UConn Piano Studio Recital
By:  Lucy Littlefield

UConn Piano Studio embodies spirit of springtime in their recital “Sour Flowers and Enchanting Gardens” The UConn piano studio welcomed the coming of spring with their annual Piano Project recital on April 15th in von der Mehden Recital Hall. This year’s program was titled “Sour Flowers and Enchanted Gardens,” featuring all undergraduate and graduate piano students at UConn as well as the Assistant Professor in Residence of Piano and Coordinator of Keyboard Studies, Angelina Gadeliya. The recital was programmed around the works of three major piano performers and composers. The first section of the recital featured the original compositions of pianist and composer Richard Danielpour. Danielpour was actually in residence at UConn during the fall semester to hold a Master Class with the piano students and became the inspiration to this year’s piano project, according to Gadeliya. The program featured five of his solo preludes, which all depict the garden of [Danielpour’s] mind, scenes of both of his subconscious dream and conscious realities, according to Danielpour. The second part of the concert featured an eight-part piece called “Sour Flowers” by Richard Edward Wilson. According to Gadeliya, the cycle is a set of humorous tunes inspired by the Old English herbals. Historically, the use of herbs in the mid- to late- 16th century is heavily tied to the belief in folk magic and superstition. Before the performance of each piece, the performer read a brief text introducing the herb and its intended magical function. Musically, each piece depicted its functions as Wilson aims to achieve the convergence of atonal and classical musical styles. “As both a music student and a lover of music in general, I really enjoyed the Wilson pieces because he took common forms and styles in piano music and put is own tonal twist on them,” Spencer Walker, a second-semester civil engineering and music major, said. The final of set of the recital included the performance of a collection of duets by William Bolcom. The piece was called “The Garden of Eden: Four Rags for Two Pianos.” As suggested in the title, each rag was performed with pianists seated at two different pianos, playing musical lines both with and to each other. Together, the four parts aimed to depict the biblical story of Adam and Eve from the book of Genesis. The first two rags, “Old Adam,” and “The Eternal Feminine,” were lighthearted and fun, depicting the innocence and curiosity of Adam and Eve. The third rag, “The Serpent’s Kiss,” was as sinister as the serpent himself. Featuring primarily dark harmonies and heavy rhythms, the piece was a dramatic shift away from the theme of innocence toward the traps that can arise from sin and temptation. This rag also featured extended techniques including foot stomping, percussive drumming on the lid of the piano and clicking of the tongue, as a further pull away
from the themes of Adam and Eve. The piece closed with “Through Eden’s Gates,” which was a return of the joyful and upbeat mood of the first two rags, depicting the birth of a new Garden of Eden.
As a performer in the project, the experience coming out of a collaborative recital is unique and incomparable to much of the solo performance training that occurs as a classically training music student. “[It] really helped us all grow as musicians because we got to play some two piano pieces that made us listen to each other and give feedback … It truly isn’t something you can go through alone,” said fourth-semester music education major, Brett Simms.  “It takes a lot of workshopping and listening to your co-musicians.  Even backstage, we all got to stand together, waiting for each other to go on stage and give our encouragement to one another before our performances. It was a great bonding moment for the UConn piano studio. ”Congratulations to UCMB members Brett Simms and Christine Goss from the Baritone section (as well as the rest of the UConn Piano Studio) on an amazing performance. TUP!

Introducing the Treasurer
By: Noah Mayzel

Hi everyone! My name is Noah, and I’m the new band treasurer! I’m a Junior Management Information Systems major from Watertown, NY (basically lower Canada). I have 3 dogs at home that I cannot wait to see, and I love the outdoors. In band, I hail from the great lands of baritone (mmm...watermelon). I’ve been playing baritone for 8 years now, but I only started marching when I came to college, so that was quite an adjustment. I’m also the president for the band service sorority Tau Beta Sigma. Being treasurer for the band was something that I had been interested in for a while, but had never really tried to do it until this year. My hope is that myself and our merchandise coordinator Gaby Rodriguez can bring new merch to the band that they’ve been asking for. If you’ve got any ideas, drop us a line! We’d love to get your suggestions and try to make them into actual products! Mostly though, I’m just here to keep money in the account and to try and help plan fundraisers for the band. TUP!

UConn Concert Band  
By: Jake Bavarsky  

The UConn Concert Band had the pleasure of performing a fantastic show entitled: An American Tradition! This program consisted of some fantastic pieces by American Composers. The performance opened with Sevens by Samuel R Hazo. A piece that stretched the limits of the ensemble, introducing some advanced concepts of composite time signatures and jazz-esce rhythms and major seventh chords. The show was concluded with Variations on a Korean Folk Song by John Barnes Chance. This piece took us through a spiritual journey the the culture and music of Korea from an American composer lense. Performers and spectators alike praised this show for its diverse sound and selection. Led by Ricardo Brown and guest conductor Emily Collins, the night went spectacularly!

As many of you know after the fall semester many of our Marching Band members don’t stop playing their instruments. Many are part of ensembles that perform in the spring. I had the pleasure of attending the Percussion Ensemble concert on Tuesday April 10th, entitled Percussion Ensemble: South of the Border. The concert was very different to your average band concert. Rather than having thirty to fifty people on the stage the Percussion Ensemble is made up of nine dedicated musicians. During this concert the players have no conductor to rely on so instead they must be aware of each other to stay together. Since the songs are written for percussion instruments many may say the creativity and the depth of the piece may suffer however the creativity and depth of the piece is only limited by the composer’s enginuity. Each piece can call for rather unorthodox instruments from car brakes to a slide whistle. Some of the pieces even included movement such as “2+1” by Ivan Trevino which was performed by Ethan Smith and  Michael Melnik . This particular piece had Ethan and Michael both playing on a single marimba facing one another. Not only did they have to stay together musically they had to navigate each other so they didn’t bump into one another while playing. This was doubly challenging when you take into account that Michael was playing the marimba backwards! Another impressive piece the group played was “Mitos Brasileiros” by Ney Rosauro. This piece called for some very interesting instruments such as tin cans, water glasses and even a tub of water! Several of the songs were just downright cool because the Latin American influence gave off a groove you don’t often listen to in western music. The audience had a clear rhythm to jam out to. Great job Percussion Ensemble!