A little music will come from the Adams Recital Hall as elementary through high school students perform piano sonatas for a panel of judges on Saturday.
“It’s just a way for younger students to play for other people and get critiqued and find ways to be better,” senior Kandyce Everett said.
Sonatina Saturday began 17 years ago when a student started the program as her senior project from Chair of Music Kathy Thompson’s advice.
A sonatina is literally a small sonata, or a piece meant to be played. Ergo, a small piece meant to be played.
“Sonatinas usually are multi-movement works, usually a fast first and third movement with a slower second movement… some [students] play more than one movement of the same sonatina,” Thompson said.
Thompson has facilitated the event since its roots. She said her favorite part of the event is seeing the students she is teaching teach others, and also bringing the community to campus.
“I think it is seeing their impressions of it and seeing them work with children and also interact with parents as the contest goes along,” Thompson said. “[It is] just a rewarding feeling to have the community come to campus and hosting them in an effective way and hopefully sending them along with a good impression of our students and our university.”
Several Oklahoma Christian University students have students of their own competing.
“It’s a little nerve-wracking,” Everett said. “It’s exciting to finally have a student work toward a specific goal and then have other people’s feedback, rather than just me always trying to find something. And usually it’s enlightening and a way for me to find other things to teach my student.”
In order to prepare her students, Everett said she helps them to be less nervous before their actual performances for the judges.
“Usually I take them to the Recital Hall where we have most of our performances for our students and we just run through it, bow, say their names… just so they can get rid of their nerves,” Everett said.
The competition is broken into three divisions: elementary, middle school and high school. Each student performs for four judges, and based on their performances, receives feedback.
The judges are different every year in order to give returning competitors different perspectives, according to Thompson.
“We try really hard to make this kind of a different contest… we don’t get one, two, threes… we give positive feedback… ‘things I liked best about the performance’ and then ‘things that you might improve upon,’” Thompson said.
Two outstanding students are selected from each division and are awarded with gift cards to Edmond Music.
Proceeds from the entrance fees to the competition go toward sending Oklahoma Christian music students to conferences.
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