Sara was a double degree student last year, and for the guitar half of her studies she played a terrific Freshman Recital. This year, though, she dropped the guitar part of her program, continuing her music studies in a more part-time fashion. She continued with me in half-hour lessons and planned a concert program that merged her various musical interests. These would include, in addition to her classical guitar, solo singing to the guitar, solo singing to her piano playing, and two bands in which her singing voice was joined by the voices of others. This was quite the musical show, and she had an ample crowd supporting her in the Cat In The Cream coffee house, a location we’ve seldom used for solo guitar but was perfect for this type of production. (Full printed program at the end of the post).

She opened with a duet played on two classical guitars, and assisted by another “secondary” guitar student of mine, Bangbo Sun. (Secondary is what the Conservatory calls non-major lessons.) They performed a lute duet by Lauffensteiner with sensitive ensemble timing and phrasing, including perfectly synchronized trills. She followed the duet with three classical repertoire solos, one by Mertz, one by Villa-Lobos, and one by Tarrega.

Her solos were smooth and controlled, with a bit of virtuosic intensity in her rendition of Danza Mora. The audience responded loudly. Then she sang and self-accompanied a Taylor Swift song followed by an original song. From there she moved the the piano, to sing and self-accompany again, revealing herself to be a remarkable multi-talent!

Sara brought some friends on stage next, to present a Fleetwood Mac song, sung in The Chicks style, in three-part harmony. Her brother, Sammy, played electric guitar. This was impressive and delightful.

For her grand finale, Sara needed a costume change, so a friend, acting as the emcee, hosted a Sara Trivia Contest, awarding lollipops with Sara-photos on them (!) to the winners. This was hilarious. Then, dressed in fair imitations of the real thing, Sara re-emerged with a three new partners and her brother to play four boygenius covers. This went over really well and sounded terrific, with the singers locking in the harmonies with ease, while offering solid grooves with the instruments. (I smiled remembering that boygenius member Lucy Dacus, when she was working as a soloist, had Oberlin guitar alum Jacob Blizard as her guitarist and co-producer.)

This was an unusual and immensely enjoyable concert. Congratulations to Sara for her musicianship, imagination and energy. I hope she keeps doing this every year!