Fauré and Friends: a French-themed noontime recital

By Hannah Krebsbach •

Bill Adams, music and theatre program director, and Jihong Adams-Park, associate lecturer, both part of the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts, will host a French-themed noontime recital on March 19 inside the Adolfo and Marisela Cotilla Gallery in the Alvin Sherman Library, Research, and Information Technology Center.

The event will include piano, voice and violin performances. Two to three people will be on stage at a time without microphones. It will be solely instruments, singers, and the audience.

Adams will participate as a vocal performer along with several student performers.

Samyuktha Chaganti, a sophomore speech language pathology major, and Teresa Arroyo, a sophomore marine biology major, both of whom are vocal performers, will be performing a duet accompanied by Adams-Park of “Barcarolle” from Les Contes d’Hoffmann.

“Sam and I have been working on that song since last semester, and we didn’t have an event to sing it for so when our director brought up this event, we thought it would be perfect,” Arroyo said.

Students who have been working on pieces over the past semester have volunteered to participate in this event. Adams said the students will be performing either solos or duets with Adams-Park accompanying them on piano.

“We have close to 15 students studying private voice lessons here in the department every semester working on pieces,” Adams said. “We have been searching for an event to have the students show their work and now we have a place to do it in public.”

The students performing do not need to be music majors, and many are not, said Carlo Alberto Ricchi, adjunct professor in DCMA, who will be performing alongside the students as an instrumentalist.

“Both ensembles always meet on Tuesdays from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the University Center in rooms 309 and 310. They are open to all students, not just music majors,” Ricchi said.

There are a few, including Arroyo, who are music minors but anyone in a private lesson is welcome to volunteer.

“Most of us just love singing. There’s some of us who have been doing it forever and some who have never picked up a sheet of music,” Arroyo said.

Following the French theme, the music for this event consists mainly of chamber music. This type of music is typically lively tunes that would have been played in a living room or “living chamber” in the 18th and 19th century.

“This is a lot of fun for me and my accompanist to work on, so we are letting the audience see that. It’s great literature, great repertoire, but it’s not showy like big opera music or Broadway stuff,” Adams said.

The purpose of this event is to showcase the talent of these students, as well as generate engagement with the music program and DCMA.

“We have a very unique and special music program, and I think music connects everybody. I think it allows us to really get to know people who are in completely different majors and form connections,” Arroyo said.

Ricchi said that the faculty are also preparing for another concert on April 25, titled “Mozart to Mowtown.”

“For this concert we will have more lively music and we will also have the Mako band participating,” Ricchi said.