Keene State College’s Percussion Ensemble had an encore performance on Wednesday, April 5, in the Redfern Arts Center Alumni Recital Hall.
The performance consisted of six songs performed by six ensemble members: Andrew Szmauz, Jakob Heisey, Ricky Poszyler, Julia Baer, and Sandy Perron alongside Director Dr. Jose Lezcano.
The first piece performed by the ensemble was the Ukrainian National Anthem.
“I thought that it’s important to show solidarity with the suffering and heroism of the people of Ukraine,” Lezcano said.
Following was English composer Peter Maxwell Davies’ “Farewell to Stromness,” which Baer said was her favorite piece out of the repertoire.
“I think my favorite was probably ‘Farewell to Stromness,’” Baer said. “I just really like the way that it sounded and I play fourth guitar so I usually get a lot of bass [range] and lower register stuff and I got some melody parts on that.” The ensemble also showcased “Summertime” (from Porgy & Bess) composed by George Gershwin. Lezcano mentioned, “Gershwin, he’s a hero of mine and “Summertime’ is a great tune.”
Two pieces by German composer J.S. Bach were also included in the repertoire: “Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh’ darein (Ah, God, from heaven look & be merciful)” and “From Ochestral Suite no. 2, BVW 1067.”
Baer mentioned that the piece “Golliwog’s Cakewalk” by French composer Claude Debussy was the hardest piece to play.
“[It] was really hard because it just has so many individual little parts that fit together and a lot of focusing really hard and counting,” Baer said. “And that was definitely a difficult one for us, but I think we pulled it through pretty well.” Guitar Ensemble closed the performance with “Sevillanas,” an arrangement by Lezcano.
“[It is] my own transcription of a traditional flamenco [based on folkloric music of southern Spain]… the students really love having some connection with flamenco music and I did a little bit of coaching to teach them how to do the strumming patterns,” Lezcano said.
“Sevillanas” was performed again by the ensemble as an encore.
“I’m always looking for something to end the concert that leaves the audience energized and smiling,” Lezcano said. Baer said that she believed the hard work was evident through the performance.
“Some of [the pieces] we were unsure how it was going to go, but I think we really pulled it all together and we sounded good together,” Baer said.
Senior Rory Butler said they enjoyed the performance from an audience perspective, and that the performance was “great, it’s always very well put-together and engaging.” Lezcano said that he strategically planned the program to flow well for the ensemble members as well as the audience. “The program is how you place it, which pieces go after which pieces,” Lezcano said. “You [make sure] to not have too many slow pieces in a row or fast pieces, have it go back and forth so that it’s a wave of energy.”
Lezcano added, “I like to pick great music and beautiful music, music that is intellectually strong but also has emotional lyrics and we do that as a team.”
Nicole Dumont can be contacted at
ndumont@kscequinox.com
