Tyler Korponai – Photo Editor
On Wednesday, April 6, the Charles Garner Recital Hall of Engleman was filled with music for a performance for the Stutzman recital series.
Featured for the evening was oboist Olav van Hezewijk, pianist Eric Trudel and guest violinist, Yaroslav.
“Tonight’s performance was part of the Stutzman recital series which is a collection of usually faculty recitals that we try to select either from our applied faculty, or from our full time faculty, and occasionally guests,” said Craig Hlavac, music professor.
Trudel and Hezewijk, despite the relatively small repertoire shared between piano and oboe, selected a range of pieces from different points in compositional history to highlight each other’s musicality and instrument.
“It wasn’t too hard,” said Trudel. “We knew exactly what we wanted to play. Tonight was a good example of the classic oboe [and] piano repertoire. What was harder to decide was the order of the recital. We tried a few combinations and we ended up starting with the Hindemith piece and then taking it in a completely different direction.”
To make a compelling performance for the audience diversity is certainly important. However, above else, there should be a level of familiarity and comfortability that performers share with one another.
“We had to get together and know each other musically,” said Trudel. “Olav and I have known each other for a number of years but this is the first time with Yaroslav. From the first rehearsal on it was an incredible collaboration, even though we only had two rehearsals.”
Bringing this level of quality to music at Southern is a goal for the department and to facilitate the understood value of musicality that can be produced from Southern.
“Just this week we had two great performances, one on monday with flute and piano, and one tonight with Olaf and Eric, just a wonderful performance,” said Hlavac. “That’s the hope, that we could get really high end performances for the Southern community and build the series up so more people will think about it as a premier series in the region.”
The music department is not done yet either, there are a number of performances that strive to impress just as much, from opera and classically oriented shows to broadway style performances.
“April is probably the busiest month for the music department, we have a lot of performances left,” said Hlavac. “Next week we’re off, but the week following the university choir is playing. The university band is playing alongside two guest broadway singers and they’ll play music from several different broadway shows. Then we’ll have the Jubilee Singers.”
Photo Credit: Tyler Korponai – Photo Editor
