Gohar Vardanyan & Lily Afshar
The Surroundings:
The concert was held in the main foyer of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, where the sound was ample across the walls and bounced off everyone’s heads to a clear and undisputed symphony of strums from the guitar. This gave me a mature attitude since the sound was so clear and present that I felt relaxed the whole time and the lighting was dim enough to keep me at peace with the wonderful music. My attitude did change sometimes because when people would move there would be slight echoes distracting me from the music. Other members of the audience seemed to be in the same mood as I was since the room was welcoming and strong enough to hold up the sounds to be clear to everyone. The performers both seemed comfortable in their surroundings and allowed themselves to be lost in their own work of the guitar strings.
The Audience:
The main attendees were of all ages from young to old and were dressed formally to show a sort of sophistication to the performers. There was not a prevailing demographic besides a slight Hispanic majority. This was probably because one of the musicians was of Hispanic origins, but most likely everyone who was there was because the performers were very talented, and you could tell they were dedicated to their work. The number of audience members was probably between 60-85 people give or take a few of those who you could say were not there because they were snoozing. For the size of the venue, the number of people filled up all the pews and filled the room with people who enjoy quality music and like to sit in peace with their thoughts while a guitar strum. After each movement, the audience clapped for between 10-15 seconds and gave the performers the well-deserved acknowledgement of their skills.
The Music:
The first piece played by Lily Afshar was called “Capricho Arabe” arranged by Fransisco Tarrega. My emotional reaction to this piece was that of a calm and peaceful one where I got genuinely lost in the music. This was stimulated by her ability to manipulate the guitar to act as if it were herself expressing her inner voice/sub-conscious. This piece offered a monophonic texture with a low-high pitch sound and a stimulation from pp-mp. This gave me the chance to see that the whole piece was aimed at a peaceful aroura to give to the audience and enable them to become lost in thought. She reacted by slowly moving up and down the guitar as if it were a close family member and embracing their beauty. The other performer seemed to appreciate the talent she was conjoined with by becoming lost/attaching to the guitar as well. One element contributing to this was the probably the reaction from the audience who seemed to appreciate it as much as they did.
The second piece played by Lily Afshar was called “Grand Solo, Op. 14” arranged by Fernando Sor. My reaction was one where I felt like I was on a journey where the ending was me finding peace and happiness in my life. This was stimulated...
