This month, VSU’s Department of Music will be presenting its spring music recitals in the Whitehead Auditorium.

Two students, Jovan DeShong and Tugce Bryant, and one faculty member, Elizabeth Goode will each perform during the recital.

VSU senior, Jovan DeShong, will be playing three songs on her viola during her Feb. 10 recital including “Henly-on-Thames” by Tom Knifc, “Elegy” by Alexander Glazunov and “The Viola Concerto” by Carl Stamitz.

Deshong, who has played the viola for eight years, is originally from New York and later moved to Alpharetta, GA.

“I started playing violin when I was younger and I switched instruments my freshman year in high school,” DeShong said. “My future goal after graduation is teach public school, but my ultimate goal is to open my all-inclusive music school/tutoring station.”

Also performing, 24-year-old graduate student, Tugce Bryant, from Ankara, Turkey will be playing a cello in the music recital. Bryant, who has been playing the cello since age 11, will be graduating this semester, making the performance her graduation recital.

“I started playing the piano, then I tried the violin, but my sister wanted me to try the cello and I have been playing the cello ever since then,” said Bryant.

During Bryant’s musical recital, on February 11, 2012 at 7:30 p.m., she will be playing the following pieces; “Arpeggione Sonata” by Franz Schubert, “Fantasy Pieces” by Robert Schumann and “Concerto for Two Cellos” by Antonia Vivaldi.

“Each song has three movements; Allegro moderato, Adagio and Allegretto,” Bryant said. “So I will be performing nine movements from each composer.”

Elizabeth Goode is from Sweetwater, Tennessee and earned her undergraduate degree from University of Tennessee and her Master’s and Doctorate degrees from Yale University.

She has been a VSU faculty member for 15 years and currently teaches Music Theory and lessons on the flute. Dr. Goode has enjoyed playing musical instruments for many years.

She began playing the piano at the age of six and has played the flute since the age of 12.

“I wanted to play the flute after I went to a concert that my brother was in,” Dr. Goode said. “ He played the trombone and I heard someone play a flute solo and decided that that was the instrument for me.”

Dr. Goode has played in hundreds of recitals including performing on two or three last semester.

“I also performed at a summer music festival in the Italian Alps,” she said.

She enjoys classical flute music played by Emmanuel Pahud and also enjoys music by YoYo Ma and friends. Dr. Goode will be playing the flute during this month’s recital and will be playing music from composers from the 20th and 21st centuries such as “Sonatina” by Phillippe Gaubert, “Night Soliloquy” by Kent Kennan and “Orange Dawn” by Ian Clarke.

The last piece on the program is “Blue Ridge Airs” by an American composer named Kenneth Frazelle.

“It’s based on Appalachian folk melodies and also incorporates several sections where the flute imitates birdsong,” Dr. Goode said.

Her recital will be held on Feb 12 at 3 p.m.