Michael Hejka, a graduate student from professor John Dorsey’s Percussion Studio, will be performing his graduate recital at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the Alexander Recital Hall.
Hejka will be performing five 4-mallet pieces, one as a duet with fellow graduate student Bill Marr on the euphonium and one as a trio with Brad Bower and John Nipper.
The songs include Jiro Censhu’s “A Tribute to the East,” Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Chega de Saudade,” Toru Takemitsu’s “Raintree,” Jacob Druckman’s “Reflections on the Nature of Water” and Minoru Miki’s “Marimba Spiritual.”
“[“A Tribute to the East”] is a difficult piece that requires a lot of practice and dedication,” said Hejka. “It’s forcing me to reinterpret many aspects of my performance.”
Hejka performed “Reflections” at the latest Percussion Studio recital, but each performance is unique from the last. Because the piece is so full of dynamics and room for musicality, hearing the piece more than once will not be mundane; it will be an opportunity to hear the same piece played with variation.
“[“Reflections”] is by far my favorite piece on the recital,” Hejka said. “It has no bar lines, so it has tons of room for interpretation.”
“Raintree” is an interesting piece written in 1983 as the composer’s reaction to a short story he read in the late ’70s. Because of the time period it was written the piece is much more “trippy” than the traditional marimba solo.
“It was originally written with lighting cues to fade in and out when different performers would play,” Hejka said. “Unfortunately, Alexander doesn’t have the capabilities to do this, so we might be coming up with something else to pull this off.”
“Marimba Spiritual” is a classic part of the solo marimba repertoire. It is forty pages long and Hejka has the entire piece memorized. The piece was commissioned for the National Endowment of the Arts in the ‘80s when people started to care more about music; many percussion works were composed during this time.
“[“Marimba Spiritual”] is definitely not a pop song,” Hejka said. “You don’t always know where it’s going to go but it’s a beautiful piece nonetheless.”
Hejka came back to college after teaching band and choir in Mississippi. His graduate recital will partially fulfill a graduation credit. He must also complete an essay about his music and the struggles/triumphs he faced preparing for the performance. The final part of his impending graduation is an exit exam.
“Basically a panel of professors will sit in front of me and ask me whatever questions they like,” Hejka said. “If they don’t like my answers, I won’t graduate. No stress, though.”
