On the evening of Sunday, Mar. 1, the University of Connecticut Music Department held a recital called “Her Voice, Her Story.”
The recital took place at the Von der Mehden Recital Hall, featuring UConn students Haritha Subramanian on vocals and Sangwoo Park on piano.
Their performance featured eight different songs. The songs were mostly emotional, and they were centered around the lives of women.
“Povera ma!” is an Italian tune that describes relationships and death. The song was short, but its melodies and vocals were absolutely beautiful. Subramanian’s Italian was amazing, and her vocals blended in with the piano’s emotional music, creating a heart-tugging sound for the audience.
“How Do I Love Thee” is a song about different scenarios where someone expresses their love. It’s not popular, but it’s glorious. Subramanian’s voice remained powerful throughout the performance, and Park’s piano melodies added a lovely touch to it.
“In the Springtime” is from the 1970s and is based on a poem by William Shakespeare. It’s dedicated to Barbara Wright-Pryor, a charter member from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra African American Network. The tune has an uplifting tone that remained prevalent throughout the performance, which was done beautifully. Like the preceding songs, Subramanian’s vocals were strong, and they fit nicely with the piano.
A set of German songs by Robert Schuman featured four different tunes that told the love story of a woman and her lover.
The first of the set, “Seit ich ihn gesehen,” describes the moment the woman first falls in love with a man and begins seeing him in her dreams. The second tune, “Er, der herrlichste von allen,” is about a woman who praises the man she loves but begins to devalue herself. The lack of self-love the woman feels continues in the third tune, “Ich kann’s nicht fassen, nicht glauben.” While continuing to feel a lack of self-love, the man promises the woman to love her for the rest of her life. In the fourth tune, “Du Ring an meinem Finger,” the woman marries the man and receives a golden ring on her finger. When she marries him, she realizes her life’s internal value.
The entire set was cohesive. Subramanian’s German was flawless, and her emotional vocals and Park’s powerful piano melodies made a lovely sound that matched the story told in the songs.
“I Feel Pretty” is a song featured in the musical “West Side Story.” It discusses the pleasure of being a stunning and attractive woman. Compared to the other songs, the song was energetic.
“I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart” is a 1930s piece describing breakups. The singer wants their lover back, and they wonder whether it’s too late to fix the relationship. The song had an emotional and charming appeal that was well-performed by Subramanian and Park.
The final song, “My Favorite Things,” is a tune featured in “The Sound of Music,” a well-known musical film. The film’s main character, Maria, sings the song to describe the many things she adores and relishes. At the end of the song, she mentions that whenever a bad day comes, the singer thinks of her favorite things to feel better.
The song’s not only remarkably performed by Maria in the film, but it was brilliantly performed by Subramanian in the recital as well. Her vocals sounded as beautiful as Maria’s, and the music sounded as excellent as the film.
Subramanian reflected on her final recital after the show concluded.
“It was a lot of work,” Subramanian said. “Picking out the songs crafted the vision I wanted it to be. I’m also a political science major and women’s reproductive health major, so I’m really passionate about representation and music, and I wanted that to be represented in what my senior recital was, so talking about centering voices that were often marginalized and not really performed.”
The audience was very small. However, they all gave applause at the end of each song.
Sahana Ganesh, an eighth-semester student majoring in computer science, said the recital was wonderful.
“I enjoyed it very much,” Ganesh said. “Haritha’s my roommate, so I got to see a lot of her practice runs behind the scenes. And just to see her visions out on the stage was very enjoyable to watch.”