Arts & Culture
Student recital brings fine arts departments together
The Pointer
Dneck184@uwsp.edu
The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Department of Music will host a joint-student recital featuring new works by music majors Matthew Muelling and Kyle Brooks along with a live visual art performance by student-painter Alex Landerman on Oct. 8 in the Michelsen Recital Hall.
“The idea came together last year when Kyle Brooks and I began planning a recital,” said Matthew Muelling. “It began to form and the underlying theme became musicians and artists coming together to support each other.”
The recital will showcase the talent of students from every fine arts department. The recital will present the new original compositions by Muelling and Brooks as well as the talents of students from the dance and art departments. The show will conclude with a performance by a viola choir, consisting of 30 students and faculty.
“I thought it would be an interesting idea to get people from all over the fine arts building to do something together,” said Muelling. “I see dance students, and other artists around the building, but I don’t really know them because I don’t have class with them. After taking a dance class last year, I thought ‘why not get everyone doing something that represents all of the arts?’”
The musical compositions will represent many moods, and feature interesting combinations of players and instruments.
“Throughout the whole recital we have a smattering of intense, exciting music and really soft, lush music,” said Muelling. “One of the pieces is a duet of flute and drums, and another piece has 37 violas. It doesn’t get much more different than that.”
While the musicians and dancers perform, artist Alex Landerman will be painting on stage, translating music into art. His canvasses will be exhibited in the Schneider Student Gallery later this year.
“This is going for emotion so I’m going to try and put as much of that into it as possible. Since there’s such a variety of an emotion in this music, it’s going to be kind of difficult,” said Landerman.
Muelling says that apart from being a free performance, the rare collaborations between the arts programs are something students won’t want to miss.
“It’s also something that really isn’t done at all on this campus. This is the first time, to my knowledge, that musicians, painters and dancers have worked together on a recital,” said Muelling.
Muelling also noted that the audience would be hearing a large amount of all-new material. The show will showcase 10 world premieres in one night.
“Normally, to hear a world premier is a big deal, and we’re having ten of them in one night,” he said.
The recital will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 8 in the Michelsen Recital Hall in the Noel Fine Arts Center.
