By Luis Diaz
The Music department held their end of the semester piano recital on Monday, where students showed off their piano skills to some of the most difficult songs composed on piano.
The main star of the night was Melody Feng as she played “Prelude, Op.34” by Dmitri Shostakovich.
Sounding very difficult to play, with a lot of different chord progressions and big bass from the primary keys, Feng played with ease and made the melody seem simplistic.
A standing ovation was what Feng received at the end of her part.
This time around the student recital was shorter than last semester but was a grand spectacle.
The student recital focuses on grandiose pieces of important piano history.
To kick off the recital, Andrew De Santos played Stephen Heller’s “Avalanche, Op. 45,” a beautiful melody that consisted of a lot of finger technique.
Up next was Chiyoko Yamasato, who played two songs which were by far the most challenging to memorize from the listeners point of view.
Playing “Suite No.4” by Johann Sebastian Bach, Yamasato kept her composure throughout the entire song.
She was able to keep up with the tempo in which she was playing. The second song being “Fantasia in D minor” by Mozart.
D Minor is a very punchy tone to play in, the bass was the star of this song and Yamasato played it to perfection.
A change of pace came when Dagoberto Gonzalez performed “Sonata No.5” by L.V Beethoven.
The rest of the songs played were much more technical on the fingers, not many chord progressions being played, fast paced songs.
Gonzalez was very precise on the chord progression and made the bass sound very punchy after every chord played, a good balance for the audience to slow down and unwind from everything that came before.
The best pieces in piano history were played at the recital, but with a student twist.
The students followed the notes and played it with such passion and emotion, giving their best performances.
This is the first of four more concerts that will take place this week until Tuesday. The events are free, with one starting at noon today, followed by another event at 5 p.m. On Friday, the symphonic band concert will begin at 8 p.m. and there will be a fee of $15, or $10 with student ID. The final event will be the jazz ensemble concert and take place Tuesday at 5 p.m.