The Southern Utah University Department of Music has two nights of music prepared with the Piano and String Ensembles performing on Tuesday, March 29, and the Brass and Woodwind Ensembles performing on Tuesday, April 5. Both performances are free and begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Thorley Recital Hall.
With the spring semester ending in just five weeks, student musicians will be regularly performing to show the community the results of their diligent efforts and growth as artists. These concerts are also opportunities for them to perform professional, high-level music for an audience.
“The Piano Ensemble has been focusing on pieces for six and eight hands this semester,” said Associate Professor of Music Christian Bohnenstengel. “We will be performing these works on four pianos with three to four students at each one.”
SUU’s ensembles are made up of students from different majors.
“For one particular arrangement, we will have an engineering major play at the same piano as a freshman music education major and a senior piano performance major,” said Bohnenstengel. “The small ensemble concerts are proof of how music truly brings people together.”
The next event the Piano Ensemble will be hosting is the annual Southern Utah Piano Pedagogy Conference on SUU’s campus with Dixie State University on April 9.
As for the ensembles performing on April 5, SUU Director of Woodwinds Laura Grantier said she is excited for the concert because her students are performing challenging music with pieces from composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jacques Ibert and Ernesto Lecuona.
“It has been fun preparing for this concert with the Flute Choir since we will be playing a few pieces that are all exciting including one of my favorites, ‘Malaguena,’” said math and economics major Kira Swann. “We have a bunch of different ensembles performing including the Clarinet Quartet and Brass ensemble so this will be a very musically diverse concert.”
For more information about upcoming student recitals and concerts, visit the music department website.
Story by: Addie Horsley
accent@suunews.net
Photo courtesy of SUU Department of Music
