CHRIS EAST '23, DOUBLE BASS - JUNIOR RECITAL JINSHIL YI '14, PIANO

JUNIOR RECITAL
CHRIS EAST ’23, DOUBLE BASS
      JINSHIL YI ’14, PIANO

      MONDAY, APRIL 25, 2022
 KILWORTH MEMORIAL CHAPEL | 6 P.M.

PROGRAM

Capriccio No. 2 in d minor (1988)…………………………….Miloslav Gajdoš
                                                    (b. 1948)

                        Chris East ’23, double bass

Theme and Variations on Yankee Doodle (2022)……………Dylan Petersen
                                                       (b. 2001)

                        Chris East ’23, double bass

Concerto in e minor, Opus 3 (1902)……......................Sergei Koussevitzky
I. Allegro                                                        (1874–1951)
II. Andante
III. Allegro
                       Chris East ’23, double bass
                           Jinshil Yi ’14, piano

Reception following the program in Kilworth Memorial Chapel
  basement.

PERFORMER

Chris East ’23, student of Steve Schermer, is pursuing a Bachelor of Music
in double bass performance with a French and Francophone studies minor.
Chris is the principal double bassist for the University of Puget Sound
Symphony Orchestra and the University of Puget Sound Wind Ensemble.
Chris also takes horn lessons with Rodger Burnett.

An avid musicologist, Chris will pursue a doctorate in historical musicology,
during which he hopes to study the reception history of Igor Stravinsky’s
ballet L’oiseau de feu in the early Soviet Union. He believes analyzing music
in its sociocultural context makes people better musicians and human
beings.

                                  PIANIST

Jinshil Yi ’14, piano is an avid collaborative pianist in high demand
throughout the Tacoma-Seattle area. She has appeared in concerts with
Northwest Sinfonietta, Artistic Partner David Lockington, soprano Christina
Kowalski, mezzo-soprano Dawn Padula, and baritone Ryan Bede. Since
2016, Jinshil has served as staff accompanist at the University of Puget
Sound, working extensively with Steven Zopfi, Kathryn Lehmann, and Ed
Hughes on the acclaimed Adelphian Concert Choir, Dorians, and Chorale.

A heartfelt sacred music enthusiast, Jinshil loves expressing her faith
through her work as pianist and organist for two churches in Lakewood,
Wash. In addition to being on staff as a pianist for Tacoma Youth Chorus and
Charles Wright Academy, she regularly partners with other Tacoma schools,
choirs, and private music studios for music festivals, competitions, and
concerts. Both her solo and collaborative playing have been broadcast on the
radio, most recently on 98.1 King FM following a concert tour of western
Washington.

Jinshil serves as managing director for Second City Chamber Series and is a
soprano in the Symphony Tacoma Voices. Jinshil holds three undergraduate
degrees cum laude from the University of Puget Sound in Music,
biochemistry, and politics and government with an international relations
emphasis.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my best friend William Lum for his unconditional love
and support. I would also like to thank Steve Schermer, Dr. Anna Wittstruck,
Dr. Geoffrey Block, Dr. Gwynne Kuhner Brown, Dr. Gerard Morris, and
Rodger Burnett for their mentorship, as well as Jinshil Yi for being the
perfect musical collaborator.
                                                                   -- Chris East

                           PROGRAM NOTES
                    Compiled and written by Chris East

Miloslav Gajdoš’ vibrant Capriccio No. 2 in d minor showcases the
abundant timbral range of the double bass. In ternary form, a frenetic
tarantella traversing the instrument’s full range is punctuated by an organ-
like chorale that gives way to a lilting, Rossini-esque arioso. A motive built
around a B-flat dominant seventh chord in first inversion launches the piece
back into the tarantella section.

A successful performance of an unaccompanied piece requires clear and
compelling musical gesturing on the part of the performer. For a piece such
as the Capriccio No. 2 in d minor, the performer is tasked with unifying
three seemingly disparate musical ideas. Demanding impeccable musicality
and virtuosic flair, this piece proudly proclaims the effectiveness of the
double bass as a solo instrument.

Dylan Petersen’s Theme and Variations on Yankee Doodle is a delightful
romp based upon the old ear worm penned by Richard Shuckburgh. Much
like Shuckburgh’s sendup of New England’s Yankees, this tongue-in-cheek
piece pokes fun at the rigid confines imposed by Western Classical music’s
obsession with formal coherence.

Sergei Koussevitzky’s Concerto in e minor, Opus 3 is a cornerstone of
double bass repertoire, and for a good reason. When the music resolves
tonally, it rarely resolves metrically, creating a poignantly uneasy atmosphere
recalling the sociopolitical turmoil of fin de siècle Russia. Emblematic of the
New Russian School, this piece is built around mediant relationships,
particularly those of the tonic triad of e minor: E, G, and B.

Beginning with a bombastic piano fanfare built on octatonic mediant
rotations, the solo bass interrupts with an explosive entrance that gives way
to lyrical cadenza cascading down through the instrument’s middle and
lower registers. Interrupted by the solo piano, the bass then proceeds as if
no time had passed since its last outburst. At long last, the bass and piano

join forces to play a flowing theme that is repeated in successive thirds. The
end of the movement features a flashy double stop passage that proceeds
attacca to the second movement.

Dripping with pathos, the second movement is a rhapsodic dialogue
between the bass and piano, displaying the sweetness of the bass’s upper
register. The saccharine opening gives way to a wistful middle section,
where a dramatic più vivo section charges into the bass’s low register––a
rare occurrence in solo literature. The opening returns, this time in a much
more muted sonic landscape, recalling the beginning of the movement,
yearning for a simpler musical world it cannot return to. This nostalgic
reminiscence slowly dissolves into nothingness, like even our most
cherished memories.

Out of nowhere, the piano plays the bombastic fanfare that opened the first
movement, beginning our musical reminiscence anew. After the second
statement of the primary theme, the bass launches into a syncopated
passage built around octaves, pulling the piano along into a cantabile middle
section that gives way to a kaleidoscopic whirlwind of syncopated sixteenth
notes. The bass finishes with an entropic explosion, while the piano crashes
on, ultimately landing on a E major chord, proclaiming that even the most
harrowing harmonic journeys can have a happy ending.

UPCOMING SCHOOL OF MUSIC EVENTS
       All events are free and broadcast online via Schneebeck LIVE
                      pugetsound.edu/schneebecklive

                           FRIDAY, APRIL 29
            Organ at Noon Series: Pictures and Impressions
                         Wyatt Smith, organist
                    Kilworth Memorial Chapel, Noon

                       SATURDAY, APRIL 30
   Symphony Orchestra featuring Cuban pianist Aldo López-Gavilán
                 with Jasmine Mikesell ’22, flute
                    Anna Wittstruck, conductor
                Schneebeck Concert Hall, 7:30 p.m.

                            SUNDAY, MAY 1
                         Spring Choral Concert
                         Steven Zopfi, conductor
                    4 p.m., Kilworth Memorial Chapel

                          MONDAY, MAY 2
               Puget Sound B Natural Clarinet Ensemble
                       Jennifer Nelson, director
                    Puget Sound campus, 6:30 p.m.

                          MONDAY, MAY 2
                  Puget Sound Percussion Ensemble
                          Jeff Lund, director
                  Schneebeck Concert Hall, 7:30 p.m.

                         WEDNESDAY, MAY 4
             University of Puget Sound Pops on the Lawn
                   Puget Sound Karlen Quad, 4 p.m.

      R.S.V.P. for in-person attendance at pugetsound.edu/mymusic.

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