Ten student musicians will present junior or senior recitals this weekend in the Department of Music at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. Along with the department faculty, professional accompanists and their fellow student musicians, these recitalists will perform recitals throughout the weekend in Jussi Björling Recital Hall on the Gustavus campus. All of these recitals will be open to the public at no charge. The Department of Music invites all music lovers in the area to attend the recitals.
Senior vocalist and music major Aaron Bogen will kick off the weekend with a recital on Friday, April 22 at 7:30 p.m. With his accompanist, Aaron will perform works for baritone from the 18th and 19th centuries. His recital will include sets of works by Giovanni Bononcini, Vaughan Williams, Franz Schubert and single works by Robert Schumann, Alessandro Scarlatti, Jacob Niles and Roger Quilter, along with a selection from Handel’s Semele and Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin.
Saturday’s recital schedule will begin with saxophonist Henry Elling’s junior recital at 1:30 p.m. in Björling Recital Hall. With pianist David Fienen and the Herk de Fire Saxophone Quartet, Elling will present Bach’s Sonata in Eb Major, the Ballade by Frank Martin, and Ryo Noda’s Improvisation 1 for Alto Saxophone, before performing his own composition Altering Accidentals. Henry will conclude his recital with the Concerto for Tenor Saxophone and Piano by Robert Ward and selections from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story.
At 3:30 p.m., Stephanie Peterson will present her clarinet and bass clarinet recital with accompanist Ben Marti. Stephanie’s program will open with Three Preludes by George Gershwin, A Talk with the Unseen by Sergiu Shapira, and Johannes Brahms’ Clarinet Sonata No. 2. She will end her junior recital with Miklos Rozsa’s Sonatina for Clarinet Solo and Gunther Schuller’s Duo Sonata for Clarinet and Bass Clarinet.
Baritone and violinist David Nelson will present his recital beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday in Björling Recital Hall. David, accompanied by pianist Elizabeth Sherman, will open his junior recital with Arm, Arm Ye Brave! by George Frideric Handel, followed by works of Berti, Gagliano and O du mein holder Abendstern from Wagner’s Tannhäuser. He will continue with works by Schubert, Bruch, Monti and Fauré before concluding with Votre toast, je peus le rendre from Georges Bizet’s Carmen.
Meg Crosby, soprano, and Katelyn Graham, piano, will present their combined senior recital on Sunday, April 24 at 1:30 p.m. in Björling Recital Hall. The duo will open the recital together for three songs by Gabriel Fauré followed by Katelyn’s performance of the Grand Sonata in G minor by Robert Schumann. They will both return to the stage, with baritone David Nelson, to present two works by Mozart, followed by Scriabin’s Nocturn in Db Major for the Left Hand. Together they will perform works from the musicals Phantom of the Opera and The Sound of Music before David Nelson returns to the stage with them to conclude the concert with Love is an Open Door from the musical Frozen.
Seniors Brianna Titus, soprano, and Claire Merchen, piano, will join to present their recital on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. in Björling Recital Hall. As with the 1:30 recital, Titus and Merchen will work together for some the program. Pianist Claire Merchen will open with Robert Schumann’s Faschingsschwank aus Wien. With Merchen at the piano, Brianna Titus will sing 2 movements from Clara Schumann’s Sechs lieder mit begleitung des pianoforte. They will continue with works by Claude Debussy, Aaron Copland, H. Leslie Adams and Giuseppe Verdi before concluding with the Seal of the Wind –The Tree Trails– composed by Noriko Matsueda.
The weekend of recitals will conclude at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday with the junior recital by Calvin Kong and Alvin Kong in Björling Recital Hall. The brothers from Penang, Malaysia, will each perform 2 works for piano. Alvin will open with Beethoven’s Sonata in F minor and Fritz Kreisler’s Liebesleid (Love’s Sorrow). Calvin will follow with Beethoven’s Sonata in C minor and Chopin’s Fantasie-Impromptu. For the final work on their junior recital, they will join with pianist Renee Yong and perform Ernst Cavallini’s Rêverie Russe with Alvin on clarinet and Calvin on flute.
The full weekend of recitals will all be presented in Jussi Björling Recital Hall. Admission is free; tickets are not required. A reception for the performers will follow in the recital hall lobby.