Divahn Performance Essay

It’s amazing to listen to musicians who do not normally play with each other come together and leave the audience in complete awe. That is exactly what happened on the day of Thursday November 26th 2014. The Bill Crothers Varsity Winds comprised of grade eleven and twelve students along with a few, talented grade tens went to listen to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra play. We travelled via a typical yellow school bus that took us to Roy Thomson Hall where we went right to the top level and took our seats. The seating seemed rather helpful because from a distance you could hear every instrument when you focused on it. It was beautiful. The band presented well with their “Penguin” like attire that was kind to the eyes. They appeared very organized,

As the music began, I started to move; the pounding of my feet blending in with the melodious sounds of the flute, the ghungaroo(bells) around my ankles, the mridangham (drums), and the blood rushing into my own heart. With the music and my first movements, the fear of being on stage washes away and I am focused on my movements and my expressions—using them to tell a story about my culture, my heritage, and me.

Students will gain an understanding of how form in dance and music relate. They will increase their knowledge of movement vocabulary by applying it through choreography. Weekly exposure to new movements

On April 11th, 2017 in the Louis Armstrong Theatre, I attended the GVSU “University Band”. This up-beat ensemble lasted about 90 minutes; the talented students of GVSU’s university band joined together to perform multiple different songs ranging from a Waltz to a Dixieland Jamboree. All of the songs that the band played for the audience were all well-known, popular songs that they all enjoyed. Having the opportunity to attend this concert has opened new musical paths for myself and has allowed me to enjoy and kindly critique something that I perhaps would have never had the chance to otherwise.

Music makes a significant touch on dance and make either enthusiastic or boring. The chorographer of the first show, the process, did not use any music in the dance, and the only sound that we were hearing is his breath since the hall is quite. That actually makes the audience focus on the movement of the dancer only without listening to any music. The music of the second performance was soft and quiet and pauses when the dancers talk. It influenced my feelings and reaction where it clearly illustrated that it is a romantic dance. However, the music of the last dance, Breakfast Burrito, was creative and affective, and make the audience more interactive with the dance. Moreover, the

The concert that I attended was a charity concert, which was organized in Boston at a local university there. The South Asian Student Union of Harvard University organized the concert. I happened to be in Boston and this particular concert was organized for benefit causes such as using the proceeds of the concert to fund a number of poverty alleviation projects in South Asia. The concert was organized in a rather big room, which had a very big podium, as well as at least 500 seats that had been placed in it. Therefore, the overall hall where this concert took place was a typical auditorium setting with seating and a stage at the front. The concert promoters talked about different cause benefits related to alleviation of poverty in South Asia and that’s why the concert was organized. The organizers also informed the audience that the musicians wore traditional clothing so that the audience members could also have a good insight and understanding of the South Asian culture. All of ticket revenues for this concert were then given to a number of charities which then would use those funds to assist the different poverty alleviation programs in the larger South Asian region.

For my concert report, I chose to attend a University Chambers Players performance. Within this classical genre of music, the pieces performed were all homophonic in texture and each melody introduced was supported by chordal accompaniment. All of the pieces performed ranged from an eighteenth to twentieth century time period, and furthermore, each performance employed the use of western world instruments, such as the piano, cello, violin, and viola.

Having the Merasi, master musicians of Rajasthan, perform live at Colby College provided students and faculty with a cultural experience unlike any that I have attended. The Merasi, from the Thar Desert in Pakistan, have found great success through their music despite their status in the caste system. As a family group, they have been able to gain the international attention that they needed to establish both music and literacy education for their people back home. Although very few people in our audience could understand their lyrics, the emotion and physical movements of the musicians were effective in conveying the overall themes of their songs. From watching this live performance of Rajasthani music, I was able to observe how the music itself, the behaviour of the musicians and audience, and the function of the music interacted to transport a small part of Rajasthan to the Pugh Center giving the audience a glimpse into its culture.

