Student Recitals Fill Weekend at Gustavus

The Department of Music at Gustavus Adolphus College presents a series of student recitals this weekend at the College’s Jussi Bjorling Recital Hall. These recitals are free and open to the public.

Kathryn Riggs, ‘cello and Chantal Stecker, soprano, present a joint recital on Saturday, April 30, beginning at 1:30 p.m. in Bjorling Recital Hall. Riggs, a senior from Ottumwa, Iowa, and Stecker, a senior from Baltimore, Maryland, open with a duet, In Trutina, from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, accompanied by pianist Clarissa Renken. Stecker continues with solo works by Thoma Linley and Charles Gounod. Ms. Riggs returns to present Edward Elgar’s Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85, with pianist Esther Wang. Ms. Stecker returns with works by Bourget, Puccini and Granados. The performance ends with the Dvorak Quartet No. 6 in F Major (“American”). Joining Kathryn Riggs are Colin McGuire, violin, Stefanie Arndt, violin, and Mark Wirbisky, viola.

Senior percussionist Joshua Carlson presents his senior recital as part of Sunday, May 1 Gustavus Percussion Ensemble Concert at 1:30 p.m. The Percussion Ensemble opens the performance with two works by Steve Winstead and William Bolcom. Carlson follows with works by Marty Hurley for snare, John Beck for timpani and percussion ensemble and finishes his recital with Fritz Kreisler’s Tambourine Chinois, a work arranged for xylophone and piano, accompanied by pianist Laura Johnson. He then joins the ensemble to end the program with Textures by George Frock.

Senior Travis Lennox, a double bassist from St. Louis Park, ends the weekend’s recitals with his double bass recital at 3:30 p.m. in Bjorling Recital Hall. Lennox, a 2001 graduate of St. Louis Park High School, will present three works for string bass accompanied by pianist Matthew Polski. He opens the recital with Koussevitzky’s Valse Miniature, followed by Telemann’s Sonata in E minor. The final work on the program is the Andante Sostenuto movement from Giovanni Bottesini’s Elegy.

Receptions will follow these senior recitals in the recital hall lobby. The events are free and open to the public.