A spotlight, a projector, a variety of instruments and vocal artists. The combination is bound to create one hell of a show.

Such was the case in the seventh annual Prism Concert hosted by the Syracuse University music industry program, held Thursday night in Setnor Auditorium.

‘This will be a very unique concert because the individual and group performances will be continual,’ said Emily Fox, a producer for the show and a senior in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, before the show.

The concert was extremely interesting, as it offered a diversity of sounds with different instruments, including the organ, the percussion, the ballad and the piano. Everyone in the music industry program participated, said Doug Soyars, chairman of music industry and an associate professor in the School of Music.

Every performance was made up small groups, which were strategically placed around the room to create a better acoustic effect for the entirety of the concert. This position of the instruments really helped to bring out the show as a whole, because it allowed the varied sounds of the instruments to be heard in unusual, but interesting ways.

‘The show was really put together well with a nice selection of sounds and the overall placement of the musicians was perfect to create a better sound for the audience,’ said Nick Meyer, a junior music and computer science major.

The show also used different effects and techniques with lights to enhance the performance. The room was completely dark, except for different spotlights, whose rays shined on the performing artists. After every performance, the artist’s names, instruments and piece was displayed on a projector placed on the right side of the room in the front of the auditorium.

Most of the music performed was from the 19th and 20th centuries, and included pieces written by Ludwig van Beethoven, Vincent Persichetti, Minory Miki and Kurt Weil.

One of the more interesting pieces was the Marimba Spiritual composed by Minoru Miki, which included four diverse performers. The major part of the piece was performed by R.J. Hrubiec, a senior music industry major, on percussion. This number was not only pleasing to listen to, but extremely interesting to look at as Hrubiec played his instrument with two percussion drumsticks held in each hand. The sound was one which really stood out from the typical pieces.

‘The sound created from that instrument is very interesting, and just watching someone play it is pretty amazing,’ said Vince Insalaco, a sophomore music industry and performance major.

The most exciting and enthusiastic performance of the night was the Brazilian Ensemble, which consisted of 26 artists playing an interesting selection of instruments.

‘That piece was amazing and was very well performed,’ said Chris Reynolds, a sophomore linguistics major.

The group of performers started from the outside of the room, walked down both aisles, met in front of center stage and exited behind the stage. As they entered the room, the sounds of the instruments pierced through the crowd one by one. The sound was brought together once they reached the front of the stage and finally faded out as the performers exited the room. This effect created an overall sound enjoyed by most of the crowd.

Another well-done part of the show was when Main Squeeze, one of Syracuse University’s a capella groups, performed ‘Kiss form a Rose.’ This number, originally written by Seal, was another performance discussed among a lot of the audience during the reception after the show.

Overall, the show was a unique blend of different sights and sounds that left a lasting impression on the entire audience.

‘I thought this concert was the best concert I’ve gone to for the entire school year,’ said Katie O’Rourke, a junior biology major.

Published on March 23, 2006 at 12:00 pm