Fresno City College faculty from the music department performed before the community in an effort to raise money for student scholarships on campus.

Proceeds from a concert by the music department faculty will benefit music scholarships at FCC.

The free concert, composed of both fulltime and adjunct faculty members, was host to 10 musical pieces. Attendees were encouraged to donate to the scholarship fund which awarded 16 scholarships in the spring semester of 2016.  The donations would benefit the many music scholarships the school offers.

The faculty members performed works from all different periods of music. Their selections ranged from mid-Baroque to 21st Century avant-garde. Of the 10 pieces, two were Jazz performances played by four faculty members together.

“The faculty just chooses what they would like to perform, so you’ll have anywhere from vocal solos to a trumpet solo,” said Larry Honda, a music instructor and saxophone soloist.

In between performances, the faculty members gave details about the music they performed, whether it was an anecdotal story about why a song was chosen, or facts about the music itself.

Choral music instructor, Julie Dana, set the tone for her performance of “Deh vieni, non tardar,” from W.A. Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” with a few facts. She gave a brief overview of the opera, and described the scene that features her piece before gliding through every note of her performance.

A few performers played more peculiar instruments. Music instructor Dale Engstrom played a piccolo trumpet, which is a small, higher-pitched version of a more standard trumpet. Adjunct faculty member, Dr. William Whipple, played on a prepared piano, which is a piano that has had objects either inserted in between strings, placed on the strings, or has had strings tuned in a certain way, in order to create a unique effect when played.

“It was amazing, the first piece that was played was the prepared piano and it doesn’t even sound like a piano, which I thought was cool,” said Andrew Castillo, a flute performance major.

Music recitals and concerts at FCC typically feature students, so this concert shows another side of the music department to the campus.

“It’s always fun to hear to hear your colleagues perform,” said Dr. Brandon Bascom, a piano instructor at FCC. “We are such a diverse group and the styles of songs that we all perform are so different, it’s always fun to hear what everyone else has been working on.”

The next music event at FCC is the Vladimir Horowitz Piano Celebration at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 23. Horowitz was a piano virtuoso, and his piano used during his tour when he traveled to the Soviet Union is coming to FCC. Audience members may get a chance to play the piano.