Photo courtesy of Maura Longenecker

Monday, Feb. 24 the music department of Elizabethtown College hosted a Women Composers Concert.

The event took place in Zug Recital Hall and was a full house. The program included had piano, flutes, clarinets, saxophones and singers at different times.

Crew members worked quickly when the lights were low to switch to the next performers by placing chairs or music stands and raising or lowering the lid of the piano.

The program consisted of both instrumental music and ones containing vocals.

Associate professor of music Dr. Anne Gross had come up with the idea to host a Women Composers recital in March for Women’s History Month.

Her goal was to bring more attention to women composers as they sometimes can get forgotten.

“In all of my six years here, this is the first women composer performance done. I would love to see it become an annual event though,” Gross said.

While Gross did organize the performance and oversee it, she did not select all of the pieces that were presented.

The pieces were chosen by the students’ music instrument teacher and all of the students that performed had volunteered to participate.

“They’re all people who are studying music. Not everyone is a music major; at least one is Occupational Therapy,” Gross said.

Most of the performers have been working on their piece since the fall semester.

There was memorization involved, especially with the music not in English such as “MigÔnne,” composed by Cécile Chaminade.

Gross said the students not only had to memorize the music, but also the pronunciations of words in other languages.

“Both of my students that performed are doing pieces in their senior recital next year, so they’re already working for next year,” Gross said.

It had been beneficial to the students to have one piece already learned and with the chance to perform it prior to their senior recital.

Junior Elizabeth Syslo said she had her professor come to her asking if she would like to perform in the performance.

She did because she enjoys showcases and it was another opportunity to do so.

She had gotten her piece, “Ah, Love, But a Day” in January, and she used repetition to learn her music in the month she was given. “It was a bit difficult because the melody and accompaniment don’t line up, so we had to practice one at a time, yet we couldn’t do one at a time either because the melody and accompany relied on the other. It was difficult, but we made it,” Syslo said.

Before doing any performance, Syslo said she feels a nervous energy, but the moment she steps on stage, “everything is fine, and when I’m there it’s another world, but I wouldn’t change it.”

If the music department decides to do another women composer recital, Syslo said she would gladly volunteer to do it again because the first one had been so much fun. She loved how it gave opportunity to different composers that are not usually heard and drew the attention to those beautiful pieces.

Senior Lauren Shakes attended the event to support her friends and also for her own interest in music.

“[The concert] was awesome! The high notes [of the vocalists] really soared through the air and made my night,” Shakes said.

In the future, Shakes said she would like to see more women composer recitals that highlight other ethnicities to increase diversity.

“It would be nice to have more diversity, offering different perspectives and more insight to other cultures,” she said.