On Friday, Feb. 15, SLCC faculty members performed a collection romantic music in the east lobby of South City Campus.
The event, which included both popular and classical compositions, is part of a new faculty recital series instituted by SLCC violin, viola and chamber music professor Leslie Henrie.
“We’re very excited to be starting this new faculty recital series here at Salt Lake Community College,” said Henrie. “We have incredible faculty here and we’re looking forward to showcasing all of them hopefully a few times a month.”
Friday evening’s recital, a free-admission event, featured performances by Henrie, as well as vocal teacher Kathryn Monson and piano teacher Stephanie Smith.
South City Campus’ east lobby provided listeners a comfortably lit atmosphere and an appropriately intimate setting that set the tone for the evening’s performances.
The evening began with Amorosi, a work by Italian composer Stefano Donaudy. The piece featured all performers, with Henrie playing violin, Monson providing vocals and piano accompaniment by Smith.
Amorosi opened with a gentle refrain from the accompaniment and ended similarly, albeit more emphatically. Monson’s delicate soprano vocals resonated throughout the lobby; communicating emotions of regret and longing that were portrayed by the composition’s caressing melody.
Other performances included Beethoven’s Romance in F Major, which exhibited Henrie and Smith’s rich harmonic vocabulary, and Henri Duparc’s Chanson Triste, in which Monson’s impeccable vocal range tenderly expressed a timeless tale of unrequited love.
To portray a more light-hearted perspective of the concert’s romantic themes, Monson, accompanied by Smith at the piano, performed Bill from the American musical classic Show Boat.
The piece, which Monson said was a personal favorite of hers, tells of a woman who, against everything she believes in, falls in love with a man, Bill, and cannot explain why but simply to say “because he’s wonderful, because he’s just my Bill.”
The evening’s recital concluded with Un Bel Di Vedremo, an aria composed by Giacomo Puccini from the closing act of the Italian opera Madame Butterfly, which highlighted the talents of all three performers.
Overall, the performance was an entertaining and informative event which transported the audience with themes of love transcending time.