By Laura Lee
Correspondent
For the eight musicians who performed at the “Embracing Student Achievement” music recital on Wednesday, Oct. 23, it was an afternoon filled with delight, applause and accomplishments, as the student musicians displayed their semester’s worth of hard work.
Nicholas Parent opened the recital with his performance of “Etude in B Major, Op. 6 No. 9” by Clair Omar Musser on the marimba. His strokes of the marimba were both gentle and intense, making for an engaging rendition.
After Parent’s performance, Shannon McGovern continued to delight audiences with her vocals, singing “Voi, che sapete” from “La Nozze di Figaro” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, accompanied by James Lubrano on the piano.
The hour-long recital continued its strong repertoire with Eric Trast playing “Fantasia (P. 1a)” by John Dowland on the guitar.
“I think I did well,” Trast said after his performance. “It felt good and I was comfortable. I hoped to create a relaxing mood for the audience.”
Following Trast, hornist James Tucker played “Horn Concert No. 2” by Richard Strauss and was accompanied by Sally Livingston on piano. Louis Delia, who played “Guardame las vacas” by Luis de Narváez on the guitar, followed.
For the final performance, Katie Kershaw, a mezzo soprano, began her song with a startled expression. She then began to sing her rendition of “Der Tod und das Mädchen” by Franz Schubert. During her second song, “Lullaby” from The Consul, she carried a serene expression and graced the audiences with her vocals with Lubrano on the piano.
“The first song was about the maiden seeing death. She doesn’t want to die and that’s why I had the scared expression on my face,” Kershaw said. “But in the second song, the death assures (the maiden) that it will not be painful and she shouldn’t be afraid.”
Every performance earned strong bouts of applause, and the songs that drew the strongest reactions were definitely not practiced overnight. Kershaw said that she had been practicing her songs since the summer.
“(Kershaw) works really hard,” said junior history and secondary education double major Danny Kaplan. “She always gives it her all and I’m very proud of her.”
But it wasn’t just Kershaw who worked hard. All of the performers excelled at their instruments after a semester of preparation and study.
