Music from Those Who Should Know It!

My lovely ladies and I just returned from a mid-afternoon music recital at the university. It featured the Music Department's faculty, and many of their students were there to see if their professors could do the very singing and performing that they teach their students to do. And the professors proved themselves very able! We took our standard seats ("standard" being as close to the front as possible) and got comfortable, hearing a wide range of music from the 1600s through the 2000s. I don't have access to video from today's recital, but I have found others' performances of many of the songs to give you an idea of what we heard today.

• Ruth Heley, soprano, sang two Henry Purcell songs: "An Evening Hymn" and "From Rosy Bowers" from Don Quixote.
• Colleen McKirdy and Cheryl Hewson played two piano duets: Jacques Offenbach's "Barcarolle" and Wilhelm Ganz's "Qui Vive! Grand Galop de Concert."
• Bruce Southard, tenor, sang "An die Apfelbäume, Wo Ich Julien Erblickte" by Franz Schubert and Frederick Loewe's "Come to Me, Bend to Me" from Brigadoon.
• Rachel Nozny played two movements from John La Montaine's "Sonata for Flute Solo."
• Cheryl Hewson, soprano, sang "The Red Dress" by Alexander Varlamov and "The Last Rose of Summer" by Benjamin Britten.
• Colleen McKirdy played Franz Schubert's "Impromptu Op. 90, No. 3" on the piano.
• Carolyn Burns, soprano, sang two songs by Gustav Mahler: "Hans und Grethe" and "Wer hat dies Liedlein Erdacht?"
• Michael Compton played alto saxophone, and Tim Justus played trumpet on Barbara York's "Duo Sonata: Wisdom of Our Fathers."
• Emily Bradbury on violin played Jules Massenet's "Meditation" from Thaïs.
• Brian Nozny played marimba, and Rachel Nozny played flute on Gareth Farr's "Kembang Suling."
• Michael Compton played tenor saxophone, and Brian Nozny played percussion on Dennis DeSantis' "+8."
• Charlotte Hondl, soprano, sang Chris Tomlin's "Forever" accompanied by Priscilla Keogh on piano, Carolyn Burns on guitar, and Brian Nozny on percussion.

My favorite was the Noznys' marimba/flute duet of three "musical snapshots of Asia": the first suggesting Bali, the second Japan, and the third southern India. The link above will let you hear two other musicians' performance, and it's well worth a listen. Recitals such as this are one of many benefits of living in a university community, and I'm glad we took advantage of the opportunity to hear the music faculty perform today.