Sheslow Auditorium was engulfed in darkness, except for the bright stage lights up front, shining down on a glossy grand piano. The over 50 individuals in the room were silent, except for the student musician on stage pouring music into the space.
A little after 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 6, trombonist Joe Drahozal kicked off the Drake University Honor Recital with his performance of Ernest Bloch’s “Symphony for Trombone and Orchestra.” Drahozal’s long, stable sound resonated throughout the mid-sized auditorium, supported by an eerie piano accompaniment by Christa Pearson.
As he played on, an accelerating tempo and increasingly louder notes shaped an urgent, rising action feel to the piece. The tune slowed and quieted down into falling action in the same key — but in a more cautious, somber way — as though the notes were asking permission to ring aloud in the auditorium.
Each year, the honor recital competition is held in late October. Auditions this year took place on Oct. 25, 2025. Students had 10-minute slots to audition in front of two judges, who then selected the soloists and chamber ensembles who would be featured in the Honors Recital on Feb. 6.
Associate Professor of Flute Leslie Marrs oversees and organizes the recitals. This year, she and Professor of Piano Nicholas Roth served as the judges in the audition process.
“A lot of times, the judges come from the faculty … But I think I’m going to see if we can permanently have it not be Drake faculty in the future [for] less perceived bias,” Marrs said. “I think we’re pretty fair, but still people are like, ‘Well, the professor’s the judge, so…’”
The recital’s runtime is typically about an hour and 15 minutes. This year, it was a little shorter with one selected performer, a vocalist, absent. Following Drahozal’s opening of the recital, Zackary Phillips played “Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues” by Frederic Rzewski on the piano.
Phillips’s solo began with the bass keys of the piano, a constant back-and-forth playing with a thunderous effect. As more notes were introduced, the piece kept its constant, quick, tense tempo, but with swelling sound. Phillips’s head bobbed up and down as he kept the rhythm.
The composition progressed into a symphony of horror music. The piece progressed into a jazzy section before returning to the same intense style, even with moments where Phillips laid his forearm across the keys.
Izaiah Wilder, a first-year student studying piano performance and business, was the fourth performer in the recital. He played “Animé” by Maurice Ravel, a much more delicate piece.
“Zack [Phillips] makes something that could be very kind of cheesy in a way — like with the forearm — actually convincing,” Wilder said. “You listen to it and it, I don’t know. … There’s something about the effect he gives it.”
In other years, the makeup of instruments has been more diverse, with voice, woodwinds, brass, percussion and piano auditions and performances. Marrs said this year’s piano-heavy makeup is simply something that fluctuates year to year.
“It’s just whoever is the best performer,” Marrs said.
Ujan RoyBandyopadhyay was the third performer in the recital, performing Frederic Chopin’s “24 Preludes, Op. 28.” The composition’s jubilant start then progressed into a slower-paced, sadder feeling that RoyBandyopadhyay floated his shoulders into. A five-second pause then preceded an abrupt, heavy, urgent-feeling sequence.
Alivia Eaton, a friend of Wilder’s in the audience, remarked on the impact of pauses like that as a listener.
“The moments of silence in the songs when everyone’s like waiting to see if the song would end or come next are so good when everyone buys into it,” Eaton said.
Wilder’s piece was the fourth performance, followed by a “Tiberius Saxophone Quartet,” featuring Avery Hjelm on soprano saxophone, Xavier DeGroot on alto sax, Cael Cheeseman on tenor sax and Ethan Ibarra on baritone sax. Hjelm and DeGroot worked together on the melody, as basses Cheeseman and Ibarra shaped the harmony.
After the quartet, the performers were invited back to the stage to receive their award certificates.
Simpson College student Payton Seo, who had never been to a recital before, enjoyed the experience, especially the diversity of the pieces.
“It was really interesting to go to, and it was really fun,” Seo said. “I’d recommend it to anybody.”
Professor of Piano at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, Molly Roseman, will perform in Sheslow Auditorium on Feb. 15 at 4 p.m.
