Upperclassmen music majors showcased their voices during the Junior and Senior Recital on Saturday, Feb. 25 in the Redfern Arts Center Alumni Recital Hall.
Nine students performed under the direction of music faculty Professor Morgan Bothwell, Dr. Daniel Carberg, Dr. Evangelia Leontis and Professor Pamela Stevens. Bothwell was unavailable for an interview.
Every semester, music majors are required to perform in a recital in preparation for their individual senior recital required for graduation.
“There’s a lot of pressure on an individual student because they have to memorize all of those pieces… and build the stamina to perform an entire recital,” said Carberg, Director of Vocal Activities.
Carberg added, “It started once a year and now it is every semester…It’s because we’re back in-person, it’s just not as satisfying to the students or the audience to watch something that’s been pre-recorded and edited.”
Each student showcased two pieces that they have been working on with their voice professor throughout the semester. Additionally, the performance featured repertoire from various different styles.
Junior Emma Bishop performed “Mother of the Sea,” an arrangement that was featured in the Studio Ghibli film “Ponyo.”
Senior Hannah Weber performed the classical-style piece “The green dog” by composer Herbert Kingsley.
“Quando m’en vo (when I go along),” an opera-style piece from “La Boheme,” was performed by junior Amelia Guarino.
Carberg said that there were many benefits of having the students choose from various styles of repertoire.
“I think it’s good for students to have that flexibility because we have a lot of music education majors, it’s good for them to know classical technique and classical repertoire because they’re gonna have to do that with their students to get them ready for competitions and festivals,” Carberg said. “But they may also be directing a musical, they also might have students who want to get into Jazz All-State… I think it’s important to be well-rounded as a musician.”
Carberg described the skills he mainly focused on with his students leading up to the recital.
“I think it’s different for each student… each piece has different technical needs, whether it’s one piece that is maybe particularly high or one piece has lots of fast notes or one piece has really long phrases,” Carberg said. “Getting the technique established, getting if it’s in a foreign language, getting the language really perfected.”
Carberg added, “What we aim for is the artistry so that we have our own interpretation of the piece and when we get on stage, we can kind of forget about all the other stuff. Because hopefully it’s so ingrained that you can kind of let go and think about what is this piece about, how can I let go of myself and just become the character that was performing the piece?”
Nicole Dumont can be contacted at
ndumont@kscequinox.com
