Piano ensemble puts the passage of time to music

Students tickled the ivories in the Westerbeck Recital Hall for the production of “Tempus Fugit,” Latin for “Time Flies,” on Saturday April, 26

The Piano Ensemble and Piano Accompanying classes performed the classic works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lili Boulanger, Florent Schmitt, Robert Volkmann, Cornelius Gurlitt, and Manuel Infante.

“The music in the program is all related to the passage of time; what happens in a day or an hour, what happens over a change in the seasons and what happens over the span of a lifetime,” director Phillip Young said. “Music is the perfect medium to talk about time because music takes place in time.”

Tiffany Yang, Mei Cheng, Xinyi Wang and Emily Su opened the night of performances with Bach’s “God’s Time is the Best of All Times.”

Following the opening performance was a piece by Volkmann entitled “Times of the Day.” Five groups of pianists played Volkmann’s music about the morning, midday, evening and night.

“I enjoyed the piece about the different pars of the day if you were to do that now it might be a little dull because of the daily routine most people follow,” student Robert Walker said.

Even student Katarina Butenschoen, who performed a sonata by Mozart, got to relax and enjoy her classmates’ performance.

“The students did a great job,” student David Jacobson said. “Everything seemed to be in sync. I enjoyed every moment of the performances.”

“I played in the first half of the show so I was able to enjoy all the performances after intermission,” Butenschoen added. “I thought everything was fabulous, I’m really happy with how everything turned out.”

Hianako Deits and Shotaro Matsumoto ended the evening of performances with an energetic piece by Spanish composer Manuel Infante.

The students effectively displayed their semester long hard work and delighted the full crowd with their expertise.