A group of musicians performed November 19 in the Somos Músicos concert series, a program that gives students majoring in music additional opportunities to perform in front of an audience. (Somos Músicos, Spanish for ‘we are musicians,’ is also the title of this School of Music news blog.) Performers included percussionists Sigifredo Santana and Luis Ramos; pianist Martin Kesuma; violinists Ryan Coppin, Joseph Waukechon, Shijun Chen and Kailey Johnson, violists Xavier Garcia and James Ximenez, and cellists Belinsol Martinez-Munoz and George McQuade.
Students are given the opportunity to perform material they normally would not perform for their required junior and senior recitals, said Paula Bird, senior lecturer who coordinates the series. “Somos Músicos is a great opportunity to show people their solo abilities,” percussionist Sigifredo Santana said. “There’s something different about showing your own voice, your own solo voice to an audience.”
Many students, especially freshmen and sophomores, would not otherwise have the opportunity to perform in front a large audience until their junior or senior recitals. For their exam juries students only perform in front of faculty. Somos Músicos gives them the opportunity to experience a real-audience environment, Bird said.
written by Andrew Blanton