Thursday, May 07, 2009

Piano at Chowan


Classes ended yesterday and piano juries will be held today, so it's time for me to take a look back at the 08/09 year in piano at Chowan.

The main point I have reflected on throughout the year is that it has been a particularly rich year for pianists at Chowan. We have had lots of opportunities to play and hear a huge variety of music and to see many different approaches to playing a piano.

The very first concert at the school this year was a performance of works of Elliott Carter and Olivier Messiean to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the births of those geniuses. This was brought to us by Paul Hanson and Joanne Kong, colleagues of mine from the University of Richnond. What an eye-opening event for one's first concert as a freshman music major! The musical complexity and expression, as well as the technical difficulty of the works they performed, opened a whole new world of music to us. They also provided an excellent powerpoint presentation that made these incredible works more accessible to us.

Joanne Kong played, as always, with an earnestness that drew us close to the composers' hearts and the essence of the music. Her anguished way of inflecting the movement of Messiaen's Vision de l'Amen devoted to the agony of Christ is still etched in my mind seven months later.

Paul Hanson has unlimited technical resources which he deploys with the maximum amount of cool. He's a great model for all of us who sabotage ourselves by overdoing even simple things. He's a fine artist and craftsman who presides over a marvelous unfolding of pianisitic feats, as in Carter's Night Fantasies, without showing the slightest bit of strain or anxiety.

What's more, both were exceptionally professional, cooperative, kind, and flexible throughout their whole visit, which makes them role models well beyond their superb piano playing.

Another big piano event first semester (and one that provided a major stylistic contrast with the Carter/Messiaen event) was the concert of Christian singer/songwriter/pianist Kyle Matthews. Kyle was with us for a couple of days and was very encouraging regarding the value of the work we're trying to do here, as well as sharing with students what his experience has been in the music business. In addition to being warm and open with us, his concert was a tour de force as he accompanied himself for an entire evening of his own moving and spiritually challenging songs.

Our Pianofest guest was Ariel Dechosa who played two massive masterworks on his recital including Prokofief's Sixth Sonata, which is a miracle both by virtue of the fact that a human being concieved it and also because there are people like Ariel who can play it brilliantly.

This year's Pianofest also focused on ensemble playing and featured our students in duets written especially for them and Mr. Dechosa to perform together. Mr. Dechosa and I played a flamboyant William Tell Overture and Mrs. Pressnell and I played a set of more modest Beethoven variations with which I was rather pleased.

And that brings us to the year's faculty performances that included Mrs. Pressnell's continued exploration of the Viennese classical repertoire with a Haydn sonata and Beethoven's Choral Fantasy and my lecture recitals on 19th cetury parlor music in North Carolina and Erik Satie's Sports et Divertissements.

Mrs. Pressnell and I also provided lots of exposure to ways in which pianists make music with other musicians. In the fall, she played an excellent art song recital with our chairperson, Greg Parker. She also plays for most of our students' performances which happen most weeks on our departmental recital as well as at juries, senior recitals, and choral performances.

I played for clarinetist David Niethamer in a concert of Brahms E flat Sonata and the premiere of a big sonata by my colleague, James M. Guthrie. In the spring, soprano Julia Rolwing exposed us to the music of Wagner, and we also did our first performance anywhere of Strauss's Four Last Songs right here at Chowan.

The studio has taken on lots of projects and provided music outside the school on several occasions. In studio class, we surveyed the works of Beethoven first semester and Russian piano music second semester. We also went out for pizza and got acquainted with the pipe organ at First Baptist Ahoskie. Mark, Josiah, and Terrell played for church worship services, revival services, gospel choir, Christmas concerts, Chowan New Music days, performances of their own music, the Undergraduated Research Conference, jazz ensembles, and the first-ever Chowan University Relay for Life Pianothon.

In addition to all these piano activities, Dr. Guthrie made it possible for us to hear Bach and Telemann on harpsichord and an array of music on the virginal. Dr. Guthrie also played a colorful and powerful organ recital at Murfreesboro Methodist, and organist and alumna Fay Monroe shared a worshipful afternoon with us at Murfreesboro Baptist.

Dr. Guthrie also arranged for the NACUSA national conference to take place here at Chowan this year. That was a day full of concerts of new music that included chamber and solo works for pianists as well.

Yet another pianist who spent time with us this year was composer/activist Stefan Waligur who presented his Celtic Mass at FBC Ahoskie around Christmas time. He visited our first-year theory class and asked us a probing question that we should continue asking ourselves:
"What are you doing with your music?"