By Danielle Bettendorf Staff writer
Susquehanna students performed a chamber music recital on Nov. 30 in Stretansky Concert Hall.
Three groups of students performed, with different instruments in each group.
In the first group, senior Tia Kissinger and juniors Darby Orris, Jessica Portzline and Luke Duceman performed “Trois Pieces” by Isaac Albeniz on saxophone.
In the second group, senior Mike Kaminski, sophomores Gus Black and Carissa Sweet and first-years Jacob Bodinger, William Meriney and Hayden Stacki performed percussion on the pieces “Guatamalan Folk Song” arranged by David Vincent, “Gainsborough” by Thomas Gauger and “Cymbalectomy” by Chris Crockarell.
In the final group, senior Victoria Hogan performed on violin, senior Alethea Khoo performed on piano and junior Brett Heffelfinger performed on cello. They performed “Piano Trio in E-flat, Op. 1, No. 1” by Ludwig van Beethoven.
In that same final group, the students had some direction from a professor as to which piece they would play.
“[Jennifer] Wiley gave us a list of a couple different things,” Heffelfinger said.
“We picked as a group which thing we were going to do: it was the one we liked the most, and it seemed like it would have been manageable to put together in a semester,” Heffelfinger added.
For his group, Heffelfinger said preparations went well, although the group had to make some arrangements.
“Our group has done fairly well preparing,” he said.
“We’ve gotten through and learned every movement, but due to time constraints we have to take out one of them,” Heffelfinger added.
Heffelfinger also emphasized that the concert was entirely composed of groups of students, rather than larger groups or individual performers.
“Unlike a lot of the other recitals that go on in a semester, this one [has] all student groups, rather than large ensembles led by one director or a guest artist or faculty,” Heffelfinger said. “It’s all small groups of students.”
“Essentially it’s the teamwork of that group and the work of just that small group,” Heffelfinger continued.
Audience members seemed to find the concert entertaining, even if they were not particularly familiar with the type of music performed.
“I liked it,” junior Violeta Migirov said. “I usually don’t listen to classical music or anything instrumental, so it was really interesting. It was a new experience for me.”
Others approached the recital from a more technical standpoint, and highlighted the work the students put into their performances.
“It was really great,” junior Ariana Dellosa said. “I know how hard the students worked to put this concert together, so it was great to see the final product.”
“I really liked the cymbal piece,” Dellosa added.
“I thought that was really fun. I also liked the one with [Hogan, Heffelfinger and Khoo] at the end. I thought that was particularly beautiful. It was well balanced, and they did a really great job,” Dellosa continued.
“We’re in their studio class, so it’s nice to see how much they’ve progressed,” junior Casey Lynch added. “We got to see it from the beginning and all the way through.”
Dellosa and Lynch also highlighted the bond between the musicians and how that translated in their performance.
“They have a nice language between them,” Dellosa said.
“They’re really well connected when they play,” Lynch added.
The performance was one of the last musical performances of the semester.
On Dec. 5, “Jazz at Charlie’s” will take place at 8 p.m. in Charlie’s Coffeehouse.
On Dec. 8, Andrew Rammon, adjunct faculty music, and Naomi Niskala, associate professor of music, will perform a faculty recital at 7:30 p.m. in Stretansky Concert Hall.
Patrick Long, professor of music, will be giving a recital in Stretansky Concert Hall on Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m.
These concerts are presented by the Susquehanna Department of Music.