Rachel Felt is a music education major in her final semesters at BYU-Idaho. Tomorrow at noon she will present her recital titled “Me and My Viola.”
Felt began playing the piano when she was a child, around 7 or so, and took up the viola at 10 years old.
Felt stated that while she loves to play the piano, “I had more ways that I wanted to grow with viola than with piano.”
Before she came to BYU-Idaho, Felt played the viola in the Rexburg Tabernacle Orchestra alongside her father, who plays bassoon.
While attending school, Felt has been part of numerous organizations and ensembles on campus. Some of her favorite ensembles at BYU-Idaho have been Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Strings and Baroque Ensemble.
Her quartet in Chamber Strings won the 15th Annual Boise Chamber Music Series Young Artist String Quartet Competition in 2020.
“It’s just so fun knowing that we’d worked really hard and that we’d come through to create something wonderful,” Felt said.
Another of her favorite ensembles to be part of is the Baroque Ensemble that plays Baroque era music on period-specific instruments.
“It’s beautiful playing Baroque period music on the instruments that it was written for, in the sound, in the style, the tone that it was meant to be in. It’s different and it’s beautiful and I love it so much,” Felt said.
Felt’s Baroque viola will be featured in one of the pieces for her recital.
The first piece she will play is William Walton’s three-movement “Concerto for Viola,” Johann Sebastian Bach’s six-movement “Cello Suite No. 5 in C minor” and finally, Kenji Bunch’s “The Three Gs.”
You can watch Felt’s recital tomorrow, Saturday, June 19, at noon on the BYU-Idaho Live Events Page.