The Honors Recital this past Saturday featured some of BUTI’s most talented students. The string quartet, brass quintet, wind quintet, piano duo, vocal soloists, and opera scenes were hand picked by faculty members to perform. The Harp program and Percussion section played as well. Last, but not least, there was a performance of a piece composed by one of the composition students. Brava tutti!

On Sunday we had the opportunity to hear from one of our smallest programs. This Sunday morning, the West Street Theater was filled with the enchanting sounds of the harp. There are only 3 students in the Young Artists Harp Program all of whom have been kept busy this whole summer covering the harp parts in both the Orchestra and the Wind Ensemble. On Sunday we got to hear them perform both solo repertoire and pieces for harp ensemble. The mellifluous music of Handel’s Concerto No. 6 for Harp and Hindemith’s Harp Sonata settled peacefully over the hall. They were joined by their Assistant Director, Franziska Huhn, for the ensemble pieces which opened with Habañera from Bizet’s Carmen and closed with a wonderfully colorful arrangement of Mussorgsky’s The Great Gate of Kiev from Pictures at an Exhibition. It was wonderful to get to showcase these exceptional students who have been working all summer with our larger ensembles.