Reflections from Miertschin's faculty brass recital
Professor Chris Miertschin shares about inspiration, preparation, and takeaways from his recent faculty recital
Last week, on February 6, Assistant Professor of Music Chris Miertschin performed his faculty brass recital. The recital included eight pieces and showcased Miertschin’s talent on several different brass instruments.
Preparing for this kind of performance takes time. When asked about the practice process, Miertschin noted his range of familiarity with the works.
“With a combination of pieces like this, I tried to balance the familiar with the unfamiliar; there were a few pieces I had performed before that needed to be brushed off and polished and a few that were very new to me.”
“Leading up to the recital itself, of course communicating more with Dr. Liu was essential,” Miertschin stated. “Rehearsal with your pianist is so valuable, and I’m grateful we have such a fabulous collaborative pianist in Dr. Liu!”
When performing a recital, selecting repertoire is an important and challenging process. Miertschin spoke on why he selected pieces, and inspiration for the recital as a whole.
“Truly, this was a recital of repertoire for the instruments I play that came together as a pretty fun program; I’ve long wanted to perform several of these works, and finally gave myself a reason to do so with a faculty recital! “The other piece of inspiration behind this recital was to put myself out there as an artist - you can’t get better if you never create anything.”
Miertschin concluded by noting his takeaways from the performance. “The biggest thing I take away from performing this recital is that I should perform more often! Putting artistic performance out into the world is something many of us talk ourselves out of,” he added, “but at the end of the day I put a creative performance on display for the world to see and I’m proud to have done so.”
“Simply feeling like things aren’t as polished as you may like doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put them out into the world - enjoy the creative process and let the world enjoy your art! You never improve if you don’t create things; finish your projects, give yourself public deadlines, and create!”
Professor Miertschin put together an excellent recital and is just one example of the many talented professors in our Music Department here at Bethel College.