THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY College of Music presents
Faculty/Guest Artist Recital of
Demondrae Thurman, Euphonium
Natalie Sherer, Piano
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
7:30 p.m. | Longmire Recital Hall
To Ensure An Enjoyable Concert Experience For All…
Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting during performances. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Recording or broadcasting of the concert by any means, including the use of digital cameras, cell phones, or other devices is expressly forbidden. Please deactivate all portable electronic devices including watches, cell phones, pagers, hand-held gaming devices or other electronic equipment that may distract the audience or performers.
Recording Notice: This performance may be recorded. Please note that members of the audience may at times be included in this process. By attending this performance you consent to have your image or likeness appear in any live or recorded video or other transmission or reproduction made in conjunction to the performance.
Florida State University provides accommodations for persons with disabilities. Please notify the College of Music at (850) 644-3424 at least five working days prior to a musical event to request accommodation for disability or alternative program format.
Variations
Sonata No. 2 “Tidings of Comfort and Joy”
Jerry Owen (b. 1944)
Barbara York
I. Plato’s Cave (1949–2020)
II. A Psalm of Peace
III. White Lightning
IV. Epilogue
Where Dreams Dance
Songs of a Wayfarer
Nathan Daughtrey (b. 1975)
Gustav Mahler
1. When my sweetheart is married (1860–1911)
2. I went this morning over the field
3. I have a gleaming knife
4. The two blue eyes of my beloved
Fantasie
James Stephenson (b. 1969)
PROGRAM
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Demondrae Thurman is Eugene O’Brien Bicentennial Executive Associate Dean, professor of music in euphonium, and chair of the Brass Department at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
Thurman has an outstanding international reputation as a euphonium soloist, having performed in Europe, Asia, and throughout North America. Many of America’s premier colleges and universities have hosted him as a performer and teacher, and he continues to be in high demand. Over the past 10 years, he has been an invited guest artist/ clinician at many of the world’s prestigious euphonium festivals, including the International Tuba Euphonium Conference, U.S. Army Band Tuba and Euphonium Conference, and Leonard Falcone Competition.
Thurman is also an active chamber musician. He plays first euphonium and trombone in the Sotto Voce Quartet, which tours extensively. He also plays first baritone horn in the Brass Band of Battle Creek, a British brass band comprised of many of the world’s best brass and percussion performers. In addition to his chamber music work, he is in demand as a euphonium specialist for symphony orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, and Philadelphia Orchestra.
Dynamic pianist Natalie Sherer thrives in collaboration with singers and instrumentalists alike. She began her role as Assistant Professor of Vocal Coaching & Collaborative Artist at Florida State University in 2022. Sherer made her Carnegie Hall debut as a performer in SongStudio 2024. Sherer was a performer for CollabFest 2023, the annual conference for the International Keyboard Collaborative Arts Society (IKCAS), and in 2022, Sherer was a Brown Loranger Fellow at SongFest and an emerging artist in Sparks & Wiry Cries’ NYC SongSLAM Festival. After joining the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) 2020 Intern Program, she performed in multiple presentations at the NATS 2022 National Conference. She recently premiered “Sorrow & Ecstasy: The Complete Songs of Henri Duparc,” a semi-staged musical narrative following four characters’ journeys of love and lament.
Sherer hosts the CollabPiano Podcast which celebrates art song and the collaboration between pianists and singers. Season two was supported by FSU’s First Year Assistant Professor Grant. A frequent recitalist, she has recently performed in events and master classes taught by Graham Johnson, Jake Heggie, Nicholas Phan, and Thomas Hampson. In 2019, Sherer performed at the Prague Summer Nights Festival and was a Vocal Chamber Music Fellow for the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (CAIC).
Sherer earned a DMA in Collaborative Piano, studying with renowned pianist Martin Katz, from the University of Michigan, and completed BM and MM degrees in Piano Performance through studies at Manhattan School of Music, Wheaton College, and Roosevelt University.
