USD Student Rebecca Kelley Premieres Solo Piano Performance
Rebecca Kelley, junior music performance major, showcased her piano skills at her solo recital on Friday, April 12.
She played the recital individually, but had one collaborative piece where she performed with a violinist and a cellist.
Kelley’s selections included Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata No. 17 in D minor (Tempest), Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 and others.
Kelley’s journey with piano began when she was just four years old.
She had an older brother who played, who inspired her to start playing, which then would lead to her making a career out of it.
It was in highschool that she decided that being a music major was what she wanted to do in college.
Now, Kelley performs recitals every week, and has her own piano studio where she teaches lessons.
Kelley stays busy with putting in hours of practice time between recitals and teaching lessons.
“Everyday, the goal is three hours of practice time,” Kelley said.
However, since she plays new music for each performance, and almost everything is memorized, it is common for her to put in up to six hours of practice time in a day, especially before recitals.
Most of the music Kelley plays comes from different composers, her favorite being Ravel.
She plays a lot of classical repertoire, and some jazz, but every once in a while, she will perform an original work.
“Most of the music I write isn’t classical, so I don’t typically play them,” Kelley said. “But if there’s an encore and the audience calls for more, then sometimes I’ll play them, along with other works that I want to play.”
Kelley shares her original music online. She can be found on Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora.
She already has an album out called When I Say Goodnight and her artist name is Polar-Piano.
This solo recital was not Kelley’s last performance. She also has other coming up, one almost everyday until the end of the year, so she will continue to stay busy.
