While "The Emotions of Music" is the title and theme for the Symphony of the Lakes concert Friday, the highlight may be the performance of two pianists.
Jennifer Jackson and Chara Sonntag are the featured performers for the concert at Rodeheaver Auditorium. They will perform Mozart's "Concerto for Two Pianos" during the entire second half of the concert. Mozart's piece is the finale and an expression of "Joy", according to Symphony Director Patrick Kavanaugh.
During an interview Tuesday afternoon, Jackson said she's originally from California. She started playing the piano at 9 years old because her older sister was taking it and she became jealous. She taught the piano to herself.
At 16, she started taking classical music lessons. She ended up at State University in California before moving on to Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore to earn several degrees. After that, she joined the MasterWorks Festival.
"I really came to love this area," Jackson said.
She then moved to Washington, D.C., to freelance and has been there the past three years. She flew in to Warsaw Tuesday just to perform in the concert Friday.
While in Washington, Jackson said she's been with a modern musical ensemble, and played at the National Gallery recently. Two years ago, she played at the Kennedy Center on the Millennium Stage.
She also played with the Symphony of the Lakes a couple of years ago.
Sonntag said her story was very similar to Jackson's. She started playing piano at 7 years old because her two older siblings were taking piano.
From Middlebury, Sonntag studied with Goshen-area teachers in high school. At Goshen College, she studied under Dr. Matthew Hill and Marilynn Ham. She completed her undergraduate degree at Judson College. She is working on completing her master's degree at Ball State University now.
Sonntag is part of a trio called Soli Deo Gloria. They play at a variety of events and locations from festivals to nursing homes.
"We do keep pretty busy with that," she said.
Kavanaugh said both of the young women played with MasterWorks but never played together before.
For Mozart's "Concerto" Friday, he said they will play off each other.
"It really is a conversation. One answers the other. It's very cleverly written," he said.
"The entire second half of the concert is this piece. It takes the whole intermission to get set up for this," Kavanaugh said.
The first piece Friday will be "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg. It demonstrates the emotion of "fun," Kavanaugh said.
"Awe" or "wonder" are expressed in the second piece, "Russian Easter Overture" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
"Adagio for Strings" by American composer Samuel Barber is the third piece and it evokes the emotion of "sorrow." It was played for the funeral of John F. Kennedy, Kavanaugh said.
"Bacchanale" from the opera "Samson and Delilah" by Camille Saint-Saens is meant to represent "love" for the fourth piece.
Asked what pieces or movements in Mozart's "Concert" evoke emotions in them, Jackson said she really loves Shostakovitch's "Second Piano Concerto", especially the second movement. It's like Mozart's "Concerto" in that the "Concerto" is slow and pensive, but Shostakovitch's piece is more slow and questioning. Mozart is more pensive than questioning. A pianist has to be at peace with themselves to play Mozart, she said.
Sonntag said the third movement of Mozart is very playful and spunky, while the first movement is very pompous and in some ways attention grabbing.
"The first movement is more formal," Jackson agreed.
"The way he weaves parts together is so Mozart, so genius. You can't blend parts together any other way. One part doesn't overtake the other though," she continued.
Kavanaugh said when Jackson and Sonntag are at the pianos, they will be facing each other like a duel.
The concert is free and open to the public, including whole families. Kavanaugh said little children are welcome.
"It's really a family oriented concert," he said.The Friday night concert is at 7:30 p.m. at the Rodeheaver Auditorium in Winona Lake. It is the last Symphony concert of this year.
For more information, call the Symphony of the Lakes office at 574-267-1888 or visit the website at www.symphonyofthelakes.com
