Star City Music Studios owner and piano instructor Samee Griffith performed her final degree recital on Friday, April 3rd, at Wright State University’s Creative Arts Center.
Griffith’s recital topic was “the elements,” and featured pieces written about earth, water, wind, and air, by composers Balakirev, Faure, Ravel, Debussy, Scriabin, and de Falla.
A native of Miamisburg, Griffith was a student of the late Carol Wasson. After earning her Bachelor of Music degree at Wright State University and her Master of Music degree at Bowling Green State University, she moved to Greensboro, North Carolina, to pursue the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She will receive the degree in May of this year.
Her dissertation topic examined Ernst von Dohnányi’s Winterreigen, Op. 13, a set of ten character pieces that Carol Wasson introduced to her as a student. The pieces were written by Dohnányi as a farewell to his friends in Vienna, Austria, when he left in 1905, and were inspired by a poem included at the opening of the set. Griffith’s dissertation explores the text-music relations of the set, and includes a discussion of pedagogical issues.
In the summer of 2014, Griffith returned to Miamisburg and opened Star City Music Studios, dedicated to providing quality music instruction to the greater Miami Valley. She and her husband are expecting their first child, a daughter, later this spring.
A recording of the recital is available here.
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