Robyn's Rain-Delayed Recital

Last Sunday we finally got to hear the culmination of the last two years' worth of work that Robyn has done. We were blessed with a beautiful day, not too sunny and definitely not raining. Instead of having her recital in a drab, dark recital hall on campus, Robyn was able to move it off-campus to the Westmoreland Chapel at our church. Having it at 2:00 p.m. also meant that lots of our church friends went to lunch after worship and came back to hear the recital, so it was pretty well attended. Robyn looked fabulous in her blue formal, but I'll refrain from saying anything about her footwear...

Robyn had designed a very creative program theme: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue. The "old" part was a piece from the 18th century for two bassoons and harpsichord; however, the chapel is not equipped with a harpsichord, so her very versatile accompanist, Daryl Robinson, played the organ. The second bassoon part was ably performed by Richard Westmoreland,pictured below.



"Something New" was a duo concertante for bassoon and piano by Damian Montano, a young man whom we met several years ago when he was studying at Rice. He now lives in LA, and Robyn's looking forward to visiting with him when she moves out there. Daryl was her collaborator on this piece, as well.

The third piece in her program was borrowed from the alto saxophone repertoire. It was a solo piece with no accompaniment and really showcased her playing.



Her fourth and final piece, which was the inspiration for the program, was Peter Schickele's(aka PDQ Bach) "Blue Set No. 2" for bassoon quartet. Robyn's friends from UH, who call themselves the "Bourbon Bassoon Quartet," joined her on this set of three incredibly technical, jazzy, fun pieces that brought the house down. Stephen Thomas, Kristin Spraberry, and John Stroble are pictured above with Robyn. They all worked really hard to learn their parts and help make the recital a resounding success.

Of course, one person who's been incredibly important in Robyn's growth as a musician is her teacher for these past two years, Cheryl Huddleston. She seemed very proud of Robyn and was even willing to have her picture taken with her.



We had a nice reception in the courtyard outside the chapel afterwards. It was so nice of Susan to bake cookies all week to replace the ones we had eaten after the ill-fated monsoon day the previous weekend. We even had one of our childhood favorites to share, ginger creams with lemon icing, which were a big hit. We were especially pleased that several of our extended family members were able to come and hear the recital. All in all, it was a remarkable day!