Eating Elephants Review

On Friday, September 25th, I attended a recital in Pealer Hall. While this was not a typical recital, it was very nice to be back in the recital hall and watch a performance. That night, Caitlyn Rund showed her recital titled “Eating Elephants” which was a collection of music she has been working on since her first year here at Frostburg. The title comes from her father who told her when she was younger, “Caitlyn, you cannot eat the elephant in one bite, you have to eat it one bite at a time,” so this performance means a lot to Rund. 

Caitlyn Rund is a senior who is majoring in music education and saxophone performance as well as minoring in psychology.  This recital was meant to be her junior recital but was pushed back due to COVID. She plays the saxophone and was accompanied on a few of her pieces by Dr. Joseph Yungen on piano. The performance was absolutely phenomenal! While we did not get to see her play at that moment because the recital was pre-recorded due to COVID restrictions, in Rund’s words, “I was happy to enjoy music with people” even if it couldn’t be performed live. 

Rund moves with her pieces as she plays, showing how into her music she gets. With each piece, she is up and down with the tempo changes as well as the change in the beat pattern. The pieces she played are classics but are not exactly easy. Being a musician myself, I can only imagine how much prep this took. I have my answer too; she has been working on these pieces for three years, first-year to junior year. Now she works to find and practice pieces, a whole new set, for her senior recital, which will be held this spring. 

It is difficult to explain how wonderful and weird it was to watch a performance in Pealer Recital Hall, but I was ecstatic to watch Rund perform through the weird and wonderful way we have to now. With any luck, we will be back in the recital hall next semester and I will watch her perform in person for her senior recital. I cannot wait to see what we have in store!

If you wish to watch this performance, and I highly recommended you do it because it was phenomenal, the music department has a Youtube channel where the recital recordings can be found. This goes for any other recitals you may want to see, but cannot/are uncomfortable attending. Click here for the link to Rund’s recital!