Flutist Nave Graham and pianist Adrienne Park played the first performance of the Faculty Recital Series of 2020 on Friday. Graham performed four pieces of varied style in this show.
The recital opened with “Court Dances” by Amanda Harberg, a three-movement suite for flute and piano that was commissioned by a consortium of 57 flutists.
Graham said she was excited to share this piece with the audience because of the composer.
“I am very passionate about female composers, especially this one,” Graham said. “I have worked with her several times at the Interlochen Arts Camp.”
Vocal coach Amanda Johnston joined the two musicians for the second piece, “Bilitis: Six épigraphes antiques” by Claude Debussy.
This piece had six short movements each based on a poem from Pierre Louÿs’ “Les Chansons de Bilitis.”
Graham said she felt like the poems were important to the piece because they were Debussy’s inspiration, even though there were 143 in “Les Chansons de Bilitis.” The arrangement Graham played pulled from the original score written in 1901, which was never published.
“For me, the poems served as inspiration to tell me how to play the piece,” Graham said.
Johnston read each poem in French before Graham and Park performed that section of the piece.
Tyler Hewett, a music major and saxophonist, said he was moved by their performance.
“There was a very good, very ancient feeling to it,” Hewett said. “I think the flute really captured that well. Amanda Johnston doing the French (poems) just added a whole other layer of musicality and meaning to it. It was very original, something I haven’t seen from any other recital.”
The third piece was titled “Coltrane,” by David Heath. Arranged for solo flute, the piece was inspired by the jazz of saxophonist and composer John Coltrane. It also used Tala rhythms from Indian music, like much of Coltrane’s work.
The final piece of the night was “Chant de Linos” by André Jolivet. It was inspired by ancient Greek mourning practices and is comprised of laments, hysterics and dances.
Jolivet is one of Graham’s favorite composers because of how technically difficult his pieces are, especially “Chant de Linos,” she said.
“This piece has a magic mysticism to it,” Graham said.
Flutist Jiwon Lee, a graduate student studying music, said she enjoyed how technical the piece was.
“This piece showed a lot of different techniques and stylistic differences between all the sections,” Lee said. “It was the most interesting piece out of all of them.”
She also said she was impressed thoroughly by the recital.
“The variety of program — different styles and genres — was very unique,” Lee said. “There was a little bit of every period of music. It engaged the audience and gave an exciting feel.”
The Faculty Recital Series continues at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 9 with a performance by Graham, Park and oboist and instructor of music Austin Smith.
