Koji lives, teaches, and performs in Salt Lake City right now, and he was kind enough to invite John and I to a faculty concert that took place at the Gifted Music School last Wednesday, and I felt privileged and honored to finally hear him play in person.
John helped me with this next couple paragraphs: "Koji performed two sets of music. The first set was from Spanish composer(s) and written for guitar. Koji arranged it for piano. Much of the piece was centered around the feeling of flowing and cascading water. The final movement he played on this set was so full of sadness and loss that you could feel his emotion with every note. It was hard not to cry.
His second set was a quartet from Mozart, and again, Koji arranged this for piano. There was one main movement followed by a series of interesting variations. This piece was a world premiere. It appeared to be a very challenging piece to play, and I think this is what excited Koji about arranging and playing it. Mozart's musical progression and style is much more mainstream than the often obscure and complicated Russian composers that Koji often plays. But if you closed your eyes, you could easily hear the different parts all being voiced by a single piano. As a quartet it was one thing, but as an arrangement for piano, it was beyond brilliant. Truly a magical performance."
The other faculty musicians were wonderful as well. I am excited to learn more about them in the future. I am so happy and proud to know we have these phenomenal musicians in our community.
Truly inspiring.
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