This Friday at 8 p.m. Christ Chapel will be hosting a crossover of musical instruments and styles, featuring Hillsdale faculty members Brad Blackham, Chris McCourry, Emily Douglass, and guest musician Edward Maki-Schramm.
Brad Blackham, director of keyboard studies, will be playing piano in the recital. Blackham said he loves the opportunities he has at Hillsdale to perform with other musicians.
“I’m just very happy and very lucky to have a career like I do here at Hillsdale that allows me to both teach and perform, and the more I can perform with our talented music faculty and the guest artists we bring in the better,” Blackham said.
Chris McCourry, director of jazz ensembles, will be performing trumpet in the recital. Blackham and McCourry have been collaborating in recitals since 2005, when Blackham first joined the Hillsdale faculty.
McCourry will be playing “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Modest Mussorgsky. Blackham described “Pictures at an Exhibition” as a “phenomenal piece” and one he hasn’t yet experienced with organ and trumpet.
Emily Douglass, artist-teacher of music, joins the ensemble with her voice. She will be singing a piece with McCourry entitled “Let the Bright Seraphim,” a trumpet and voice piece composed by Handel and very popular in the Baroque era, Douglass said. This is not the first time Douglass has collaborated at the college, she said, as just last November she joined Blackham as a fellow soloist in the orchestra concert.
Edward Maki-Schramm, the organist and choirmaster of Christ Church in Detroit and the artistic director and conductor for the Community Chorus of Detroit, will be joining the Hillsdale faculty. He and McCourry will be concluding the program with the aforementioned “Pictures at an Exhibition,” arranged from its original form as a piano piece to a duet for trumpet and organ.
The recital is free of charge and students are encouraged to attend and experience the rich music showcased by this program.
“Music can be enjoyable for students that don’t study music,” Douglass said. “College is a time where students are studying new topics and forming new ideas. If you have never attended a music recital, now is a great time to try it.”
