The piano and cello recital ‘The Evening of Sonatas’ serenaded audience members with a myriad of symphonies for students, faculty, and families at the Liberal Arts Campus.
Pianist and LBCC faculty Hannah Yi collaborated with cellist Fransisco Vila Haas in the Ruth Todd Concert Hall during the sonata that evening.
The two met in a workshop called the LA Conducting Workshop at Glendale Community College. Yi expressed how she has always wanted to collaborate with Haas and decided to take the opportunity on her first faculty recital.
“I’m faculty here, so I’ve been wanting to do a faculty recital but didn’t want to play by myself. So he was like, ‘Let’s collaborate’ and I was like ‘Sure.’ That was a perfect time to collaborate and I’ve been wanting to play a recital and he’s amazing,” Yi said.
Haas travels from LA to Boston once every month because he has a full-time teaching position at the Longy School of Music of Bard College.
Cello has been part of Haas’s life since he was eight years old. He chose the instrument to play when he was in a music class.
“Since I was eight. What happened was that I started in elementary school and they used to have public programs back then for music. Orchestra class they used to call it. On my first day, I was eight years old, I think it was fourth grade for me, they had us choose an instrument and I chose the cello. And it stuck ever since,” Haas said.
For the performance, Haas played with a cello that was gifted to him ten years ago by a patron of his. The cello was made in London in 1790 by Vincenzo Panormo.
Hannah Yi is a piano professor at LBCC and teaches piano for beginners and advanced students. She teaches full-time and took the position four years ago when she saw the position open.
Yi has been playing the piano for 34 years and her mother wanted her to play the instrument when she was younger. Playing the piano allows Yi to give a euphoric performance for her audience.
“The ability to express myself, and have other people feel what I feel and to kind of take them on a journey away, just for that little hour for them to check out and experience beautiful music, whatever it takes them,” Hannah Yi said.
Before she stepped out on stage, Yi gave her insight on what she hoped for the performance.
“I’m just hoping that people really enjoy our music making and see that we really enjoy playing this music for people and that they receive it well and that they go home leaving an impression on them,” Yi said.
The pair played 2nd Sonata by Beethoven in G minor and also Sonata by Chopin in G minor. Haas came up with the idea to play both the Sonatas as he plans to play them for a performance he is planning for later this year.
Throughout the performance, the audience was entranced by the two instruments playing classic pieces and gave a well-received a round of applause after each Sonata.
“They were very in tune with each other which is very beautiful to see and tell a story back and forth, it was beautiful. And the fact that he’s playing on that instrument that’s so old, it’s so rich and there’s such history there and we were really intrigued,” Drew Schuffman said, a friend of Yi’s who attended the recital.
No further dates on an upcoming performance have been released, however, Haas is planning for performances next year.