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School of Music
Latin Music Studies

Senior and Graduate Recitals

Latin Music Studies Recital Procedures

(for current graduate and undergraduate degree recitals)

 

Your recital is the capstone project of your degree; it provides evidence of your skills in performance, ensemble direction, and creative abilities (arranging and/or composition in Latin music). The recital is both a fulfillment of the requirements of your degree, and a testament to your skills and identity as a musician.  A printed program and program notes and a professional recording will provide additional evidence of this important accomplishment and will become part of your academic and professional portfolios.

 

Program Selections

Your recital program will showcase your abilities in a variety of settings.  The following synthesizes the structure of programs LMS students have successfully presented in the past:

 

  • Soloist setting: repertoire that showcases you individually or with one or few partners. This section of your recital may present classical repertoire of any national origin, Latin and Latin jazz classics appropriate for solo performance, trio-style arrangements, and the like.
  • Combo or small ensemble setting: repertoire that showcases you with a small ensemble of your choosing or with the Afro-Caribbean Lab.  This section of the recital can include folk-oriented ensemble adaptations, Latin jazz combo arrangements, experimental or avant-garde creations of your own, and/or other creative projects that feature your performance and creative abilities prominently.
  • Full ensemble setting: repertoire that showcases your performance, direction and arranging abilities with a full ensemble, ideally, Mariachi Nueva Generación or Salsa del Rio/Orquesta del Rio.

 

Other lineups of settings are possible, as long as they feature your versatility as a performer, ensemble director, and creative artist across a variety of genres.

 

Timeline

On the semester prior to the one when you intend to have your recital,

  • Finalize choices of repertoire, transcriptions, music that needs purchased, accompanists and chamber musicians, instruments—in short, every element needed for the musical production of the recital.
  • Finalize all transcriptions, arrangements, and/or adaptations of existing charts, and/or original compositions of your own.
  • Draft your final program (selections and order) in consultation with your instructor(s) and ensemble directors.  Graduate students, draft your program notes as well (see specific guidelines and sample notes below).  Your professors will ask you to print program notes for individual selections and share them at LMS Seminar performances.  At that point, ask for informal feedback from your professors and from Dr. Pedroza as well.  Doing this will save you a lot of time on the semester of your recital.
  • Make arrangements with the directors of the ensembles you will need (Mariachi Nueva Generación, Salsa del Rio).  The directors will work your repertoire, rehearsal sessions, recital hearing, and recital into the ensemble’s syllabus for up to three selections per ensemble. [A separate document delineating the parameters governing student-ensemble collaboration will be posted on this site soon.] The extent to which you can take advantage of this support is entirely dependent on your finalizing all aspects of the musical production on the semester prior to the one when your recital will happen in order to ensure that the ensemble is beholden to execute well in your recital through enforcement of the syllabus schedule and assessment policies. If you are unable to finalize musical production details in advance, you will need to be prepared to engage and pay musicians on your own.  Alternatively, this may also be your choice from the onset.
  • Read and begin fulfillment of the School of Music Student Recital Checklist , particularly the booking of recital and hearing dates/venues.

On the semester of your recital, early on,

  • Book Somos Músicos sessions early in the semester to try out selections of your recital program.  Consult with LMS faculty to ensure your accompanists use those sessions to fulfill their own studio lesson and seminar requirements.
  • Make a plan for marketing your recital.
  • GRADUATE students: Send first draft of program and program notes to Dr. Pedroza no later than five weeks before your hearing.  Download the School of Music Student Recital Program Template here, as indicated in the School of Music Student Recital Checklist. To prepare your program notes, download the Latin Music Studies program sample here.  Within two weeks, Dr. Pedroza will provide feedback and specify required edits. Then,
    • send edited program and program notes to your recital panel and wait for additional suggestions.  Final version must be completed by the time of the hearing or the hearing will be canceled and your recital delayed.
    • send program and program notes approved by recital panel to Danton Bankay no later than one week before the recital (see School of Music Student Recital Checklist).
  • Fulfill your Recital Hearing. Plan on performing your hearing with all or most of the musicians involved.  In exceptional cases, you may submit a video of some selections.  Be sure you videotape a polished, fully performed session (not a rehearsal with interruptions).  Selections not approved by the panel will not be included in your recital.
  • Continuously check the School of Music Student Recital Checklist and make sure you are following all guidelines for the School of Music.
  • Work with your professors and colleagues to reach the day of the recital fully prepared, relaxed, and ready to show yourself off.  Have a wonderful recital!