Friday’s Woodwind Faculty Chamber Music Recital is a rare opportunity for her to perform with her colleagues, she said.
“I just love to play with other people,” Lukas said. “We are so busy in different directions that we don’t get to play together very much.”
The recital is at 8 p.m. Friday in Auer Hall. The recital features Lukas and Thomas Robertello on flute, Roger Roe on oboe, Howard Klug on clarinet, William Ludwig and Kathleen McLean on bassoon, Jeff Nelsen on horn and Jacob Coleman on piano.
Klug, a professor of clarinet, said he always enjoys faculty recitals.
“The collaboration is wonderful,” Klug said. “I love just being able to make beautiful music together.”
Lukas said Ludwig, the chair of the woodwind department, and Coleman, a post-doctoral scholar and visiting assistant professor of collaborative piano for the department, arranged the concert.
In addition to the performances of the music school faculty, the recital will showcase Coleman’s abilities, Klug said.
The program includes “Two pieces for bassoon and piano (1996)” by Jean Françaix, “Sonata for clarinet and piano (1970)” by Carlos Guastavino, “Andante et rondo, Op. 25” by Franz Doppler and “Quintet in E-Flat major for piano and winds, K.452” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Lukas will perform Doppler’s piece with Robertello. She said the music is fun and romantic and it has a fast, dance-like section with a Hungarian flavor and a slow section with beautiful melodies and intertwining flute parts.
“It’s not your deep type of music that is cerebral in any way,” Lukas said. “It’s charming.”
Lukas plays the second flute part in the piece, but the two flutes are equally balanced, she said. Although two flutists might not always be compatible, Lukas said she and Robertello have different voices of flute performance that go well together.
Lukas said she likes putting these voices together and creating emotion, whether it is a dance or a lyrical feeling.
“With the flute, you don’t want to be bored, making a pretty sound and nothing else,” Lukas said. “You want to bring some variety to your performance.”
Many members of the public tend to come when they see a faculty recital advertised, Lukas said.
“We wanted to blow our horn a bit better to the public,” Lukas said.
The recital can also set an example for the students because it is more effective if the students can see their teachers perform, rather than simply telling them to play a certain way, Lukas said. This helps the students improve their musical skills and see the professors in another light, Lukas said. The woodwind students perform in front of eleven faculty members for exams, so it helps to see the professors play at a recital.
“I recommend to them: you’ve got to come to this concert and see how everyone makes music and how much they love music,” Lukas said. “They are actually wanting you to be as musical as they are and to succeed in your efforts to bring that piece to life.”
