Students in the spotlight

Performing Arts Building presents Applied Music Program student recital

Asingle piano, a microphone and a sheet music stand lit in bright, warm lights set the scene for the performance to come.

The sound of shuffling feet and doors closing behind the large, red curtains built suspense as the musicians got ready for the Applied Music Program (AMP) student recital in the Performing Arts

Building on Nov. 7, 2019.

After Wendy Mazon, a music instructor, welcomed the Pierce College community to the weekly Thursday Concert, AMP student Abtin Farrokh started the show.

Farrokh carefully tuned his violin and began to play. He started with “Violin Partita o. 2 in D minor” by Johann Sebastian Bach. As his bow bent around the strings, he swayed slightly with the instrument. Farrokh’s fixed gaze changed slightly as he furrowed his brows in intense moments.

His second song, “Sarabande & Gigue” by Bach, maintained a quicker, bouncy pace. Farrokh’s intense stare finally changed when he finished the piece, bowed and walked off the stage with a smile on his face.

Following Farrokh, Adrian Camp took the stage with his guitar and a foot stool. Camp’s performance contrasted the intense music from the previous performance as he played, “A Simple Song” by Giovanni Legrenzi and “Se Ela Perguntar” by Dilermando Reis. Both songs were slower and calmer.

After the two instrumentalists,

Staying alive on Day of the Dead

Pierce celebrates Dia de Los Muertos with MECha and Aztec blessing

Pierce is a learning institution, but last week it became a welcoming site of the deceased ancestors for those who celebrate the Day of the Dead.

Family, friends and students gathered inside the Student Engagement Center to honor “ofrendas” (altars) of late relatives and Chicano/a artists for Día De Los Muertos, hosted by Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano (a) de Aztlán (MEChA) members and Associated Students Organization (ASO).

Ofrendas allows people to remember and honor the memory of their late relatives and ancestors.

A group of Aztec dancers were outside along with from Homeboy Industries and “Ajolote” who honored ancestors and brought the Pierce College community together.

awakening everyone, and people get excited. That's why we're here. That's our intent. To remind each other. We need to remind each other and acknowledge each other of who we are. We are the people with dignity, with the people of the heart.”

Angel Sanchez, an attendee who has gone to past Día De Los Muertos events outside of Pierce College, said the dancers helped “bring souls back and remember who they were.”

“[The dancers] are here to bless their souls and use a ritual to protect their souls in the afterlife and to keep all the bad spirits away from them and to have them remembered in our life that we live now,” Sanchez said. “So, it's very special.”

Sanchez said he takes Día De Los Muertos to heart.

[I have] the blessing to be able to remember my grandparents and do this every year to enrich their souls and their beings here,” Sanchez said.

Lexi Cantu sang on stage, accompanied by Lance Merrill on the piano. Cantu performed an Italian aria and a Spanish folksong; “Che Fiero Costume” by Giovanni Legrenzi and “Al Pano Moruno” by Manuel de Falla.

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