Celicia Upper, 74, said she and her husband come to the music school concerts on a regular basis because her husband, Henry Upper, used to be an associate dean in the music school.
“We come to probably three concerts a week, and we have for about 50 years,” Upper said.
The music school presented “An Evening of Chamber Music by Johannes Brahms” at Auer Hall.
The concert consisted of a small group of seven musicians on piano, violin, cello and viola. They performed without a conductor.
The recital featured faculty, students and guest artist Manabu Suzuki.
Suzuki, an award-winning musician from Japan, performed viola at the concert.
Suzuki is also a violinist, and he has performed in orchestras such as the Bruckner Orchestra Linz in Austria, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and Japan Chamber Orchestra.
In 2004, he became the principal violist with Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.
The concert’s repertoire included “Piano Quartet in C Minor, Op. 60” and “String Quintet in G Major, Op. 111” by Brahms.
Upper said she was familiar with many of the artists performing in the concert.
“It has great performers from the Jacobs School,” Upper said.
Freshman Madeleine Fournier said the concert was the first performance she has attended in the music school.
She enjoys classical music, she said, and was excited to see student involvement in the recital.
“It’s pretty impressive that students are in it,” Fournier said.
Audience member Lou Newman, 84, said she and her husband are frequent attendees of the performances in Auer Hall, and they like to keep up to date with the events in the music school by reading newspapers and looking at the music school website.
Ninety-nine percent of the time, it is free to see a concert in the music school, Newman said, so she likes to take advantage of those opportunities.
She said one of the reasons she was excited about this concert was the music selection.
“I’m a big Brahms fan,” Newman said.
Newman said she was impressed by the performance of each musician. There are many fabulous musicians performing in the music school, Newman said, and she thought they played beautifully at the concert.
“They were all marvelous,” Newman said. “They had it all together.”
Newman said she encourages all students to experience the performances at the music school.
“Students who do not partake in these concerts are missing part of their education,” Newman said.
