By Alycia Timm | Echo
As the Taylor Music Department prepares for the end of the semester there are no signs of it slowing down. Among the many events planned is a faculty recital in Butz-Carruth Recital Hall on Wednesday, April 30 at 7:30 p.m.
The program consists of four faculty members: Professors of Music Leon Harshenin on piano and Chris Bade on clarinet, with Kyung-Nam Oh on cello and Gert Kumi on violin. The feature work for the recital is the Trio in B flat by Schubert, and it will be accompanied by the famous Trio, Op. 11, by Beethoven.
Leon Harshenin is head of the recital and is currently in his 16th year at Taylor as professor of piano and coordinator of piano studies. Since arriving in Indiana, Harshenin has asserted an impactful voice as piano competition adjudicator and is currently the state coordinator of the Music Teachers National Association as well as president of the Marion Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) Board of Directors. With the Marion Orchestra he has performed various well-known pieces such as Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos and Sain-Saens' Carnival of the Animals.
The Music Department as a whole has much to get through before the end of the semester.
"The semester does not wind down for us in the Music Department," said Bade, head of the Symphonic Orchestra.
Following the faculty recital, the department has a busy schedule, including an orchestra performance at the upcoming Grandparent's Day concert and a spring concert on May 2. Senior recitals, a string quartet recital and Taylor Ringers and Adoration Choir concerts will wrap up the semester.
Harshenin's semester begins winding down with the faculty recital, but his focus will then switch to his student's "juries," or piano performance exams where the students play a recital for a panel of jurors.
Looking over the events of the semester, Harshenin observed that a real highlight for him was organizing Barbara Dickey's memorial recital. Three of her former piano students could not make it that day, so he asked each of them to submit a short video tribute, which were very personal and touching.
"I know Dr. Dickey's family greatly appreciated the recital, which I thought went extremely well," Harshenin said.
After a full year of performance and travel, the music department is happy to present their hard work through the faculty recital along with various other displays of musical talent over the next few weeks.(Thumbnail photograph courtesy of Taylor University)
