The Lakeland Music Department held its annual Spring Honors Recital in the Bradley Theatre on Tuesday, April 8. The audience was small but attentive when the first musician walked onstage to perform.

Senior and veteran performer Fabian Qamar walked onstage with pianist Elizabeth Daniels. Qamar sang a German number called “Nur wer die Sehnsuct kennt.” The piece was slow and short, but was done quite well by the senior tenor.

Next, Hanako Jin performed a piece on piano called “Polichinelle.” Jin’s fingers moved wildly over the keys of the concert grand piano. She played the piece with much precision.

Another piece was “Romanian Folk Dances,” performed by student and violinist Annie Kincaid. She, along with pianist Dan Ognavic, played four different songs within the piece. The second song was played very high in pitch on the violin, sounding almost like a flute or piccolo.

After Kincaid finished her violin piece, Thomas Pibal, senior vocal performance and pedagogy major, and partner Samantha DeVries performed an entertaining duet called “The Watch Duet” from the opera Die Fledermaus. Pibal and DeVries both wore masks over their eyes and acted out a scene between two characters from” Die Fledermaus “during the performance. The song was sung in English and entertained the audience with laughter. Pibal had brought a pocket watch onstage for effect. The song was done to a tee and seemed to be a crowd favorite.

“Performing feels more connected as a vocalist,” said Pibal after the show. “It conveys some kind of message that connects with the audience.”

A few songs later, Katie Christensen, sophomore piano performance and pedagogy major, performed “Ballade” by famous composer and pianist Claude Debussy. Christensen’s piece was very smooth. She, like many of the other performers, played the piece from memory.

“I love to perform because I like being able to share my music with other people,” explained Christensen in an interview.

A little later, seniors Rachel Hakala and Qamar worked together to perform the famous song “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” from the well-known opera Carmen. Hakala sang the waltz-like song while Qamar plunked away at the piano. The piece was an audience favorite.

Kyle Stowers, who had been the stagehand throughout the recital, played “Eight Profiles for Trumpet: 5” with just a trumpet.

Jacob Nault, freshman music education major, performed a very high pitched tenor piece entitled “Bist du bei mir.” The German piece was done very quickly, but was well performed by the young singer.

“Performing allows me to express myself through music that other ways don’t allow,” said Nault.

The recital was wrapped up with juniors Tia Pribbernow and Siera Ramirez performing “Evening Prayer” from the German opera Hansel and Gretel. The two soprano women sang the very lovely tune with great talent. Their high voices filled the auditorium with music. Arthur Johnson, associate professor of music, was also onstage playing piano.

The recital was a great way for the Lakeland musicians to perform one or two songs in any language that they wanted right before the school year comes to a close.