By Katie Willis, Staff writer
Juniors Emily Curto and Emma Mooradian performed soprano and on alto saxophone, respectively, in a recital on March 25 in Stretansky Concert Hall.
Curto and Mooradian were accompanied by lecturer in music Jaime Namminga, junior Ben Nylander and firstyear Kirby Leitz.
Curto and Nylander opened with Austrian composer Hugo Wolf’s “Morike-Lieder.”
Wolf’s collection of 53 songs set to Eduard Morike’s poetry featured themes of unrequited love and infidelity.
Following Curto, Mooradian then took the stage.
Four works featuring saxophone had been selected for the joint recital from a commission project founded by couple American saxophonist John Sampen and American composer Marilyn Shrude.
The project aimed to collect short pieces, or “postcards,” for saxophone and piano. The collection features various American composers and aimed to create a “duet” of piano and saxophone and capture the various musical styles across the range of musicians featured.
Mooradian performed American composer Samuel Adler’s “Pensive Soliloquy,” the piece focuses on the technical aspects of saxophone music.
This contrasted with the next piece, Pauline Oliveros’ “Mirrorrism,” in which improvisational playing is more of a highlight throughout the work.
Curto performed “Padre, germani, addio” from the opera “Idomeneo” by Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Within the context of the opera, the piece works with the themes of Greek tragedy by building tension.
After a brief intermission, Curto and Mooradian performed American composer Lori Laitman’s “I Never Saw Another Butterfly.”
“I Never Saw Another Butterfly” is comprised of six movements and includes text from poems written by children detained in the Terezin Concentration Camp.
The piece’s third movement, “The Birdsong,” uses an anonymous poem written in 1941. The use of simple art and poetry is intended to act as reverence for the legacies of the children who lost their lives in the camp.
Mooradian performed Czech-born composer Karel Husa’s “Postcards from Home,” which was another piece from Sampen’s and Shrude’s project. The piece dealt with nostalgia and melodic parts of modern saxophone music.
Mooradian followed with American composer William Albright’s “Postcard from Kansas: Welcome to Interstate-70.” The intention of Albright’s piece was to emulate the feelings of a road trip, both ever-moving and dull at the same time.
Curto finished with Spanish composer Enrique Granados’ “Canciones Amatorias,” which dealt with themes of love, death and melancholy.
Mooradian’s final performance included two movements from French composer Pierre-Max Dubois’s “Pieces Caracteristiques En Forme De Suite.” The third movement uses more traditional melodies, while the last movement is more fast-paced.
The utilization of such diverse pieces in this recital paints a immensely intricate picture in whole. Here we see illustrated the distinctive attributes of both contemporary and classical music, crossing boundaries of language and style to pull together a complete and unique performance.
Other students performing recitals later in the semester include junior Brennan Rudy, seniors Kasey Lynch, Dylan Little, Brett Heffelfinger, Darby Orris and Alex Haggerty. All of their performances will take place in Stretansky Concert Hall.
Other musical performances throughout the rest of the semester include opera performances on April 6 and April 7, the student composers concert on April 10, the University Choir and Chamber Singers concert on April 13, the University Chorale Concert on April 14, a guest artist recital on April 23, student chamber music recitals on April 24 and April 25, the University Jazz Ensemble concert on April 26, the University Orchestra concert on April 28 and the Symphonic Band concert on April 29.