Martin Chapel became an intimate, thoughtful space last Saturday, Mar. 23. The small room was filled with sounds as listeners gathered to hear assistant professor of music and gifted pianist David Berry perform with renowned cellist Patrice Jackson-Tilghman and violinist and EMU faculty member David McCormick.

The performance began with Berry at the piano. He welcomed listeners to the space with Frédéric Chopin’s Polonaise in F-Sharp Minor. Berry exquisitely followed the piece’s path through the ternary form of the composition. Berry captured the full attention of the audience with the first few notes he played and held it for the entire piece.

When he concluded his first piece, Berry introduced himself and welcomed the audience to an evening of music. At the end of his welcome, he introduced his friend and fellow musician Jackson-Tilghman. The two met at the Juilliard School when they were students.

They opened their set with Chopin’s Nocturne in E-Flat Major, a work Berry described as one of the most beautiful pieces ever written for piano. He noted the profound musicianship of Jackson-Tilghman, joking that she must be a good cellist because he let her play this well-known piano piece. The piano and cello resonated brilliantly, a revelation of the unparalleled musicianship of Berry and Jackson-Tilghman.

The final selection of the first half of the performance was Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 2 in C Minor. McCormick joined JacksonTilgman and Berry for this spacious piece.

The music clearly moved them as they played. Berry would lower his head and raise it again with the dynamic changes of the piece. While they were not playing, McCormick and Jackson-Tilghman closed their eyes and moved with the tempo. The second half of the evening began with a piece Jackson-Tilghman described as being a bit “out there.” For Berry and Jackson, however, no piece is too “out there.”

Bohuslav Martinů’s “Variations on a Theme by Rossini” was different than the other selections. Berry and Jackson-Tilghman were able to simplify the complexities into an elegant blend of piano and cello that embraced the “out thereness.”

Jackson-Tilghman had the opportunity to perform a solo with the piece, Julie-O, by Mark Summers. The piece was a showcase of her profound skill and deep reverence for music as she physically embodied each note with breath and movement.

The last two selections of the evening were arrangements of spirituals with which Berry and Jackson-Tilghman had significant connections. The first, Berry’s own arrangement of “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho,” was a brilliant retelling of an old spiritual. Listeners could hear the sounds of the trumpets, the prayers, and the walls falling down rising from the piano.

This piece was followed by Jackson-Tilghman’s arrangement of “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” which moved directly into Berry’s arrangement of “Every Time I Feel the Spirit.” Berry and Jackson-Tilghman gave listeners a sense of place and connectedness to the piece.

Through their music, Berry, Jackson-Tilghman, and McCormick created a thoughtful space—one that can be uncomfortable for some in a time when industrial music is confined by the goals of economic gain, pressuring music into boxes of one specific style.

Their music does not fall to this power; it sets listeners free into this intimate space in an unfamiliar, untamed, and breathtakingly beautiful expanse of sounds.