In the music department, music majors give junior and senior recitals ahead of graduation, with it being a requirement for performance majors. Some students choose to have their recitals in the fall semester, but others still opt for a second-semester show date.

A recital is a collection of primarily solo or small group literature that a music student prepares over the course of their tenure in the music department. Senior recitals, especially, are composed of many pieces, acquired and worked on since freshman year.

For Jovan Rivera, a senior BA music student with a minor in music education and a CUGS in jazz studies, some of the music in his upcoming recital dates back to his second semester.

“A lot of them are pieces that I’ve done for juries or at least have done other recitals for. So, the oldest piece in my recital is probably from my second semester here. And then, the newest piece is from this semester. So it’s about two and a half years of work,” said Rivera.

Rivera plays saxophone and currently studies under professor Noa Even. Still, he’s found that the recital process has been very free form, especially as a music BA, where the recital is not a requirement.

“My professor has been very hands-off with it, just because there are no guidelines,” said Rivera. “If you need one […], they’re not very hands-on with it anyway, because it’s more like what you want to do. And their responsibility is to make sure that all the pieces sound good.” 

Rivera’s recital is titled “A Smorgasbord of Sound,” and for good reason. Among his pieces are a jazz quartet called Beleza Pula by Masayoshi Takanaka, the movement Piano Bar Blues from Jazz Suite by Jeremy Norris.

This performance will feature seven artists, including collaborative pianist Jack Darischuk, who has worked with Rivera on almost all his pieces.

This highlights that while a recital may center on the work of one musician, it takes many people to put one on.

“A Smorgasbord of Sound” will take place in Boyd Recital Hall on April 5 at 5:00 p.m. Some students, however, choose to host their recitals off-campus.

“I booked a date [in Boyd] last October, and of course, my dad couldn’t make that because he’s busy too. So we were trying to think of what we could do, and he said we could use [Temple Lutheran] Church (Pennsauken), which is nice,” said Owen Strong, a junior music performance major.

“It’s a very pretty space, very echoey. Some really high ceilings. It was really nice because [my dad] knows everyone there. I talked [to him] and he squared it away,” said Strong.

Strong, whose father Jeremy Strong will be accompanying much of his recital on piano, is a violist studying under Dr. Timothy Schwarz.

His recital will feature five 10-minute works from the Western musical canon. While he’s playing works by Mozart and Schubert, by virtue of his instrument, Strong is also performing works by Paul Hindimith, Mikhail Glinka, and William Walton. 

These composers, while well known in some classical spheres and regions, are not ubiquitous.

“There just hasn’t been a ton of super well-known viola stuff,” said Strong.

It’s quite likely that anyone in attendance at his recital, and many junior and senior recitals, will be exposed to music they haven’t heard before.

For example, senior music student Julia Petrongolo is holding a composition recital at 7:30 p.m. on April 9 in Boyd Recital Hall. This performance will feature works composed by Petrongolo.

Recitals offer a great opportunity for Rowan students and community members to see the up-and-coming musicians and composers of the area present their hard work.

Many music students have recitals coming up. To find information about them and to watch the hard work of Rowan music majors come to fruition, you can see them advertised on posters in Wilson Hall.

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