“My heart is full…
There is no greater experience than making music with other musicians.” (Jieun Kim Newland)

So wrote Jieun Kim Newland on her Facebook page after last night’s faculty recital at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). Soprano Diana Esparza and countertenor/baritone Phillip Hill presented a joint recital in three parts. The first third of the program was early music of Monteverdi, Henry Purcell and Andrea Gabrieli—Jieun played the harpsichord on the Purcell pieces only. The second part was music by Joaquin Rodrigo (1901-1999) and the third part was opera arias.

This was the first in-person concert that I have attended since the pandemic. There were actually two harpsichords on stage: the one on the left was tuned ay A=440 and the one Jieun played was on the right and tuned at A=415.

The early music group she played in was called Sprezzatura and was made up of recorders, a cornetto, viola da gambas, guitar and harpsichord.

I was surprised by the large crowd—there were maybe about a hundred or so people there, many of them students. It was good to hear live music again after such a long absence. It almost felt so NORMAL, except of course, everyone in the audience was wearing masks.

With Dr. Phillip Hill being a countertenor (but a natural baritone), I couldn’t help but think of Carl Crosier, the countertenor. I kept wanting to hear Carl’s voice when I heard Dr. Hill’s singing but of course, the voice was different tonight.

If you haven’t ever heard Carl’s countertenor singing, you can hear him sing Purcell’s “Music for awhile,” a piece he submitted and won in the Hawaii Public Radio’s KHPR Artsong Contest.

Hurray for live music!