Spring Showcase 2015 by Anthony Pan
Posted on September 24, 2015.
The Spring Showcase on May 1st, 2015 featured eight groups of musicians in what turned out to be an “uplifting” (quote: anonymous survey respondent, 2015) concert experience in the Logan Penthouse.
Shirley’s Peasants 2: The Return started off the concert with a Brahms clarinet quintet, featuring Benno Giammarinaro on clarinet, Julia Byeon and (our own beloved) Lily Chen on violin, Annie Chen on viola, and Michael Lu on cello. During the performance, Shirley’s ego could be found lounging in the penthouse, enjoying the music of her minions.
Following the clarinet quintet were two solo pieces, also by Brahms. The first, by Erin Hagood “who plays the viola and sleep[s] a lot,” was the Viola Sonata in F minor, Mvt. 1. The second, by Shirley (the woman herself!) was the Brahms Cello Sonata in E minor, Mvt. 2. Both soloists were accompanied by brilliant pianist Amy Briggs. Thanks, Amy!
The mood changed with the next group as the Horn Flakes took the stage, playing three light and jazzy fripperies by Lowell Shaw, who as our emcee Kevin pointed out, was the only composer still alive at the time of performance that night. Anthony Pan (that’s me!), Zach Krebs, Alyssa Cox, and Hannah Lutz tore down the stage with some funky sounding music.
A brief intermission followed.
Kevin introduced the next group, the Firebird Quartet, before we realized that we had made a communication error and forgot to tell him that the Firebird Quartet had cancelled their performance due to logistical conflicts. Sorry, Kevin!
Annie Chen took the stage afterwards with a very impressive showing of movement two of Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata. Annie was wearing a really nice pair of shoes for the performance. She also sounded great! Amy Briggs (piano) accompanied Annie during the piece.
Annie was followed by Aaron Mowitz, 2nd year Physics PhD student, and Yun Chen, 3rd year Math PhD student, who played Mozart’s Violin Sonata in G Major, Mvt. 1: our only song in a major key!
Before the last performance of the evening, tears filled the audience’s eyes as Lily presented a beautiful bouquet of flowers (carried by yours truly to Logan in a small blue water-filled recycling bin) were presented to our graduating seniors, Kevin Schwarzwald and Jeremy Seeman. :’)
The Petrograd Quintet ended the night with a bang, playing movements 3 and 4 of Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet. Featuring Kevin Ren on piano, Riena Yu and Emily Dreyfus on violins, Isabel Bolo on viola, and Andrew Molina on cello, the Petrograd quintet performed hair-raisingly well. I had to shake off goosebumps at the end of it.
You should have been there!