The Pianist

When she was eighteen years old Sarah was dared by her friends to enter an amateur singing competition at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. She performed “Body and Soul” and won first prize. This success marked the start of her career. Earl Hines, jazz pianist and bandleader, was so impressed with her voice that he offered her a job backstage after…

On Saturday, May 7th, 2016, the University Wind Symphony held a farewell performance in the Meng Concert Hall. Jean Ferrandis, a flute player and Bill Cunliffee, the pianist were two faculty artists of the night’s concert. The performers were elated to show off the songs they have worked hard on as a group. The show consisted of a variety of songs from classical, jazz, and mash ups of popular songs that entertained the audience and represented how well the orchestra worked together to create the…

This concert was to showcase the international pianist Molly Morkoski and as well the master class the after day. Prof. Morkoski is an instructor of Piano at CUNY-Lehman College in the Bronx, New York and has come all the way across the country to showcase her marvelous piano playing. One idea that really captured my attention in the program notes is the program and the choice of pieces; some are great piano repertoire and while one of them is an orchestrated piece. Starting off the concert…

In the short story “Outliers: The Story of Success,” author Malcolm Gladwell claims that to become a successful musician, practice plays a bigger role than talent. First, Gladwell supports his claim by adding in statistics from a survey taken in the early 1990’s by a psychologist named K. Anders Ericsson. The survey consisted of three groups of violinists. The first group was made of stars who had the potential to become “world-class soloists.” The second group contained “merely ‘good’” players…

Night by Elie Wiesel is a powerful survivor story showing the true happenings of the Holocaust through the use of specific imagery and story-telling. While I have read other Holocaust literary pieces, I found his to stand out amongst the others. The words created scenes for you, showing the true terrors these people were going through daily. Wiesel was only a teenager when he and his family were taken from their home in Sighet to be sent to Auschwitz and then later to Buchenwald. His testimony…

the Blues. Toy Tunes is their twelfth album, and like has been happening before, includes originals penned by all the three musicians, jazz standards, and other remarkable compositions, products of creative minds like saxophonist Wayne Shorter and pianist Carla Bley. The trio opens the session with “Fagen”, an easy-going ride marked by an affable melody, that Goldings dedicates to the adult contemporary rock singer and keyboardist Donald Fagen, one of the two co-founders of Steely Dan. One can…

The Movie, “The Breakfast Club” by John Hughes and the short story “The Bicycle” written by Jillian Horton share many similarities in regards to, rebellion, living dreams through others, and characters throughout both stories. It’s important to discuss these two different stories because of the effect they can have on an influential person, regardless of being about two totally distinct stories from two very different times. In both “The Breakfast Club” and “The Bicycle” there is a strong…

believe that natural talent is enough and they do not need practice. If you want impressive skills, then you must strive to improve yourself. In Outliers, Gladwell gives an example. The text states, “Ericcson and his colleagues then compared amatuer pianists with professional…

After Madame Ratignolle and Robert’s conversation suggests that Edna’s attraction towards Robert comes from Edna’s desire for an intimate physical and emotional connection she lacks with her husband, Mademoiselle Reisz, with her artistry, subverts that assumption. Edna’s love for Robert does not stem from the loneliness she suffers from her marriage, and she knows this but denies it anyway until Mademoiselle Reisz plays a prelude by Chopin. With the pianist’s help, Edna dejectedly acknowledges…

Pianist and composer, Cecile Chaminade is the only female composer represented in the Flute Music by French Composers collection, and is one the early emerging female composers of this era, though not very well known. Born in Paris in 1857, “Chaminade received her earliest instruction from her mother, a pianist and singer” (Citron). With both parents amateur musicians, Chaminade was showed early talent, with her earliest compositions date to the mid-1860s. Her father did not want her to attend…