Florestan Recital places students at center stage

It appears that Friday nights can in fact be used intellectually.

Music and poetry were uniquely integrated on Feb. 18 in Rosch Hall as the Florestan Recital Project created an open discussion forum in which students and audience members had the rare opportunity to openly voice their opinions.

As a part of Ethos' New Sound Festival, the Florestan Recital has reached its ninth season as it continues to promote a vast song repertoire through concerts and educational residencies. The project also features collaborations between student composers and performers to create new song compositions. Such was the case Friday night as Alison d'Amato (piano) and Aaron Engebreth (baritone) performed five distinct pieces, each written and composed by Fredonia students.  

Before these particular songs were premiered however, audience members were invited to quietly read the poem "Disillusionment of Ten O' Clock" by Wallace Stevens which was to be the subject of the first act and formulate their own ideas about it. The intellectual forum that followed was undoubtedly an atypical scene for a recital.

Experimenting with a process that could have easily turned into a standard classroom setting (a room full of students with no participation), the Florestan performers allowed students to offer their understanding of Stevens' highly ambiguous poem. The audience was anything but quiet as students weighed in with interpretations that ranged everywhere from an outlook regarding the lack of individuality in society to a critique on alcoholism.

The underlying themes that were present in most answers, mainly expression through dreams and the possibility of the imagination, made for a fine transition into the four interpretive compositions to be performed.

Playing off of the idea that literature is frequently indefinite and open for analysis, d'Amato and Engebreth presented the musical interpretations of four different composers, each with their own perception of the work. The result was four noticeably distinct pieces that varied from a consistent rhythm of smooth and upbeat tones to a crescendo of dark and ominous notes.

Students were again able to relay their opinions to the performers on stage providing a unique platform for audience members to give feedback as well as to consider the different mindsets of the composers as they were writing their respective pieces.

Rob Deemer, the faculty advisor of the Ethos executive board, considered the forum so innovative that he felt it necessary to intervene from the balcony. He expressed his delight that students were so willing to openly and intellectually participate in the discussion. His enthusiasm certainly did not falter after the show had ended.

"If someone had walked in they would have thought we were in a class," Deemer said. "I've been here for four years now and that's one of the most special concerts I've ever seen because so many people got involved."

Whereas the first act of the show featured students actively participating in the performance, the second act allowed them to take a more traditional and passive approach that was surely no less entertaining. d'Amato and Engebreth displayed five unique pieces by Fredonia student composers and poets in a presentation that epitomized the graceful integration between music and literature. The texts, varying in both emotion and tone, were beautifully represented by their respective compositions as each one captured the premise and essence of the work.

Highlighting the performances was the recital of Mad Monk, a daunting recount of the violent death of Rasputin, a Russian mystic claimed to have had supernatural powers. The piece was characterized by menacing tones and an intense climax. Kate Parker articulated the thrill of having her work showcased.

"It's such a privilege to have them perform it, to have these amazing performers take our piece, interpret it and give us this incredible performance," Parker said.

Engebreth and d'Amato finished the night with the narrative work, The Strange Case of Dr. H.H. Holmes by Libby Larsen. The piece detailed the disturbing confession of H.H. Holmes, one of the first documented serial killers who used the 1893 World's Fair to lure his victims to their death through an intricate hotel he had built himself. The presentation was chilling in its detail and was definitely exacerbated by Engebreth's spirited performance.

"I was really impressed by how animated Aaron was," attendee Scott Miller said. "He brought a lot out that wouldn't have otherwise come through to the audience."  

The Florestan Recital thrived perhaps not by the success of the performances themselves but by the manner in which they were displayed to the audience. In an industry full of recitals and concerts that require audience members to simply sit back and enjoy the show on stage, the Florestan Project invites and even encourages spectators to become actively involved in the performance. The recital proved that innovation is not created through the medium itself but rather through those artists willing to demonstrate ingenuity.

"It is something we've done in other venues but this is the first time we've made it a part of an official program and we would like to do it a lot more," d'Amato said. "People are ready to talk and bring their own ideas to something and it's great to be able to engage in the process."