Esteemed musicians perform at White Concert Hall
At the White Concert Hall Oct. 22, Professor Doreen Lee, assistant professor of collaborative piano at the University of South Alabama, played a concert with Cobus du Toit, an award-winning flute professor from the University of Massachusetts and South African native.
Lee has participated in a variety of music festivals, learned from members of the Tokyo Quartets and Jean Barr and was selected to perform in a master class for Robert Levin, a pianist and music theorist at the Summer Academy Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.
du Toit has been the prize winner at the first University of South Africa’s Southern African National Competition for Woodwinds and Brass, the Byron Hester Competition, the Southern African Music Rights Organisation’s International Scholarship Competition and more. He has also performed internationally in many countries, including Taiwan, Russia, Japan and France.
Lee and du Toit formed a collaboration with the duo’s debut album, “Mythavian,” taking inspiration from birdsongs and mythological folklore.
Before the performance, Corbus gathered six volunteers from the seats and the waiting area to participate during the performance.
“I was definitely anxious because I’m not very used to abstract sheet music, so it was an experience,” said Weslie Evens, a freshmen in education. “I was definitely just like, okay, this is happening.”
The performance, “Vessels for Flute” by Nathan Hall (1982), had the volunteers play singing bowls with du Toit on the flute while instructing them with a ringing bell.
“I enjoyed that there was an audience participation,” said Katelyn Terbovich, who is majoring in psychology and arts and music. “It was interesting to be able to see anybody – who might not have a musical background – be able to participate in such a unique experience.”
Lee and du Toit also played four more music pieces for the audience to enjoy. These pieces included “Fantasie, Op.55” by Carl Fruhling, “Moonlit Waters” by Lawren Brianna Ware, “Sonatine” by Walter Gieseking, and “the Piano Sonata No.4 in F-sharp Major, op. 30” by Alexander Scriabin.
Edited by LeSha’ Davis, Rakesh Swarnakar
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