Traditionally, a graduate piano recital would include the student performing on one piano and an accompanist playing a reduced orchestral score on another piano.
University of Texas at San Antonio graduate student Eymen Geylan has bucked tradition by asking the entire 76-member South Texas Symphonic Orchestra to back her for her Feb. 24 recital, featuring the Franz Liszt composition Piano Concerto No. 2.
“She just didn’t want another piano player, she wanted a real orchestra,” said the orchestra’s artistic director Ronnie Sanders, who called the Izmir, Turkey-born Geylan “a visionary” for her effort.
Sanders will conduct Gaylen’s recital as part of a full program including works by Camille Saint-Saëns and San Antonio composer Federico Chávez-Blanco. The concert, at UTSA’s main campus, is free and open to the public.
Geylan’s performance of the Liszt concerto will culminate the evening program. She will be graded on her playing and will need to perform successfully to complete her studies.
UTSA piano professor Kasandra Keeling called the Liszt composition “an enormous undertaking,” and praised her student’s “command of such a tremendous work” in the concert program.
Admired for his virtuosity and considerable dexterity, Franz Liszt achieved great fame during his lifetime comparable to modern-day rock and pop stars. His compositions are said to require “substantial skill, impeccable technique, and stamina.”
Sanders compared Liszt’s popularity in the late 19th century to Taylor Swift’s today and praised his piano skills as reflected in his complex compositions.
“It’s an extremely difficult piece,” Sanders said of Piano Concerto No. 2. “If you hear any recording of it, you can almost imagine the fingers and think, how can they go so fast?”
He’s confident Geylan will do well, and called her work with the orchestra “a beautiful collaboration.”
The concert marks the first time the all-volunteer, San Antonio-based orchestra has partnered with UTSA, and working together has proved fruitful. Along with Geylan, UTSA master’s degree candidate Emily Densmore will sing soprano for the aria O Mio Babbino Caro from the Puccini opera Gianni Schicchi.
Also, San Antonio native Richard Novak will sing tenor for Puccini’s Nessun Dorma.
The goal is for all South Texas Symphonic Orchestra performances to be free, funded primarily by donations, Sanders said. For Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. concert at the UTSA Retama Auditorium Recital Hall, general admission seating is free, while the first two rows of VIP seating will help raise funds for the orchestra at $20 per seat.
Sanders said most general admission seating has been reserved, with several VIP seats available. More information on the concert is available on the South Texas Symphonic Orchestra website.