I saw performances from Zoë Tucker, Leah Jeffers, Aleesha Yan, and Saif Saigol, all accompanied on the piano by Kyungmi Kim. Zoë Tucker is a soprano and sang the Italian aria “Se tu m’ami” with great pronunciation. Zoë seemed a little nervous at first, but gradually became more comfortable as the piece continued. Zoë wore a flattering black dress with a long sparkly skirt, and black flats. Her breathing was rather silent with little shoulder movement, but the rise and fall of her chest was rather noticeable. Zoë had nice clear high notes with vibrato that rang throughout the performance hall. Zoë did a good job of making the performance dynamic by varying her volume throughout and was very engaged with the lyrics giving the impression that she had a good understanding of the meaning behind the aria.

On Sunday, May10 2015, a concert was held in The Broad Stage. The concert was played by Santa Monica College Symphony Orchestra, whose conductor is Dr. James Martin. For this concert, I would identify myself as a referential listener at this concert. I say this because I am not an expert in music, therefore it would be hard for me to be a critical listener. I wouldn’t be able to tell what went wrong with a performance even if some incorrect notes were played. I was more of a referential listener because the music was soothing and brought my mind to peaceful thoughts. This essay will tells my experience of the concert in order to persuade my friend to  attend a classical music concert with you in the future.

In this report, I will expand upon what was spoken in the presentation by providing a more in-depth look at each section I talked about. The presentation was divided into six sections:

On Friday November 3rd I had the pleasure of attending an evening of Opera titled Love Through the Ages with Maria Fortuna and Nancy Townsend at the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre. Having never been to an Opera performance I had no idea of what to expect and was looking forward to this new experience. Fortuna was accompanied by multi-faceted pianist Nancy Townsend. These two musicians showed tremendous expertise and were able to keep my attention through the extent of the program.

This type of music usually consists of only three traditional instruments that are the caja vallenata, the guacharaca, and the accordion. A caja vallenata is a small drum held between the knees and played with bare hands. The caja vallenata is similar to a tambora drum. The guacharaca is a wooden, ribbed stick similar to a sugar cane, accompanied by a fork that when rubbed together emits a scraping sound. The accordion is a three-line button, German-origin accordion. It has three reeds per note and it comes in different tones. Accordions in Colombia and Panama sometimes have custom made tones especially made for Vallenato. Festival Vallenato was no exception; the three traditional instruments were used by each one of the performers in all their sets. Throughout the day all the artists that I saw performing came onto the stage with the same instruments.

This afternoon, I went to the music concert hall where is located in the music building for the listening hour, a small noon-time concert which is performed by the staff and students from the music majors. Since it is a free noon-time concert, most of the audiences just wear the t-shirts and jeans to the concert. Dresses are not required for the concert. The performance today is given by the Ananda Jazz Ensemble. They have played “Running Away”, composed by Bob Marley; “Madalena”, composed by Ivan Linz; “Conejitos y Ananda”, composed by Abi Romero; “La Bikina”, composed by Ruben Fuentes; and “Chukaro”, also composed by Abi Romero. Because this is a Latin Americdan Journey, all of the music performed is jazz music. All pieces played in the concert are an ensemble of piano, bass, and drums. During the concert, I was trying to be a perceptive listener; I enjoyed the music with concentration and paid attention to the music’s unity and variety, such as the dynamics and tempos. I also tried to associate the music with a picture when I listened to it and understand the emotion in the music.

This fall dance concert was filled with joy, darkness, torture, culture, and women's rights, right when you sit down and observe through all 8 dance performances. It would have been 9 dance routines but the dancer who was suppose to perform Hart Broken had an injury, which made a putt off. Nevertheless the show must go on, it starts off with the first and second performance, Xtra Xtra and Scar Tissue. Revealing that both performances were different themes because Xtra Xtra had the dancers in radiant colors and seemed to be energetic, whereas the performers in Scar Tissue were clothed in black attire, such as tutus, dresses, and tights, yet still energetic. This brought to my attention that the whole dance performances were contrast to each other. Throughout the routines of the dance concert, the