Aleisha Beachell Piano Recital Highlights
Aleisha Beachell recently performed her senior piano recital. In her showstopping performance, Aleisha’s recital focused on the theme timelessness. Her repertoire included many recognizable crowd favorites by composers such as Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Copeland, and Lynch. Beachell included many friends and family in her recital making the occasion quite special. She even performed a piece alongside her brother that was composed by her uncle! Aleisha’s performance demonstrated thorough preparation and the ability to program a technically demanding recital with crowd appeal. Mrs. Carol Ruffin, MBU Associate Professor comments, “Aleisha was well prepared and played confidently. I quite enjoyed her choice of literature. She was especially on the top of her game during collaboration. Well done!”
Photos from the recital as well as highlights from Beachell’s performance are available.
Claire De Lune, Debussy
Aleisha gives her thoughts, “When I think of the theme timelessness, this piece immediately comes to mind. I love to imagine different colors as I play this piece: the light pastels that encompass the beginning measures, the dark blue of the bass complementing the moving treble pastels, the rich tones of burgundy throughout the flowing middle section, and then the return of the soft pastels as the piece dies away.”
Hoe Down, Copeland
Dylan Keener, piano
Who doesn’t love a technically challenging piece that is also exciting to listen to? Hoe Down does not disappoint! Originally composed for orchestra, this piece depicts a lively gathering of friends enjoying a night of square dancing. Throughout this piece, both pianos are constantly and rapidly exchanging melodies and harmonies, creating an exciting performance for the players and the audience.
Come Thou Fount, Lynch, Koerts
Clayton Beachell, piano
Aleisha writes, “As a little girl, I remember listening to my aunt and uncle’s piano duet CDs while I played around the house or rode on long car trips. This song was one of my favorites to listen to because of the full chords, fast runs, and slow, gorgeous middle verse. It wasn’t until much later, however, that the beginning phrase, ‘Tune my heart to sing Thy grace,’ became one of my favorite phrases in this hymn. Musicians are constantly tuning their instruments to produce the best sound to please both the performer and the audience. As instruments of God, we need our hearts to be constantly tuned by God to please and praise Him. When our hearts are tuned to live our lives in praise and worship to our God, we cannot help but sing, ‘Hallelujah, praise the Lord!’”
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Aleisha Beachell’s piano recital was prepared under the direction of Mrs. Ruth Brown and is given in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Bachelor of Science Degree in Music Education.