A faculty recital featuring pianist Elizabeth Morgan, Ph.D., associate professor of music, was held March 21 in the Frances M. Maguire Art Museum.
The performance served as the third entry of the Music in the Great Hall concert series, a joint effort between the museum and the music, theatre and film department to provide free classical music performances to the public.
Featuring the works of great American women composers, the set list displayed a wide range of backgrounds and techniques present in the selected artists and their respective works.
“I really wanted a diverse group of voices and that also includes musical styles,” Morgan said. “Each of those pieces is just so, so different. So that was important to me too, that, aesthetically, there would be diversity as well.”
Among these selected pieces was the premiere of the work “story, silence, sinew,” composed by St. Joe’s music, theatre and film department chair Suzanne Sorkin, Ph.D.
The piece, commissioned by Morgan, was a collaboration between St. Joe’s faculty members that highlighted the evening. Morgan invited Sorkin to join her in her bows as they recognized each other’s effort in the process of bringing the piece to life.
Sorkin said she crafted the piece specifically around what she knows about Morgan as a person and a pianist, and that she enjoyed the opportunity to cater it to a specific performer.
“As a pianist, Dr. Morgan brings great sensitivity and musicality to her performances,” Sorkin wrote in response to written questions from the Hawk. “I wanted to write a piece that allowed her to bring out her innate sense of expression and phrasing.”
Morgan said she appreciated the chance to work more closely with Sorkin and the opportunity to play something crafted specifically to suit her style.
“It’s pretty special,” Morgan said. “She wrote the piece with me in mind, so musically it has things that I really liked. There’s a lot of counterpoint in the piece, which is when you have multiple equal voices happening at the same time. She knows I play a lot of Bach, and that’s a big part of his music.”
Sorkin says the familiar nature of their relationship contributed to the success of their work together.
“The collaboration between a composer and performer works best when it is dynamic, interactive, and organic, and that has certainly been the case in composing this work for her,” Sorkin wrote.
Jacqueline Seijas ’26 has attended each of the Music in the Great Hall events as a staff member at the museum. She feels the program continues to provide a great means for community building and enrichment.
“The museum and the music department really come together to make it an enjoyable event for everybody,” Seijas said. “Everyone walks out saying they had a great time and fills up the place with lines just to congratulate the performers.”
