SCOTT GULLEDGE/ Scroll Photo
Jim Crouch, a senior from Rexburg, Idaho, played “Finding Kolob,” his own arrangement of “If You Could Hie to Kolob,” at Grand Pianos Live in the Kirkham Auditorium March 23.

Kirkham evacuated during Grand Pianos Live

Gloria Layton LAY04003@BYUI.EDU a&e asst. editor

From jazz to classical music, Grand Pianos Live was an almost uninterrupted showcase of student talent. The interruption came at 9:15 p.m. when a fire alarm sounded in the almost completely packed Kirkham Auditorium, March 23.

Students were asked to exit the building as a fire truck was on its way.

Soon after the fire department discovered there was no fire, students were allowed back into the Kirkham Auditorium to finish the show. The fire alarm was triggered by the accumulation of smoke from a broken smoke machine that was being used in the performance.

“We saw the smoke everywhere, in the hall and backstage, but we never really thought about it,” said Stephanie Leal, a freshman from Glen Allen, Va., the coordinator of Grand Pianos Live.

Leal was very happy with how smoothly the show went, regardless of the interruption, and also with the high quality of the performances. Many of the audience members agreed, such as Lori McKee, a freshman from Tridell, Utah.

“It was basically amazing,” McKee said.

Out of the 37 groups or individuals who auditioned, only 15 played in Grand Pianos Live. Video clips were used to introduce each of the songs, explaining why the student chose to perform that particular piece.

Some of the students wrote their own songs such as Alden Jack, a junior from Monticello, Utah, who played a song called “Remembering the Good Times” that he wrote when one of his friends moved away.

There were some groups that had more instruments than just the piano and vocal chords. The jazz/pop group Neostella also had drums, guitar and bass guitar. They played “Charring Cross,” a song that tells a story about a man in London who goes into the bookstore Charring Cross every day to buy books from a woman he is in love with.

The group Snowboarding Accident got started when Ingrid Hansen, a junior from Burley, Idaho, broke her arm snowboarding and had a vision for a band where she would play the piano with one hand.

Stacey Christensen, a freshman from Pocatello, Idaho, played “Prelude in G Minor” by Rachmaninoff. She introduced her piece by saying, “I like this piece because it’s fun and exciting and so am I.”

A few of the artists explained the story they hoped their music would tell without words.

Nate Woodward, a sophomore from Weston, Idaho, wrote a song called “The Hunt,” which told the story of a hunter in the brush waiting to shoot a buck when a skunk appears. Frozen in place for fear that if he moves he will be sprayed, the hunter watches as a buck enters the clearing. He isn’t able to shoot for fear of scaring the skunk.

Dan Patton, a junior from Corvallis Ore., thinks more students should come to events such as Grand Pianos Live.

“I think that students should be exposed to more intelligent music because contemporary music of today is counter-intuitive to the learning process,” Patton said.