Sample UCA Concert Critique

I did not care for this piece. The combination of the vocals with the instrumental accompaniment did not provide me the experience I was envision. This piece left me very uneasy and I had great difficulty listening to the piece in one sitting. The piece created sounds that are far from natural. Even though I didn 't enjoy this piece, I was fascinated by the sounds that were created. The singer, the cello, and the synthesizer created sounds that were highly animated. I could not believe

and then through all of this the melody of his beloved is heard — the distorted Idée fixe melody.

On November 15, 205 at 2pm I was able to see the Rutgers Percussion Ensemble. I was very interested in this show, because I have never been able to see a group of only percussionists perform in the same space. The first piece they did was called Ionisation, which was written in 1929. There were thirteen musicians on stage playing various instruments. This song began with a rolling unpitched sound coming from four snare drums with the claves. This idea was an interesting start, because it caught the audience’s attention to really listen to what was going to happen next. Then the song, went into a lighter more atmospheric section, where there were many crescendos and decrescendos. The instruments in the piece included the chimes, maracas, timpani,

On December 7, the Monticello High School mixed and concert choirs presented a choral program called “An Olde Tyme Radio Choral Concert” in the high school auditorium. It was directed by Mr. Brett Kniess, and Janice Vetter was the pianist. The songs were chosen to put the audience in the holiday spirit, and in my opinion, it accomplished this goal.

As a by-product of the Great Migration of African Americans to the north, city such as New York became capitals of African American culture. In his book, The History of Jazz, Ted Gioia notes that Harlem specifically became known as the panicle of black culture and high black society during the 1920’s. This period of black cultural development would later be formally known as the Harlem Renaissance. While the Harlem Renaissance is traditionally viewed as boom of African American artisanship and prosperity the truth, especially in regards to jazz history, is that while black culture was booming the quality of living for many African Americans was not. Gioia describes this duality as the two Harlems. Harlem was simultaneously a cultural capital

The Lovell High School Concert Band had an amazing concert on the 30th of November. The songs included Celebration and Tribute, Sleigh Ride, Spirit of the Highlands, with a bonus of the combined band on Jinge, Jinge, Jingle. While all the songs were good, they were not spectacular. One that stands out to me is Celebration and Tribute.

The concert I attended, with my sister and friend, was held at FAU’s beautifully quaint University Theater. The room was only half full with student, professors, and various other adults. The Fifth House Ensemble performed three different “acts”. The first was a few different comedic opera songs about “Employees Wash Hands”, “Cascading Water”, and “Lipstick”. These songs were comicial with a refreshing twist. Megan Ihnen was the solo singer throughout the pieces. The second act was a concerto featuring three soloists. A Pianist, Cello player, and flutist. before they began the cellist introduced herself and told a little about the song. As she told us about the songs, she related it to her eighteen-month year old son, who is curiously learning

I chose to attend the ISU Jazz Combos concert on Thursday, February 18th in the Martha-Ellen Tye Recital Hall. I chose to attend this particular concert because from fifth to tenth grade I played the alto saxophone, and was a part of a jazz band in middle school. Jazz band was my favorite thing about playing the saxophone, and I loved the occasional improvisation solo I would get to perform. Although I like jazz music, I never have attended a jazz concert other than my high school jazz band concerts. Attending a concert at Iowa State was new to me, but I was excited to get back into the “jazz” of things, and was overly pleased with the two different jazz bands that performed.

St Ambrose University Fall Vocal Concert included performances by the University Chorale, Chamber Singers and Bee Sharp conducted by Dr. Nathan Windt. The Fall Vocal Concert was held in the Galvin Fine Arts Center. My favorite University Chorale piece was the Stars as it was an a cappella performance by tuned wine glass players. I liked how the Chamber Singers tied the Halloween theme into their performances, as it was late October at the time. Once again the vocal concert was made up of a broad range of students with different backgrounds and educational goals.

The first piece the ensemble played was “Kill Screen” composed by Matthew Browne and you could undoubtedly say this piece grabs your attention and is a great choice to open with. The abrupt, loud start was very dramatic and brooding, and this presence continued through the whole piece. Browne intended

The diversified repertoire included a couple of tunes from Wes Bound - Ritenour’s 1993 homage to the colossal jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery, a rendition of Oliver Nelson’s “Stolen Moments”, a pair of Sanborn’s numbers that move in a traditional pop-jazz meets R&B, Grusin’s “Punta Del Sol” and a solo interpretation of Jobim’s “Retrato em Branco e Preto”, and Phil Perry singing in a weird Portuguese the fantastic song “Arlequim Desconhecido” by the Brazilian Ivan

Today I went to see the Buffalo State Jazz Ensemble at Rockwell Hall. I chose this ensemble because growing up I enjoyed listening to jazz music. My preconceived notion about the ensemble was there would be singing and instruments playing. Jazz is a genre of music that originated in New Orleans, and since it was a port city it was the melting pot of different cultures.

The last piece of the performance was Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Opus 54, written by Dmitri Shostakovich. This piece also has three movements, and they are Largo, Allegro, and Presto. The piece starts off with a homophonic texture, followed by several changes in tempo and dynamics. The middle of the piece was mostly very quiet and slow. The piece ended very loudly and intensely with a extremely quick tempo.

The Wichita State choirs not only sang correct rhythms and pitches, but they conveyed a story, a message, and impacted the crowd. Just as Hans Christian Anderson said, “Where words fail, music speaks,” the WSU choir delivered on October 8th in Wiedemann Hall at 7:30. Wiedemann Hall is truly a room built for music, because of the fact that it is acoustically sound which can be noticeably heard. WSU has two choirs: A Cappella Choir—conducted by Dr. Tom Wine—and Concert Chorale—directed by Dr. Michael Hanawalt. Each of the collegiate choirs had challenging music not only in rhythm, but in language and stylistic components. None of the singers had microphones so the singers had to use a powerful resonance and strong

Dr. Sheri Neill introduces herself and explains that she has different degrees in music and education from Texas Tech University, Stephan F. Austin University, and University of Missouri. Then she introduces Cheryl Lemmons, which is the pianist that was sitting at the piano located right front of the stage. There was a choir that was located center stage with the conductor directly in front of them. The choir consist of only women, which seemed to be alto and soprano singers. They began with their first piece “Wir Eilen Mit Schwachen, Doch Emsigen Schritten” written by S.J Bach. The song starts with the piano playing a nice melody as an introduction, which has a steady beat as well as steady tempo. Then the sopranos began singing softly with the altos following behind imitating and singing the words with a lower pitch. The piece seemed mostly polyphonic, yet there are many times when it is homophonic and