldi – Concerto in A Minor; Sparke – Fantasy for Euphonium.

Admission is free; just take the bus up to North Campus to reach the Earl V. Moore Building, take a few turns within until you reach the McIntosh Theatre, where he will be waiting for us.

The time is Saturday, February 22 at 12 noon.

 

PREVIEW: Julian Allen Senior Recital

nina.j 1 Comment

Julian Allen Senior Recital

It’s recital season. This means that every venue in Ann Arbor is jam packed with parents, friends, and artistic talent on any given day of the month. On Saturday April 27th, The Yellow Barn hosts the Julian Allen Senior Recital. A musician in the School of Music, this performance will feature original music and lyrics by Julian Allen and multi-media collaboration with local artists. Both jazz and electronic, vocals and rap, this dynamic and varied recital will explore a number of themes, techniques, and messages. In conjunction with Dance BFA student Julia Smith-Eppsteiner, local hip-hop artists Tree City and Kadence, and a number of U-M School of Music students and alum, this performance will run the gamut of Ann Arbor talent. The show starts at 6 pm. The Yellow Barn is located on 416 W. Huron Street. See you there!