On April 11, the audience heard Baroque, classical, romantic, and 20th-century piano pieces from the BYU–Hawaii piano students. The audience recognized the amount of effort the performers had put in their piano studies.
Though not a piano instructor, Dr. Daniel Henderson, an assistant professor of music who specializes in jazz and trumpet, described piano students as those who work hard in a “solitary confinement.” Compared with most of the other music majors, piano majors are people who work hard in a lonely practice room with incredible dedication.
He said, “Seeing them come out from their caves and perform for other humans, I almost felt a bit reverent. They finally merged. Here they are. It’s an honor to witness that moment.”
Kelly Lee, a senior from Korea majoring in piano performance, shared, “The recital gives us pressure but I love the fact that we can present our hard work and beautiful music to other every semester.
“Although it’s not perfect, I hope that people enjoyed the music. I hope people would have more interest in music through our recital.”
In order to perform those pieces, the piano students spend as many as 20 to 30 hours practicing during the week according to Jennifer Duerden, a piano instructor.
Aside from practicing for hours, Lee, who played the piece “Tatocca” during the night, said she had interacted with the composer, Emma Lou Diemer, through the internet.
“I asked her several questions about the piece and she answered me back. That helped me understand the piece more and it improved my performance,” Lee said.
Audience members said they were amazed by the performances that night, and they could tell how much hard work each piano student had put in preparing for the recital.
Lexi Li, a junior from Taiwan studying elementary education, said, “I think after watching a few recitals, I’m [have more respect for] those performers each time.”
Momoe Sakurai, an audience member and a senior from Japan majoring in percussion, said, “The performers made mistakes, they did best to cover it. It was impressive to see them act professional.”
One of the performers, Karin Ho, and a senior from Hong Kong studying music with a piano emphasis, said, “A lot of my classmates work very hard for this recital, which happens only once a semester. Hopefully, more people could come to support them.”
While the audience can only saw one piece from each piano student, Duerden said, piano majors work on three pieces every semester. From the three pieces, they choose one for the recital and one for their jury exam with the piano instructors. The three pieces are usually from composers with different styles.
Ho said, “Maybe a lot of people think music major is easy, but actually, it’s not.”
Writer: Tomson Cheang