As the end of the semester draws near, finals and senior theses come to the forefrontof the mind of students in the College of Liberal Arts.
But for senior performance majors in the School of Music, senior recitals are on the frontline.
Performance majors at DePauw have a mandatory junior and senior recital. Junior recitals are a half-hour and are shared with a second junior. Senior recitals, however, are an hour long and are stand-alone.
Senior recitals can include other people who assst in performing the music by playing other parts. Much like a thesis, the senior recital is intended to be the culmination of students' time at DePauw and show their proficiency in their chosen instrument.
"It seems like a lot of pressure, but it's completely worth it," said senior Alicia Petrone, who is a harp performance major. "Basically instead of a thesis, you have your recital."
The number of pieces performed by each senior at their recital varies. Senior Laura Neel, who is a mezzo-soprano vocal performance major, performed 15 pieces at her recital. Senior Maggie Eppelheimer, who is a trumpet performance major, performed a total of five pieces-three solo works and two chamber works, which required other musicians.
For Eppelheimer and Petrone, one of the favorite parts of their recitals was working with other musicians.
"The last piece with the quintet was just fun to play because I had the opportunity to play it with four wonderful musicians who I enjoy performing with," Eppelheimer said in an email.
Petrone only had three solos throughout her recital program and enjoyed the collaboration.
"I worked with as many people as I could," Petrone said.
All three senior musicians spent much of their last year at DePauw planning and preparing for their recitals.
"I have been preparing for this for the past school year," Neel said in an email. Eppelheimer's work began as early as last summer.
"One piece I started about a year ago, stopped working on it and picked it back up over this past summer," Eppelheimer said. "I began planning the recital over the summer, and then finalized it before the end of the fall semester."
Eppelheimer said that she did not favor one piece over another because she liked each piece for different reasons.
"My fourth piece was probably my most challenging due to the technique and musicality required to perform it well," Eppelheimer said, "but I also enjoyed playing it because I could make the piece my own and portray it in a way that shows off my musicality and technical skills."
Overall, Eppelheimer believes her recital went well.
"There are always areas to improve on and different interpretations that can be made," Eppelheimer said, "but the point of a program such as this [is] to just be a part of the music instead of just playing notes. There comes a point in the program where you will see a musician relax and just have fun, and they will start to interact with their accompanist or fellow performer."
Eppelheimer believes that this turn in the performance is the important part.
"That's when the musician becomes a part of the music instead of just creating it," Eppelheimer said. "That's what I felt about this recital, that I was really able to connect with the other performers and just have fun with it."
Petrone's recital involved a wide variety of music.
"My recital was really eclectic," Petrone said. "I did improve. I did Irish music. I did romantic music. I did a little bit of Mozart, a little bit of Bach. Basically, I wanted it to be very much my own recital and to show my love for all different kinds of music, so I tried to make that as apparent as possible."
Petrone only had one criteria.
"It was anything but boring, is what I wanted," Petrone said.
Petrone began playing the harp 14 years ago.
"In eighth grade I had to decide if that's basically what I wanted to do for my life, just because it's so expensive to buy the bigger harp, which is the one that I performed my recital on," Petrone said. "Once I decided that, when I got to high school, I worked with a teacher and made sure I was ready for college auditions."
Petrone also feels that her senior recital went well.
"I think more people should come to them," Petrone said. "It's definitely not just a School of Music thing, and it's really great to see somebody that you may not actually know, but you recognize them on campus., and you see them in your audience at your recital. It's just a really cool feeling to see support from outside of just the School of Music."
