Music Concert Review Essay

The first part of the concert played Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, also known as Fantasia, and it lasted less than 30 minutes. It opened with a lady named Anastasia Markina, and she introduced the piece with a slow virtuoso playing of the piano, to which later on the strings, cellos and basses, enter. Then Markina played an ornamented version of the choral theme, to

For this concert report I chose to go to a performance of student composers held at the Kimball Recital Hall. I chose this one because I wanted to see some of the talent that my peers have in the music realm, and also it was one of the only concerts I have been able to attend because I usually work at night. It was impressive to hear pieces composed by students. I cannot imagine creating something as complex as a musical composition, much less actually performing it, so this aspect of the concert was particularly awe-inspiring. There was a large attendance, and I think that much of the audience consisted of friends of the composers and/or performers. I went with three friends, who I convinced by telling it would be interesting to see

I chose the genre string quartet and attended a concert at First Presbyterian church on October 19th, 2014. Because of its location the sanctuary where the concert took place had many stained glass windows. It was marvelous and in my opinion well suited the feel of classical music. The audience was very responsive and attentive. They applauded when the musicians appeared, in between pieces, and at the very end. They were quick to join in the sing along portion of the concert. Overall the people attending were an older crowd but you could tell they truly appreciated the music. The concert’s duration was around an

Dr. Carol Williams’s organ plays were just fantastic. Despite the fact that seeing the instrument called, “organ” was my first time, it was pretty impressive how that instrument worked. All the pedals and the three layers of keyboards were just as complicated as a calculus math problem. The concert was played at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion at Balboa Park. The surrounding was not too bad. Although the concert day was Sunday, it was quite crowded. Besides the crowdedness, the surroundings were not too rough. All ages were welcome to seat and enjoy the sounds of organ. I saw mostly old aged audiences and I saw a little amount of college aged audiences with the music report information on their hands.

When the concert first began, the three instrumentalists walked with energy despite their age. The first song, “Sonata I in G-Major Op. 2, Nr. 1” by Michel Blavet, was a Baroque Sonata. There were five movements and was played by the harpsichord, flute, and cello. All movements of the song were polyphonic because of the three instruments that had different parts and equal importance. In the first movement, I noticed that the flute tended to rise in pitch. In the second movement, I noticed that the melodies often repeated. Throughout the rest of the song the tempo changed from fast to slow and the flute would usually take the lead. On the last movement, the cello and the harpsichord

Omara Portuondo entered the stage with confidence in her vibrant blue outfit. They started the 1st song with an instrumental beginning that started out with a fast tempo and then slowed downed when Omara began singing. Omara made this particular song an interactive experience, by asking the audience to clap along. Which only helped to add another layer to her song. In the hall the claps just seemed to echo beautifully because of how Weill Hall was designed. During the song, they had a moment where the other musicians keep a steady repetitive rhythm, while the conga/bongo player had his solo. The conga/bongo player seemed like he had bad timing, but I don’t know if its, because I’m use to hearing bongos and congas being played at a faster tempo than the musician was playing. Was his solo used to help slow down the timing? What it supposed to be used a transition? It left me questioning the structure of the piece. However, during this song I was particularly drawn to the pianist Roberto Fonsea because of his immense virtuosity. Fonsea showed immense virtuosity when lead and played the grand piano and keyboard at the same time. Fonsea also played at an extremely high level because of his ability to change keys in less than

The ensemble performs various classic Latin pieces while also educating other students about culture through their music.

