GMC News
Nothing is So Beautiful as a Painting and Music in the Spring
by Janet H. Anderson
The spring concert program presented by Georgia Military College professors Moona Yu and Ray Hastings was a spring treat for both the eyes and ears. At the Wednesday, March 31 evening performance in Jenkins auditorium, Ms. Yu expressed the joy and new birth of spring with examples of piano music from the baroque era music of Vivaldi through the romantic era music of Chopin, Mendelsshon and Sinding to the modern era music of Lennon and McCartney. While she played, Ray Hastings expressed the visual beauty of spring by creating for the audience a larger than life bouquet of bearded iris in acrylic on canvas.
Mrs. Yu always pleases the ear with the precision of her playing, but she has a depth of feeling that makes her music far more than precise. This was true of the entire program, but the combination of her skill and gift of expression made the Chopin Prelude (Raindrop) and the Sinding Rustle of Spring a true delight for the listener. As she played, Mr. Hasting’s swift and accurate use of the brush made one forget the artist and focus on the canvas as he drew the leaves and the buds opening into the full flowering blooms of the iris. Their timing was perfect and he finished the last stroke of the background as she played the last note.
The appreciative audience gave them rousing applause and Ms. Yu obliged with an encore of America the Beautiful, one of the patriotic staples of GMC performances, with the audience joining in the song.
The Korean born Ms. Yu holds degrees in music from Augustana College and the University of Iowa. She teaches music appreciation and directs the college chorus. Mr. Hastings has two degrees from Kansas State College and a MFA from the University of Wisconsin. His work can be found in both private and public collections throughout the US. He teaches art classes and sponsors the art club at the college.
