Guitar Recital
2:00pm Sunday May 17, 2009
The Front Room Campus Coffeehouse

Devon Wistendahl
The Star Spangled Banner (Francis Scott Key)

Laura Tobar
Jelly Bean Trunk (Tobar)

Sam Witmer
Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)

Sydney Hardey
Auld Lang Syne
Home on the Range (Trad.)

Dylan & Chloe Dyer
Mi Cosa (Wes Montgomery)
My Girl (The Temptations)

Ben Colvin
The Sound of Silence (Simon & Garfunkel)*

Lucas Reilly & Zach Schafer
Canon Rock (Pachelbel)

Jason Snoddy & Kyle Young
The Clairvoyant (Iron Maiden)

Nkuli Shongwe
Chasing Pavements (Adele)

Tag Hauschild & Evan Cooley
The Man Who Sold the World (Bowie/ Nirvana)

*with accompaniment from John Horne

Special Thanks To:
Studio E Music for providing an additional amplifier!
The Front Room for providing the awesome performance space!

Today was my second studio recital of the school year and everything went about as well as it possibly could. We were back at the Front Room in Baker Center where there’s not only a great performance space but lots of natural light which is always nice, especially for a daytime performance. Everyone performed spectacularly and the audience was really quiet and respectful throughout. Congratulations to all of the performers – you really shined!

You can see more photos, the complete program, and additional notes on the recital after the jump.

Rebecca Nichols
Hot Cross Buns (Traditional)

Tony Tonkovich
Jingle Bells (James Lord Pierpont)

Trent Thompson
Neon Fire (A Trent Thompson Original)*

Sydney Hardy
Jingle Bells (James Lord Pierpont)

Ben Colvin
House of the Rising Sun (Traditional)

Leah Norris
Ode to Joy (Ludwig van Beethoven)

Paymon Doroodian
Volga Boatman (Traditional Russian)*

Josh Whaley
People Get Ready (Curtis Mayfield)*

Lucas Reilly
Here Comes the Sun (The Beatles)

Elijah Hall
Country Roads (John Denver)*

Keanu Hallowell
AC/DC Medley (AC/DC)

Dylan Dyer
Sunny (Bobby Hebb)

Thad Roediger
Iron Man (Black Sabbath)

Nkuli Shongwe
Magic (Colbie Caillat)

DJ McCollister
Ritual Dance (Michael Hedges)

*with accompaniment from John Horne

Special Thanks To:
Studio E Music for providing additional guitars and amplifiers!
The Front Room for providing the awesome performance space!

The entire program lasted almost exactly one hour. It’s hard to believe it went so quickly!

My one big addition on this recital was that of an assistant. One of my advanced students, DJ McCollister helped me set up and tear down and tuned most of the guitars! He also stayed in the on-deck area throughout the show and made sure that the performers were ready to go onstage and that they had signed the thank-you card that I had prepared for the management who allowed us to use the room. This made a HUGE difference to me. While I could have done it without him, having DJ there meant that I was able to stay focused on the more important tasks.

The only close call we had was that the sound-person didn’t bother to show up and I needed to prod the building managers to make some last minute calls and get someone in there to set up the PA and run sound for us at the. Fortunately they came through and we started almost right on time!

So, I think I’ve almost got the recital thing down, but here are a few notes for future recitals:

1. Duh! Double-check the date before printing 100 copies of the program. I’d mistakenly typed 2007 instead of 2008!

2. Get in touch with parents ahead of schedule to see if someone can be the designated photographer or videographer. There will be lots of pictures but some folks have the talent and equipment it takes to capture special moments. I really need to set that up in hopes of getting a couple of really great shots. I might also consider calling a friend who shoots for the local papers.

3. Always have an assistant from now on. It made the event so much easier for me!

4. Bring lots of guitar stands and extra copies of everyone’s music – just in case!

5. Continue to book rooms with in-house sound. I don’t think I’d be able to emcee, accompany, AND run sound and maintain my sanity.

Two additional things I’d like to do for my students sometime:

1. Have an honors recital for my most advanced students where each performer would play a short set of songs. This would be and evening event in a the Front Room or similar location such as Donkey Coffee & Espresso and i might even do a set myself.

2. Hold an informal jam recital for my adult students where we could have a big sing along and chow down on some pizza!

This was my first year of having a predetermined semester schedule and payment schedule and both a Winter and Spring Recital scheduled at the beginning of the school year. It definitely took time and planning to pull all of that together, but it was worth the effort. Now I have to start putting together the schedule for Summer!