Senior Adelaide Leung prepares to perform her senior recital.
By Kristin Ow
Staff Writer
Twelve years ago, young Adelaide Leung sat down at the piano. She has been playing ever since.
Even at the age of 3 or 4, Adelaide was exposed to musical performances.
“I am thankful to God for giving me parents who recognized the value and benefit of musical training,” she said.
Now, in her fourth and final year at Pepperdine, she is fulfilling her performance requirement of a senior recital. “I will be playing works by the famous ‘Three B’s,’” Leung said.
Her program includes J.S. Bach’s Prelude and Fugue No.21 in B flat, Busoni’s transcription of Bach’s “Organ Toccata and Fugue in D Minor,” Beethoven’s sonata “Apassionata,” Brahms’s “Variations on a theme by Paganini” and Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” It is an impressive and difficult line-up that Adelaide has been preparing since November 2001, shortly after her junior recital.
“All of the pieces on my program are well-known and wonderful to play and listen to, but I would say ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ by Gershwin is the most exciting,” Leung said. “It’s also very American, has catchy melodies and an epic quality, and its finale is rousing.”
This performance will be the product of many years of training. “As soon as I showed an interest and readiness at age 9, my father started teaching me the piano and continues to be my teacher and coach today,” Leung said. “Since coming to Pepperdine, I have taken private piano lessons with Edward Francis. He is a professional and knowledgeable musician, and I have definitely benefited from his comments and critique.”
Leung has also been involved with the choir as an accompanist in both rehearsals and performances, as part of several chamber ensembles with both strings and horns, as a soloist at Pepperdine alumni dinners, a soloist at several weddings of Pepperdine alumni at Stauffer Chapel, and has had several performances at the Fine Art Department’s “Music at Three” program.
“As soon as my recital is over, I will be concentrating more on looking into graduate music schools,” Leung said.
As for now, she will concentrate on her performance.
“If everything goes well, it’s going to be an amazing evening,” Leung said.
The recital is Nov. 17 at 7:30 p.m. in Raitt Recital Hall.
November 14, 2002