Limelight on faculty music

Concerts at Keene State College often feature students performing in front of their peers and teachers but a concert on March 2 featured faculty as well debuting their own work.      

The Alumni Recital Hall was composed of some 70 audience members. The crowd consisted of students and faculty, there to support the six faculty members having their pieces performed.

The six performances featured over 30 student, faculty and guest musicians. This year’s faculty composer recital was the ninth annual, and featured many repeat composers.      
Senior Nicole Laperriere said she enjoyed seeing how each of the faculty compositions showed a different side of themselves.

“When you hear Jose Lezcano’s piece, you really get a feel of his heritage,” Laperriere said. “It comes out in his pieces with the Latin American and Spanish influences.”     
Music tech professor Craig Sylvern said he has performed in dozens of faculty recitals during his 12-year career at KSC.

“The faculty composer’s recital is actually something I started nine years ago,” Sylvern said. “I noticed we had a lot of faculty composers on campus. I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to feature these works one concert a year?’”   

  
Elaine Broad Ginsberg is a KSC music theory and aural skills professor. Ginsberg composed a three movement piece called “Songs of Light,” which was performed by the KSC Chamber Singers. Ginsberg has been at KSC for five years and this is her fifth time entering a composition into the recital. She said her experience this year was wonderful.
“My students did an amazing job,” Ginsberg said. “Even though it’s normally a 26 member group and there were five people out sick.”     

Junior Ariel Cohen, a member of the Chamber Singers, said being in a faculty composer’s recital was a different kind of feeling.

“You’re performing the world premier of something someone you know created,” Cohen said. “We actually learned the third movement last semester but this semester we got to debut the entire piece.”      

Cohen also said it is easier performing something for a teacher you know.
“It gives you this feeling that I know this teacher; you just don’t feel as on edge,” Cohen said.     

Sophomore Liz Lacroix went to the concert to support violinist Marcia Lehninger who teaches music appreciation and theory.

Lehninger performed in Christopher Swist’s “Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano.”
“It wasn’t the kind of music I normally listen to but it was interesting to get exposed to more modern compositions,” Lacroix said.

Lacroix also said she is definitely interested in seeing more KSC faculty and student recitals. Sophomore Ellie Hahn said before the recital that Ginsberg’s pieces are always grab the audiences attention.

“She likes to put a lot of dissonance in them,” Hahn said. “They have a lot of pull and resistance against each part.”     

After the concert, Hahn expressed how much she enjoyed seeing faculty in their own element.

“I liked the different pieces the faculty had,” Hahn said. “We see the teachers every day. We know they can do it but it’s always fun to see them perform.”     

Senior Nicole Laperriere said she enjoyed Julian Gerstin’s pieces.
“The last piece of Gerstin’s seemed to have the African drumming and a jazz piano part, which I thought was very different,” Laperriere said. “It’s always very interesting to see what they come up with.”      

Laperriere also said it was fun, as a composition student, to see the teachers don’t always follow the rules they teach.      

Music professor Heather Gilligan performed in her first composer’s recital this year. She has previously performed at KSC but this is her first year as a faculty member at the institution.

Her composition, “Garden Songs,” consisted of three movements and was performed by a trumpet and piano player and a soprano vocalist. Gilligan said her composition represents a more contemporary perspective.     

Gilligan also said performing at this college gets easier over time.
“The first recital I did here I was very nervous, the second time it was a little easier and this time I knew the space I knew what to expect,” Gilligan said.

She also said she is happy about the amount of support the faculty and other performers got from the KSC community, referring to the 70 person audience.
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Stuart Ross can be contacted at wross1@keeneequinox.com.