Lennon Kreuger, contributor 

This past Monday, Nov. 2, the Augsburg small ensemble took place, featuring bands of varying size and instrumentation. The opening was a Balkan Folk Music ensemble, consisting of Patrice Downs on violin, Korey Groshel on guitar, Eddie Hollahan on electric bass, Alicia Perez Rivera on piano, Red Sainsbury on vocals, Emma Stanley on flute and the faculty coach Nickolai Kolarov playing the cello. The second group was a duet between Cody Owen on acoustic guitar and Adrian Hobbs singing, with Andrew McCullough as their faculty coach. Third was a duet by Azariah Myart-Young on violin and Nick Berg on piano, coached by faculty member Ann Ainomae. Lastly was a guitar trio, Nick Flugstad, Finn Murdock and Liv Perry, who also sang; this group was coached by Michael Krajewski.

The Balkan combo started the show with a Serbian traditional song, “Ajde Jano,” sung by Red. Following was a Bulgarian traditional song, “Pajdushko,” which had no singing and lastly they performed “Jovano Jovanke,” which is a Macedonian traditional song. Each song was introduced with a short clicking/tapping done by Kolarov to set the tempo and introduce the rhythm, which was important, as he told the audience before the performance, “Tonight we will only play irregular rhythms.” Stanley said that the music was hard to get used to playing, “It took us a minute to fit together, but when we did it was really cool.” In their last song, “Jovano, Javanke,” Hollahan had a solo on bass that was phenomenal, carrying the audience through the bridge into the last phrase of their last song.

I talked to Owen about the creation of the groups, where the Balkan group was open and the rest of the groups were about finding a partner and picking your own songs. In Hobbs and Owen‘s duet, the audience was treated to a calming and soothing, soft wave of music. They performed “Nacht Und Träume”  by Franz Schubert. Following this was a song in an opera-like style, “Music For a While” by Henry Purcell and then ended it with a melancholy love song, “Harvest Moon” by Neil Young. These songs all had a very relaxing feel and a great performance from Hobbs and Owen.

Third was Myart-Young and Berg’s performance of “Saigetsu/Blue Moon” by TAMUSIC.

This piece really showed a dual focus. Less like an accompaniment, the melody was passed between the two while the other would pass off the harmony. It ebbed and flowed throughout its duration, showing many different emotions and containing returning motives to help the listener have a sense of place in the music, not feeling lost in the extended piece of music through its many parts.

Lastly was Perry, Flugstad and Murdock’s ensemble, featuring two originals by Perry: “Jenny” and “Backwards Forwards.” Starting with “Backwards Forwards,” the audience was immediately thrust into an alt-rock to punk style while Perry sang and the guitars all came to life with her. As the songs went on, Perry’s talent really had the opportunity to shine through. Second and ending the concert they played “Jenny,” containing a keyboard making chords with the pipe organ setting. 

All in all, it was a great concert and you should come out to the next one in the spring!