On April 1, ETSU’s Department of Music held a special recital hour, featuring vocal and instrumental faculty at the new ETSU Martin Center for the Arts.
The Recital Hour series returned this semester as a way for students within the music department to showcase their talents and skills, now with the opportunity to do so on the Powell Recital Hall stage. For the faculty gala, the presented arrangements ranged from brass quintets, to piano pieces meant for three pianists and recorder ensembles; it was streamed on their YouTube channel for live viewing.
“I really liked three piano players sitting at one bench and playing together,” said Mary Dave Blackman. “I’ve seen a lot of things in my many years as a musician, but I have never seen three pianists at one piano before. That was totally cool.”
Blackman also organized the recorder choir that played at the end including seven faculty and staff who had never picked up the recorder before.
“In a month, they learned those two pieces, which was pretty remarkable,” Blackman said. “Especially the percussion teacher, Dr. Geiger. He worked so hard, he learned every part of everything. That was kind of cool to see people who are professional musicians putting themselves out there into something that wasn’t exactly in their comfort zone.”
Some of the performances were simultaneously shown on the stream while being performed remotely from other places on campus or at home because of the pandemic. Matthew Potterton, the ETSU Department of Music chair, spoke highly of all included in the gala’s line-up.
“I’m just always amazed at the talent that we have in our faculty,” said Potterton. “Many of these professors are world-class musicians and we even have one that has three Grammy awards, and you know it’s just amazing that we have such incredible talent, and it’s great to showcase that talent, when we have the opportunity.”
By the conclusion of the performance, the stream had gained a total of 191 views. It is currently one of their most viewed videos of the semester, and with the success of the Recital Hour this semester, it will be carried into next spring as well.
The ETSU community can look forward to Recital Hour performances each Thursday the rest of the semester, starting at 12:45 p.m. The final performance of the semester will be dedicated to honoring graduates as well as department awards and recognitions. For more information, visit etsu.edu/cas/music/events.
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