McDougal astonished the audience with her innate musical talent.
On Sunday, April 10, Morgan McDougal ’16 amazed crowds in the chapel with her amazing skill at her senior recital. Her variety of abilities at Choate extends from golf to music, but one of her greatest strengths, as those who attended the concert can support, lies in the piano. The recital, which featured pieces such as Prelude and Fugue by J.S. Bach and Etude de Concert No. 3, “Un Sospiro” by Franz Liszt, was sadly McDougal’s last concert at Choate.
For the senior, who has been playing piano for fourteen years and is part of the Arts Concentration program for it, the piano recital was quite special. As McDougal explains, “I just wanted a good ending to my musical career at Choate, because this is basically it. I’m not sure if I’m going to play piano at college or not, so this could be my last concert.” If this is the case, those who attended were lucky to hear the melodious rhythms that she is so skillfully able to play on the piano keys. McDougal also expressed her gratitude for the music program at Choate, especially to the Arts Concentration program. She shared, “I was initially attracted to Choate because of Arts Con. Instead of having to play a sport, you can audition for this elite group and play with other really great musicians. Mr. Ventre is also an incredible musician himself and it’s really nice to be surrounded by such good music all the time. It pushes me to be better myself.”
Besides praising the Arts Concentration program, she also greatly celebrated Mr. Thomas Martin, her piano teacher at Choate, who “makes sure that I’m progressing and developing as a musician.” Besides accrediting him with vastly improving her piano skills during her time at Choate, McDougal also said that Mr. Martin “really cares about her person and how she’s doing in and outside of school.”
Although her performance was outstanding, McDougal did face some challenges while playing, especially since all the songs featured were songs that she learned within the limited time of the course of her senior year. Additionally, even though she was initially supposed to perform a trio piece at the recital, the plans had to be changed because one of her accompanying peers had prior commitments to go on a college visit.
Nevertheless, people were beyond impressed with McDougal’s performance. As Brian Tung ’16 phrased it, “Morgan was amazing. As a pianist myself, Morgan’s balance and control blew me away. She played exceptionally well, captivating the audience with mesmerizing runs through the pieces. When she finished, she got a well-deserved standing ovation.”
Most importantly, however, McDougal herself was satisfied with her work. As she said after the recital, “I thought it went much better than I had anticipated. I always get very nervous when I perform — ridiculously nervous — and as this is my final big performance, I really wanted it to go perfectly. I definitely put way too much pressure on myself, but luckily, I was able to have fun and end my piano career at Choate on a good note, pun not intended.”