I first thought the concert would include full band, background singers, different lightings and costume changes. My thought was quickly changed when I saw that there was one drummer and the artist with his two guitars. It was very different from the other concerts that I’ve been to. He was really laid back and speaking about his life openly to us. He shared with us about his life as an artist, a husband, father and a follower of Jesus. The concert was very energetic, with a lot of dancing, shouting and sing along. The songs he sung were from his old and upcoming

The stage was not furnished with any elaborate decorations. It contained just enough chairs and music stands for the musicians. The bare stage allowed the audience to focus on the music and the musicians’ talent. The musicians would enter and exit the stage depending on who was playing for each specific piece. The work was carefully thought out and arranged in a way that was easy to follow. McDonald took the time to introduce the players and briefly explained why and how the works were chosen and arranged. Since the festival spotlighted Beethoven they made Beethoven as the center point and expanded on both directions to include German, Austrian, and Polish composers. This was extremely helpful as it provided the audience context regarding the pieces and allowed them to follow

The next composition was “Next Exit” written by Scott Martin. At the beginning, played piano, guitar, bass, and two percussions. After several seconds, joined the brasses and a violin. The tempo was played at medium, in my opinion. At the middle of the piece, one of the brass had improvisation after which the audience applauded very loudly. It was very nice to watch each of the musicians. Especially, I liked the end of the composition as they stopped all in an instant. It was just awesome!

The concert began with “The Santa Fe Handrummers” which was a class of students and their professor. It consisted of seven

On the evening of Tuesday, November 28 at 7:30, I attended the UNG Instrumental Honors Recital. To be quite frank, I was entirely unsure of what to expect as I had never attended an instrumental concert before. The entire evening had a semi-formal air about it, despite the casual t-shirts and jeans many people were wearing. Each musician would step on stage to a completely silent audience, settle on the provided chair if necessary, take a deep breath, and then finally let the music sweep them away as they played for the audience. The passion and emotion each musician had was clear from the intensity of their respective facial expressions, which changed depending on what piece they were playing.

I attended my second concert for my music appreciation class on November 2, 2017 beginning at 7:30 pm and the performance lasted two hours. The musicians in this concert was Patty Goble singing soprano, Dan Goble playing many different saxophones, and finally Russell Hirshfield playing the piano. The pieces performed during this concert was II Re pastore, KV 208/ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Ariettes oubliees/ Claude Debussy (1862-1918) this piece of music had three movements, Hat City Sonata (2011)/ Piet Swerts (b. 1960) as well as the piece had three movements as well, there was a 30 minute intermission, and the next pieces performed were Arabesque (1891) / Claude Debussy, Etude. Pour les arpeges composes (1915)/ Claude Debussy, and the last song I listened to was Steady Study on the Boogie (1993)/ Christian Lauba (b. 1952).

On Thursday April 25, 2013 , I attended a jazz vocal concert at the Music Concert Hall. The first vocal ensemble opened up the performance with a slow rhythmic song called Blue Skies. It began with vocals and I noticed a light auxiliary percussion and drum rhythm. Also, the bass guitarist used walking bass and the piano and electric guitar joined in as well. The first song also consisted of two soloist Regina and Chantel who took the front stage to show off their chops. After the solo performances they fell back into the vocal sections and finished off the song as a complete band. The second performance had a piano opening which led to vocals joining in at the same time as the rhythm section. This performance

This afternoon, I went to the music concert hall where is located in the music building for the listening hour, a small noon-time concert which is performed by the staff and students from the music majors. Since it is a free noon-time concert, most of the audiences just wear the t-shirts and jeans to the concert. Dresses are not required for the concert. The performance today is given by the Ananda Jazz Ensemble. They have played “Running Away”, composed by Bob Marley; “Madalena”, composed by Ivan Linz; “Conejitos y Ananda”, composed by Abi Romero; “La Bikina”, composed by Ruben Fuentes; and “Chukaro”, also composed by Abi Romero. Because this is a Latin Americdan Journey, all of the music performed is jazz music. All pieces played in the concert are an ensemble of piano, bass, and drums. During the concert, I was trying to be a perceptive listener; I enjoyed the music with concentration and paid attention to the music’s unity and variety, such as the dynamics and tempos. I also tried to associate the music with a picture when I listened to it and understand the emotion in the music.