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On Monday November 10th, 2008, as I entered Tuthill Auditorium in Hassell Hall, I came in expecting a great piano performance and some interesting music—what I got was much, much more. After Professor Bryant’s opening remarks about the content of the program, I knew I was in for a treat! He organized a concert of purely Schubert music, and not only for piano, either. The program featured a couple of piano solos, a collection of art songs for voice (Sandra Franks) and piano, and a piano trio with cello (Iren Zombor) and violin (Wen-Yih Yu). Professor Bryant transitioned from his solo pieces to the arts songs and from art songs to the trio by sharing tidbits about Schubert’s personal life, musical style and also his own personal experiences in Vienna with some of the music on the program. This touch made the performance very personal and educational. I especially enjoyed how special the piano trio was to Professor Bryant. He was asked to sight read it when he was in Vienna! His deep connection not only with this piece, but several others on the program made the aural experience simply phenomenal! I particularly enjoyed the Schubert art songs, both for their inherent lyricism and the distinctive motives in the piano accompaniment. Each piece had a specific motive and key that fit in exactly with the subject matter of the song—this was especially noticeable in Auf Dem Wasser Zu Singen (“To be sung on the water”) because the arpeggiated chords in the accompaniment sounded like rippling water. I highly encourage all students to attend faculty music concerts; they’re a great way to hear beautiful music and learn something, too!
Interview with Professor Bryant about his recital on Monday Nov 10th, 2008: Questions by Brigid Hannon. Conducted by Brigid Hannon.
1) How do you feel about your performance on Monday Nov 10th?
“I was really ecstatic about it! I was thrilled with the audience’s reaction, especially at the end of the recital, at the end of the trio—how well it was received. I just feel really good about it! Actually, when I think about other recitals some I haven’t felt as good about as I did this particular one.”
2) How did you go about preparing for this concert?
“One of the solo pieces, the impromptu, I’ve known forever…since 1981 when I was in Vienna! The very first piece, Moments Musicaux was brand new to me. I’ve taught it to students but this is the first time I’ve learned it and performed it. I learned it about a month before the fall semester began. The soprano and I decided which songs to perform, 4 of the 5 I already knew.”
3) Favorite Piece?
“I believe my absolute favorite of the whole thing was my second solo piece and that’s the impromptu in G-flat Major. That was one piece I learned over in Vienna, 27 years ago, so its been a part of me that long! The trio is my absolute favorite piece of chamber music for the reasons that I explained during that recital about the personal meaning it had to me.”
4) Practicing techniques or memorization tips?
“It depends on the style and the actual piece of music it is. I always catch my self with every lesson where someone’s memorizing something, saying ‘One time with the music one time without the music. Even if you have to break it down phrase by phrase.’ Drilling it over and over with the music so that you get that visual reinforcement and then trying it by memory.”
5) How did you get interested in Piano?
“I was reared in a small town, a small town in North Georgia and we were a family of five. There were three of us boys, I was the youngest of the three. To be completely honest with you, Brigid, each of us took piano and started either when we were in kindergarten or first grade. A lot of it was a competitive thing. It did work out that my older brothers one by one dropped off around fifth or sixth grade. By that time I was with a teacher and she realized that I had some stuff. That I had some extra gifts and that of the three guys I was a natural at it.
6) Favorite composers to play music of?
“What I did the other night is certainly a favorite. Most of that is because of my year in Vienna and the experiences I had there. So Schubert is one of the first ones that comes to mind. Also Rachmaninoff and late Beethoven. He [Beethoven] spent the later period of his life in Vienna and I got to walk on some of the streets where he walked and visit parks where he did some of his composing.
7) What is the most exciting or memorable experience in your life?
“Well if I think of everything in my life I think it would just hands down have to be the birth of my children. That moment when the child is born is just one of the few times where my jaw just has dropped and I found myself speechless. That’s just something that can’t be put into words just how wonderful that was. When I got to hug my son for the first time was one of life’s greatest moments. I can still remember that electric moment when I could first hug him.
8) What do you do in your free time?
Most of it is spent playing with my son—that’s anything from soccer to baseball, a little bit of football. But his favorites are soccer, baseball, jump rope and anything having to do with High School Musical. He’s the only one at home now that my daughters are both in college, that way the spare time is spent mostly with him.
- Brigid Hannon
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