The annual music department recital was held on May 7.  Each year, all students taking private music lessons through the school’s five private teachers perform at the recital to showcase the pieces they’ve worked on.  Students put countless hours into finding interesting arrangements of pieces and sometimes even create unusual rearrangements themselves.  They spend months preparing and perfecting solos and duets to perform at the recital. Ranging from Haydn’s concertos to popular musical songs, 16 students sang, danced, acted and played musical instruments in a variety of genres at the annual music department recital.

The first few performances included a classical violin piece by Schubert and a romantic piano duet by Brahms interspersed with a mix of classical and contemporary songs.  The eighth performance was a Prokofiev violin duet between Sue Lee and Anny Shao, two juniors.  They had previously played the piece in a chapel performance. In the words audience member Ellen Yan ’20, “they really took the piece above and beyond… it was absolutely stunning.”  The performance, immediately following the contemporary duet, was a “powerful and interesting” rendition of Poor Unfortunate Souls from The Little Mermaid where senior Julianne Wenc ’17 sang and acted out the scene.  The masterful singing and skillful performing continued and culminated in a cello duet to Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson and a violin and percussion mash-up of a solo sonata which multiple spectators classified as “the highlight of the show”. Yoyo Wang ’18 and Julia Hu ’17 performed Smooth Criminal and the Ysaÿe sonata also known as the maniac’s dance featured Alan Michaels, head of the music department, on drums and Anny Shao ’18 again on the violin.  Shao says, “the whole piece was filled with intense focus and delight… [It] is primitive, untamed, crude in its nature if you will.  I swung my bow high in the echo of the last note and the cheer of the audience.  I was stunned and didn’t know what I was doing or where I was going. Whipped Krieger on the head with my bow. Everyone congratulated me, even the Russian piano teacher came up to me and kissed me in the face.”  

The hard work of the students, the commitment of teachers, and the enthusiasm of the audience created a truly stunning performance that will not easily be forgotten.