Current piano students performed a selection of classical pieces at the A31 classroom on Dec. 7. Professor John David Thomsen intended the recital as being a more comfortable environment for his students to perform in, as opposed to a larger concert. Nonetheless, nearly 50 guests attended.
Some students, including Wanqing Yang, 33, music major enrolled in the department’s Applied Music (MUSI 25) one-on-one instruction courses. Department chair Marcel Castro-Lima introduced the Applied Music program in the fall quarter.
Transcript:
0:00
SANGO LEVONIAN: The music department held a piano recital in A31 on December 7th.
0:13
JOHN DAVID THOMSEN: So the piano programs that are offered here: 12A starts with total beginners, there are no musical prerequisites for that class. And then the following quarters, 12B and C, and then 18A, B, and C are primarily designed for students who are looking for enrichment and also primarily for non-piano music majors as well, who are getting ready for their piano proficiency exam. This past quarter, a lot of exciting things have been added. In particular applied lessons, which are private lessons.
0:45
WANQING YANG: He’ll give us a list of pieces so we can choose. If we like, we can choose to play this as our midterm or final piece like you hear today. I played two pieces. One is from the midterm piece and another is for the final piece.
0:57
REYN CARLSON: Playing under pressure really builds up your ability to play. If you’re able to play in front of a bunch of people, and worse off people that you know, then it’s going to build up your ability to just stop thinking and just play the piece that you need to play. Find the music that you enjoy first because if you just start off playing pieces that you don’t care about– I would’ve dropped music a long time ago if that’s what I did.
1:23
YANG: It’s quite normal if you are not confident to present in front of people, taking a class. I would say if you are not comfortable, if you are practicing by yourself, you’re very self-motivated, that’s fine. You can practice by yourself, but if you come to a class, you get very professional guidance. You get your classmates and you got this final assignment, and you have this push to do this exercise, and you’ll get progress immediately and very fast.
