by Martha I. Fernandez
Features Editor
Displaying all his musical talents, as well as sharing with the audience his original compositions, senior Joel Gingrich promises an evening of diversity in music and entertainment at his senior recital.
The concert, featuring Gingrich as a vocalist, instrumentalist and composer, will take place Sunday, April 30 at 7:30 p.m. in Founders Auditorium.
“I think it’s more exciting to have variety,” he said. “I just wanted to do something that reflected my varied tastes.”
The concert, which is divided into four components, will begin with two pieces of electronic music composed by Gingrich.
“It’s a combination of live and taped music,” he said.
Music will be previously recorded on a computer sequencer and played back while he accompanies on the keyboard.
Gingrich describes the music as 20th century style, where repeating patterns are played and layers of new music added until the musical peak is reached. Then, each layer is removed until the first basic pattern remains.
“This stuff is minimalistic. It’s where you take an idea and repeat it over and over. It could be a theme or a beat,” he said.
The second component of the program features English hand bells. A quartet from the La Verne Church of the Brethren hand bell choir will join him for this performance. “Morning is Broken” will also be played by Gingrich with the hand bells, accompanied by music instructor Anita Hanawalt on the piano.
The last segment of this section will be an original piece that he has composed. Members from the Church of the Brethren hand bell choir will perform the piece as Gingrich directs.
He will then display his vocal talent by singing a variety of songs. Italian, German and English songs, as well as two folk songs, will be performed. Hanawalt will accompany on the piano during the vocal segment.
The last component of the concert will reveal four original compositions. Once again, Gingrich will enlist other people to bring success to his program.
“It (the music) is all in my head. One of the hard things in preparing for the senior recital was writing everything down for people to play it.
“A lot of the stuff I’m performing people haven’t heard because I don’t play a lot of my original stuff,” he said.
The music conceived by Gingrich, will bring the program to a close and feature instruments such as the piano, violin, flute, recorder and percussion.
“The original compositions I really can’t put into a category,” he said. “It’s new age easy listening.”
Gingrich is the only graduating music major this May. The recital is an option given to seniors for their last project. The other option is a research paper. Gingrich did not hesitate to accept the opportunity to perform.
“It’s a way for me to give back, especially to the people at the Church and at the school,” he said. “When I perform I’m giving a part of myself to the audience.
“I’ve been practicing up for this my whole past four years,” said Gingrich.
At this moment, he is waiting to hear of his acceptance to attend Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J., or Claremont Graduate School.
Gingrich’s next performance will be on May 9 at the student recital, where he will give an organ recital and play with the recorder ensemble.
Martha I. Fernandez
