Euphonic Studio ™

Cathy Risse, a gifted pianist from Lisbon, Iowa, recorded a recital at the Mt. Vernon Methodist Church and Euphonic Studio. She also teaches Music History at Kirkwood College.

Cathy Risse is another gifted musician with whom we’ve been blessed to meet and record. She is a delightful person and a true artist.

Cathy holds a Masters degree in piano performance and she decided to do a recital in January 2013 just because she hadn’t done one for a while. She had decided that she wanted a video of the recital, and whoever was originally booked to make it was unable to do the date, so she contacted us.

I had never met Cathy before nor had I heard her play, but I knew of her by reputation. She teaches piano in Lisbon, so you might say that she’s a competitor but I prefer to think of other teachers as colleagues. Cathy also teaches Music History at Kirkwood College. This is not an easy gig. My dad taught Music History and I took 2 years of it in college. There’s a lot to know and some of it is a tad dry.

We got together and had a tech rehearsal before the recital and I was amazed at Cathy’s playing. You will be, too. My old SD cameras ran out of tape an hour into the recital, so Cathy agreed to come to Euphonic Studio’s facilities and perform the last movement of the Ravel sonata, Le tombeau de Couperin, here on my piano. This is a small part of a very ambitious program that included extremely challenging concert works by Bach and Schumann. Ah, yes, Schumann, always with the octaves. What gives with THAT?

Cathy’s performance at the recital was outstanding and her performance here of the Ravel Toccata matched it. Enjoy!