By Lauren Runkle, Contributing Editor
Seniors Jason Pandelidis and Izzie Hawthorne will perform solo pieces for their senior capstone at 2:30 p.m. on March 3 in Stretansky Concert Hall.
Pandelidis and Hawthorne will be accompanied by Lecturer in Music Jaime Namminga on piano and Pandelidis will be accompanied by senior Michaela Wagner singing soprano.
Hawthorne said her repertoire will be themed around mental illness and that the composers and pieces will reflect the theme.
“Some of the composers you will see in this recital are Robert Schumann, Aaron Copland and Francesco Tosti,” Hawthorne said. “The majority of the composers in my repertoire are people that have struggled with mental illness.”
Hawthorne said that she has always loved music and pursued it from a young age.
“I have played piano since I was in first grade, but I have always found more enjoyment in singing,” Hawthorne said. “I sang in church and was in choir since middle school, but I never had any vocal training until high school.”
“When I was a sophomore in high school, I could finally afford to pay for voice lessons for myself and so I started taking them up until the end of high school,” Hawthorne continued. “When I was applying for colleges as a music major, I considered being a piano major, but eventually chose to be a voice major because it brought me so much joy.”
In comparison, Pandelidis said, “Music was always in my family, but no one pursued it;” Pandelidis decided to change that.
Pandelidis said that his repertoire was chosen based on its technical aspects, but also based on language.
“I picked my songs based off the technical challenges they presented me, how they fit my voice and how I thought they would connect with the audience,” Pandelidis said. “I knew I wanted to sing in several different languages – I’m singing only one song in English; some in Italian, German and even Greek.”
“Really the only piece I really wanted to do was Maurice Ravel’s ‘Five Greek Folk Songs.’” Pandelidis continued. “I have a lot of Greek heritage in my family, so I always wanted to perform something in the Greek language.”
“Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of classical songs written in Greek,” Pandelidis said “Even the song cycle I’m doing, ‘Five Greek Folk Songs,’ is usually performed in French. Though it’s a pretty well known piece, a lot of people don’t know that it was originally written in Greek, then later translated to French.”
Pandelidis elaborated that his performance connected to his Greek heritage.
“I don’t speak Greek, so during my GO trip to Greece this summer, I was able to learn the pronunciation of the text from my friends who spoke Greek there,” Pandelidis said. “It will be a really amazing feeling performing a song cycle fully in Greek to my grandmother who is fluent in Greek.”
Both Pandelidis and Hawthorne praised the music department at Susquehanna.
“It is bigger than I would think of a university this small,” Pandelidis said.
“I think that our department is fortunate to have such wonderful faculty,” Hawthorne said. “I have had very positive experiences with my professors and I have found them to all be very talented, passionate and helpful in both their musical expertise and their teaching.”
“I especially enjoy choir and I think that everyone in choir has become like a family,” Hawthorne continued.
“I think that being a part of the music department has been a necessary challenge for me and has taught me things about myself and others that I could not learn in any other department,” Hawthorne said.
Hawthorne also emphasized the importance of students attending performances like theirs.
“I think it is important for students to be engaged with the arts,” Hawthorne said. “Music has a powerful way of affecting people, even if they may not be familiar with a certain piece.”