For the final pentathlon event of the semester, I chose the Spring Koto Ensemble. It’s held every year, and the performance was lovely. I’ve never really known what a koto was, or how to play one, so this was a very interesting experience for me. There were also songs that featured the flute, the sangen, and the shakuhachi. These were all really nice instruments, and the shakuhachi was especially fun because it was like a mixture between a recorder and a flute in terms of how you played it. My favorite song was “Ochiba Surukoro (Season of Falling Leaves)” that only had two koto playing, but all the songs were really nice to listen to. There was even singing in some! The singing was very similar to opera and flowed very well with the instruments. I definitely plan on attending another koto ensemble, and maybe even taking the class. I enjoyed it immensely. 

I attended the small presentation with Rene Marie. Hearing her story was incredible. She didn’t begin her career until mid life, after her children were already grown. She is a very strong person, and she really inspired me to continue with my passions. Her singing was also incredible, even when she was singing without any sort of accompaniment. I’ve always liked jazz, and after this presentation I started listening to her music specifically. 

On Saturday, March 10th, I went to see the MFA Dance Thesis Concert. It was a very impressive performance, and had many components to it. After the first half, they asked to leave to view an intermission performance. On the way back for the second half, they chose some of the audience, myself included, to become props for the performance. We only stood on stage for a few minutes, but it was still an interesting experience. The floor of the stage was the most impressive to me. The floor changed and moved along with the dancers, and the accuracy of it all was phenomenal. During one song, wherever the dancers stepped a ripple of water would emanate. It was almost as if the floor was pressurized and sensed the dancers’ movements. Maybe it did, I’m not sure of the mechanics behind it. But either way I really had a wonderful time. 

On Tuesday, March 6th, I went to see the Spring Big Band Showcase. Two of the school’s jazz bands performed and they had many different styles of jazz. I really enjoyed the first group, who played about four songs. I had never been to a live jazz performance before, and the set up was very interesting to me. They had to baritone saxophones which I wasn’t expecting, since they had a lot of trombones. There was also a tuba, which was even more surprising as I didn’t think of them as jazz instruments. They played very well, and the only instrument that occasionally overplayed were the trumpets. 

On Saturday, February 10th, I went to a screening of the film, “Mr. Nobody.” The film is about the last mortal man in an immortal society, and follows his life until his final moments. The moving is very emotional, and has a lot of sad events in it, such as the accident this man had in his youth halfway through the film. It also doesn’t talk much about the immortal aspect of the society, which isn’t what I was expecting. It was a very interesting film though, and I really enjoyed the way it skipped around the man’s life to key moments. 

I went to the art gallery in Stamp on Thursday, December 7. This gallery focused more on contemporary art and was relatively small in size. I’m not the biggest fan of contemporary art, but these two paintings were well done. They used nice colors and perspective. Some of the other pieces were too contemporary for my tastes, however. One exhibit was made of plastic bags and containers, and another was just cutouts of pictures, so I wasn’t sure what made them “Art”. But it’s different for everyone, so who am I to judge. Overall, the exhibit was nice, I just wish it had been a little bigger.

Pentathlon 3

I went and watched the Korean Samulnori performance on Monday, November 27. Samulnori is a type of drum group that uses 4 instruments: 2 types of drum and 2 types of gong. The UMD Samulnori class played a song, but the majority of the performance was done by a Samulnori troupe from DC. They also had a Korean dancer perform a traditional Korean dance. The percussion was very well synchronized, and it was fun to cheer them on during solos and other climactic moments. The rhythms used in Samulnori were very complex and it amazed me at how they were able to do some of the movements. I also really enjoyed the streamer hats they wore for the final song. It was a very fun performance and it gave a really good look into traditional Korean entertainment.

Pentathlon 2

I watched the Korean film “Memories of Murder” on Thursday, October 19th. It was one of the Scholar’s Coffee and Crafts events. It was a very interesting movie about Korea’s first serial murder case. It was based off the real case from the 1980′s, and it was a very thrilling movie to watch. I was very frustrated when the movie ended and they never caught the murderer, and I’m sure that’s what they felt when it really happened. I did really like the “moral” they had though, which was that anyone has the capacity for doing bad things and you can’t really base it off how someone appears on the outside. 

Pentathlon 1

I saw the play “Antigone” by Sophocles on October 13th at the Clarice. The play was very fun and interesting, as well as surprisingly easy to understand given the play is 2,000 years old. Most of the plot and humor is similar to things we watch today which I was not expecting. The play was about an hour and a half which I liked because it wasn’t long enough to bore you. Overall I enjoyed the play and the cast did a fantastic job!

What did you see/hear/learn that was completely new to you?

NextNow Fest was the first time I got to hear string instruments perform together during the string quartet.

What was your favorite performance/experience? Why was it your favorite?

My favorite was the concert band because it reminded me of when I played sax in High School. Band was always my favorite class, and I am always happy to hear other bands perform.

How might one or more of the performances/experiences relate to the Arts Scholars theme of "Going Viral"?

The band Anamanaguchi could be related to “Going Viral” because their entire fan-base was created through posting their music on the internet.