Pianists entertain with 176 keys

The Chadron State College Department of Music presented a duo piano concert Tuesday in Memorial Hall’s Auditorium.

The concert featured Chadron State College employee-pianists Jim Margetts and Brooks Hafey.

The duo opened with “Variations on a Theme by Beethoven, Op. 35.” The piece is based on Beethoven’s staccato movements, Margetts said.

The duo then performed “Fetes, From Nocturnes.”

In the 1800s and 1900s small towns, such as Chadron, were unable to access many recorded orchestra songs, Margetts said. The music was then transcribed for piano. The music is often broken into two piano parts because it makes it easier to transcribe voices of the music and allow those voices to be satisfied, he said.

After a short intermission the duo played “Symphonic Dances, Op. 45.” This piece had three parts: Non Allegro, Andante con moto (Tempo di valse), and Lento assai – Allegro vivace.

“I thought they were really good at painting emotion with the songs,” sophomore, Lauren Morris, said.

Margetts is an associate professor of music at Chadron State College. He is currently finishing up his ninth year of teaching at CSC.

“My mom said that boys should learn to play hymns just like the girls,” Margetts said when talking about what attracted him to the piano.

He has been playing the piano since he was six years old, Margetts said in a Tuesday interview.

Hafey is an accompanist and events coordinator at Chadron State College and has been playing the piano for 24 years.

“I was envious of my cousin and I wanted to be like her,” Hafey said when talking about his attraction to the piano.

Hafey will be leaving Chadron State College at the end of this academic semester to teach opera and production of opera in Novafeltria, Europe.

The Department of Music is looking for a new accompanist, Margetts said.