Nick Dolan, a computer science major, was featured at the Clarinet Studio Chamber Recital as many students were unable to perform. 
Amber Grace Garrard/The Lion's Roar

The Clarinet Studio Chamber Recital deviated from its original plan and ended up featuring a student that is not a music major. 

The recital took place on Nov. 30 and was going to be a culmination of pieces performed by all of the clarinet music students under instructor Victor Drescher, along with other groups, but the recital was significantly cut down. 

“Tonight was originally supposed to be a studio recital of all the clarinet majors plus some other small groups that I work with through the semester,” said Drescher. “However, we had a few conflicts with piano players that had to play at churches for Christmas things so we have taken a few pieces off already and then the first piece that was supposed to be put on the program, the oboe player had a stomach virus today so she couldn’t play.”

The recital took an interesting turn as the student who ended up playing the most was Nick Dolan, a computer science major.

“The recital ended up being neat because it featured one of our students that is a computer science major so he played a solo piece tonight and put the duets together with the other student, Ryan,” said Drescher. “They put those duets together on their own. It really was a lot of self-prepared works tonight that ended up being on the recital.” 

Due to both students’ schedules, the preparation time behind the duets needed to be intentional and was not easy. 

“We had some rehearsal times, but it was a bit sporadic because we have different times that we’re free from classes and stuff,” said senior music major Ryan Lafleur. 

This proved to be a challenge for Lafleur and Dolan on the first duets they played because they did not have time to go over all of their dynamics before the performance. 

“I think the hardest part for me, or the both of us because it was a duet, was since there was a couple of them that we didn’t go over but a couple of times, knowing what we were going to do with it,” said Lafleur. “The second one that we played tonight, we spent all our time on it, but the first set that we did, a lot of it was sort of on-the-fly. Just as far as interpretation and stuff.”

Drescher believes that anyone who has played music should not stop playing in college, regardless of their major, like Dolan did. 

“I would encourage anybody that played in high school, that has any musical training at all, don’t stop playing when you get to college,” said Drescher. “Music won’t survive on just music majors. We need consumers of music, we need people to appreciate the arts.”

The last piece of the night was “Devil Sticks” and was performed by five students along with their instructor Drescher. 

“The piece we performed all together is a chamber piece that we put together and are performing again Friday night and it’s going to be one of the featured pieces on the collage concert which is a concert for high schoolers to entice them to come here,” said Drescher. 

“Devil Sticks” proved to be a challenge for the students involved because everyone played a different part. 

“It was pretty challenging,” said junior music major Robbie Malbrough. “I think the most challenging thing about it is probably that our parts are so different. It’s hard to get together, but we are all very talented and very hardworking.”