Cat & Mouse

This first piece is Cat & Mouse by Aaron Copeland.  A music sorority (have no idea the name) holds a scholarship contest every year.  This year the piece played had to be an American composer from recent times.  Ely won first place out of the entire music department and every type of music major, not just pianists.  This was the first time a Freshman has won first place.  In this video he is performing it for the Presidents Honors concert.  In total he was asked to perform this piece about about six times.

And…yes…he owns that tuxedo.  They have to wear it for most performances so he bought one early on in the fall semester.  🙂

Lost & Found

This piece is an original composition by Ely.  It is made up of three movements…the third movement is my favorite.  It came from him trying to play a song for me that we had heard on a podcast.  He got the song wrong…but ended up improvising this.  I loved it and would ask him to play it frequently.  I even asked him to record it at some point so he wouldn’t forget it as each time he was improvising a bit different.  He eventually told me he was working it into a piece he was writing for his composition class.  I recorded this video of him playing his original composition for a class he has called Recital Lab with the majority of the music department.

I. Stasis 0:00

II. Vapor 2:15

III. Death 4:40