Senior Reporter

The CSU Bakersfield Music Department held its annual spring Chamber Music Concert on Sunday in the music building. And there were more styles than there were musicians who played for an eager and crowded room. The selection ranged from classical compositions such as a xylophone rendition of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Fugue in G minor, to a reworked classical guitar version of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” All performances were given loud ovations.

With the swoop and silent flick of the maestros wrist, the first performance of the evening was a trumpet rendition of Johann Ernst Altenburg’s. The sound was classic and nothing short of royal as if the tumpet players (Alejandro Arvizu, Angel Gonzalez, Martin Mejia) and the timpani player (Robert Cevantes) were welcoming home a king or even preparing troops for battle. This performance was followed quickly and bizarrely by a dark heavy German selection of Melody Bobers that Joel Lyva and Luz Rodriguez thundered on the piano—leaving the audience sadly captivated.

Although oddly juxtaposed, the success of the spring concert lied largely in this ability to contrast the variety of sounds from a variety of eras so that the audience members were kept in a constant state of tension. This occurred not only emotionally, in the style of music that was being performed, and the instruments of the players who performed them.

This tactic was most successful in the performance that followed the somber selection played by Rodriguez and Leyva. Nicole Nalupa and Sharyn Absher played a quirky and humorous flute/French Horn duet composed by American composter Jan Bach. In a piece called the Second Lieutenant—described as a military officer whose position doesn’t reveal his true nature—a large triumphant sound of the French Horn is disrupted by the light twittering of the flute, suggesting the officer’s more feminine, kindly nature. In another piece called Calliope, the contrast sounded more like a drunk circus band.

The French Horn wailed like an elephant with a fatal cold, while the flute softened this blowing of the nose sound. But that isn’t to say it wasn’t pleasing. After every one of the Nalupa’s and Absher’s renditions, the crowd erupted into laughter as did Nalupa and Absher. This pattern repeated itself when music director Jim Scully and five other guitarists (Eric Borja, Joaquin Calderon, Bernardo Flores, Salvador Rios, Quoc Trieu) performed light classical pieces like Thomas Morley’s “Dainty Fine Sweet Nymph” and Isaac Albeniz’s “Pavana.” However, the most applauded song of the evening was Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.”

The audience couldn’t refrain from nodding their heads. Andrew Raymond, a 22-year-old audience member who attended the spring concert with his wife, said “I really enjoyed it. There was a wide variety going from classicals to classic rock.”