First Faculty Recital Thoughts & Reflections

My first faculty recital came and went on April 1. I realized that my scheduling clashed with Maundy Thursday after the calendar was already set. Next year, I will be very sure to check the Easter calendar before deciding. Although some of my friends couldn't make it, there were many students, faculty and staff who came out to support my recital. I noticed that the audience was super polite (especially the second half) and the hall was totally silent. I could not ask for a better audience.

This was the first recital that I played that was not required of me. I was not playing for a grade, a committee or as part of my job contract. The freedom of not playing to please someone else made a big difference in this recital. I felt very free to experiment with different interpretations, sound colors and technical approach to the recital. I remember that it was in the second half of the recital that it really dawned on me that this recital I'm playing solely because I love performing and I chose to bask in the spotlight at that moment. The spotlight would fade in half an hour :). I really wanted to communicate to the audience that classical piano is an art form, a demanding one. The eleven years of tertiary education to be able to enjoy this moment was all worth it.

This was also the first time that I performed an entire duet sonata in public. It was a great experience to work with my colleague, Connie Donatelli. We had to make adjustments to our individual playing styles to create this ensemble experience. We laughed a lot and an audience member remarked that she was glad that we laughed on stage prior to starting our piece.

I am blessed to have the equipment and the facility to let my imagination be reality. The 9-foot Steinway concert grand which my college owns has barely been broken in and is a beautiful instrument. I call it the luxury race car model of the piano world. It is a piano that most pianists cannot afford and I approach that piano in awe. (If I sell everything I own, including my rental house (which I don't own obviously) I would still not be able to buy this piano.) The Brown Center has wonderful acoustics, a working theater and also the projector equipment. I would not have been able to pull off a video presentation and slide show without the technical equipment in place. Even the simple items like flowers on stage, make a huge difference in setting the mood for the recital.

As for the selections of that evening, John Cage 4'33" was quite a joke to pull off and it was very hard not to laugh for 2 minutes. The final two pieces of the recital were the hardest pieces that I have ever performed. They are not only technically very difficult for a small-handed pianist but demand a maturity for the interpretation, musicality and expression.

Final thoughts: I began my piano performance journey here in the Cowley County area in Kansas as a student at Southwestern College. My freshman year, I dropped my music major because I thought I could not memorize music, had bad stage fright and can't perform. I have to take back every statement I made. I am overjoyed to play my first recital after my doctorate as a piano faculty person back here in Kansas. A different place would not have been as sweet to mark an important milestone in my musical journey. May there be many more performances to come.