Lawrentians Host Fourth Midday Music

At 12: 30 PM on Friday, January 27, Lawrenceville hosted its fourth Midday Music Concert of the 2011-2012 school year. The half hour event occurs on certain Fridays throughout the school year in Behr Hall of the Clark Music Center.

For this particular Midday Music Concert, the festivities began with violist Subur Khan ’13. In her solo debut at the forum, she played a composed rendition of French Late-Romantic composer Camille Saint-Saëns’ The Swan.

After Khan’s work, Sophia E ’14 performed a piano piece. Although E’s primary instrument is the flute, she made her debut in Midday Music as a pianist. E played Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Sonata for Four Hands, K. 381 with her piano instructor, Noriko Schneiderman.

Violinist John Avendano ’14 followed E. Just like Khan, who performed first in the program, it was also Avendano’s solo debut at Midday Music. Avendano played Classical Austrian composer Joseph Haydn’s Concerto for Violin in G Allegro.

To wrap up festivities, a group of eight musicians (Carolyn Ho ’13, Shubhankar Chhokra ’14, Carter Cikovic ’14, Kyle D’Souza ’14, Janice Luo ’14, Justin Parratt ’14, Sammy Bhatia ’15, and Dennis Duan ’15) paid homage to American Jazz great, Charlie “the Bird” Parker, by playing Herbie Hancock’s Watermelon Man. In the performance, Bhatia, Chhokra, Cikovic, Duan, and Ho played alto saxophone. D’Souza and Luo matched the saxophonist’s tones with piano accompaniment. Parratt’s rhythmic work on the drums kept the melodious tone together.

Overall, the event had positive and encouraging reactions afterwards. For example, saxophonist Shubhankar Chhokra ’14 recalled, “The midday music concert allowed me to share the music I’m so passionate about with my peers,” while debut soloists Subur Khan ’13 and John Avendano ’14 both cited the “intimate, welcoming environment” as crucial to their success.

Conductor and Music Master Kevin Smith comented that he was “proud of the performers’ tenacity and amazed at their ability to practice and play intricate music despite their many commitments.”

-Frazer Tessema ’13

Posted by admin on February 3, 2012. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry