Assistant professor of piano and new faculty member Josu De Solaun, D.M.A., will perform his first piano recital at Sam Houston State University Thursday.
The recital will cover five different composers who are connected to their students through learning, according to De Solaun.
“I wanted to also trace lineages between students and teachers because I thought it was very fitting that my first recital here would trace those things because those are the kind of relationships that are forged here,” said De Solaun. “The first half will be two sonatas, one by Joseph Haydn, an Austrian composer, and then one by his later famous student, Beethoven.”
Composers Maurice Ravel and George Enesco, former classmates, will also be showcased at the recital along with Spanish composer Manuel de Falla, who was mentored by Ravel.
“There are all kinds of connections, classmates, mentorship, student-teacher, and how everything creates a sort of musical culture and that is what the Sam School of Music is about,” said De Solaun. “Everyone working together to create different types of music, everyone teaching differently, and the appreciation of that diversity and how that reaches our students,”
De Solaun is one of the two new additions to the piano faculty in the music department. Fellow piano faculty Anna Petrova performed her first recital Monday.
“I arrived in the beginning of August, at first you have to get used to the different weather, the heat, the humidity, but other than that, everything has gone very smoothly because everyone here makes sure that new faculty is treated very well. I have no complaints,” said De Solaun.
De Solaun will also be working with one honor’s college student on her senior thesis this coming year.
Senior piano major Kara Davis said she is excited to work with De Solaun.
“I haven’t known him very long, but I did see his audition for the position this past spring and was really impressed by his superb abilities and artistry as a performer, his engaging and knowledgeable teaching and most of all his authentic, cheerful, and humble way of relating to all of us,” said senior piano student Kara Davis
The recital is scheduled for tomorrow at 7:30p.m, in the Gaertner Performing Arts Center Recital Hall. Admission is free.