The reflection of his hands in the flatboard of the grand piano made it seem like Amornkiat was merging with the piano. Photo by Kaycee Davis
It ended as every musician might hope their final performance at their alma mater might end, with a standing ovation that included loud but polite whoops from an energized, enthusiastic audience.
For Tiger Amornkiat, playing his senior recital on July 1, this end was also a new beginning.
Amornkiat wowed an audience in the UAA Arts Building playing the four movements in Beethoven’s Sonata in C major, Op. 2 #3, “Musica Nara” by Tokuyama, and Schubert’s Fantasie in C major, Op. 15 D 760 (“Wanderer-Fantasie”).
He finished with “La Valse” by Ravel.
Amornkaiat is completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts in music from UAA this semester and plans to continue studying and playing music after graduating.
I had no idea what I was getting into when I went to the recital – my background is not music. I messaged the music department ahead of time and there just wasn’t enough time for me to specifically learn all the parlance to describe what I would experience.
Dr. Timothy Smith, Amornkiat’s piano teacher at UAA, had written in an email that the senior recital concerts “typically showcase some of [the musician’s] most difficult and challenging repertoire.”
Going to a musical recital is a lot like going to a one person play, and just like in a monologue where the actor wouldn’t bring a script on stage, Amornkiat had no sheet music for reference. He was one guy on a stage with a grand piano.
He stepped out, walked to his seat at the piano and started to play.
The piano is classified as a string instrument and also percussion, and on this evening its capacities were displayed to their fullest. Amornkiat would arch his back, raise his hands and pounce on the keys to get the full sound out of the piano. The reflection of his hands on the flatboard of the grand piano made it seem that he was merging with it.
Amornkiat may not have left his chair, but his intense physical movement was constant and swift as he hit the keys from one side of the piano to the other. His exertion was like watching someone running a three mile race. That he would do this for almost two hours was like watching him run a minimarathon.
My favorite piece came at the end. Amornkiat played “La Valse” by Maurice Ravel. This piece, as explained at the Houston Symphony website, was commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev, artistic director of Ballet Russes and completed in 1920, was initially written to be a ballet. Diaghelev did not like it for dance, but it was immediately taken up by musicians to play for its own sake. It is abstract – what starts out feeling like a waltz is at times depressing and dark, and other times very light.
After a standing ovation, Anornkiat told the audience that he has been accepted to the Manhattan School of Music, but that he is going to take a gap year and start in the autumn of 2024.
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