In the darkened concert hall, music flowed off the violins like water.

The arrangement of instruments created the illusion of floating downstream on a spring day.

The Eastern Symphony Chamber Orchestra and Collegium Musicum presented “Water Music,” “V’adoro, pupille,” “Appalachian Spring Suite” and “Piano Concerto op. 54” in Doudna’s Dvorak Concert Hall.

The theme of nature and water inspired two of the key pieces in the nearly two-hour-long concert.

During a river party, put on in England by King George I, a barge full of musicians played music specially made for the event by George Handel.

The music became popular over time and was used as the first piece of the concert.

Mike Boline, a senior geography major, said this is one of the better concerts he has seen.

“I enjoy the performances and want to support the music department,” Boline said.

The strings outnumbered the wind instruments in this piece, but the wind instruments were very prominent.

Ashley McHugh, a senior studying voice, performed the vocals for “V’adoro, pupille,” another one of Handel’s works, although there are no singers in “Handel’s Water Music.”

McHugh, who preformed in a bright pink gown, followed the complexities of the music with French vocals as if her voice were an instrument, and was congratulated repeatedly for her performance during the intermission.

“The orchestra did a fantastic job,” McHugh said.

While McHugh would like to perform with orchestras, she plans on continuing her education to graduate school and hopes to obtain a master’s in music performance.

McHugh is not new to singing or music; she has played percussion in the past and is working on improving her piano skills.

She also sings for church services, and has preformed at the Starlight Theater for four seasons and is participating in the upcoming Eastern musical “Fiddler on the Roof.”

After the audience came back from the intermission they heard Appalachian Spring, which was Bryan Rolfsen’s favorite piece.

The piece expresses the American spirit of exploration and celebrates a young engaged couple in a new Pennsylvania farmhouse.

While the story involves the couple’s new relationship, the story was not told in words but through music.

The final piece was a piano concerto played by Natalia Negru.

Negru started playing piano at the age of seven and is working on her master’s degree in piano performance at Eastern.

“The Piano sonata was sick,” said Rolfsen, a senior biology major. “The concerts are the best thing about Eastern, and not enough people go.

Rolfsen who came to the performance to support a friend who plays viola said the orchestra put in a lot of work and long rehearsals, but the music always come out better.

He also said the conductor Richard Rossi has continued to pick out interesting projects.

James Roedl can be reached at 581-7942

or at jmroedl@eiu.edu.

Senior soprano Ashley McHugh performs “Ah! Je veux vivre” during the Eastern Symphony Chamber Orchestra & Collegium Musicum performance of Handel’s Water Music Sunday afternoon in the Dvorak Concert Hall in the Doudna Fine Arts Center. (Audrey Sawyer/The

(more…)