Music and Me by Rita Dunn

 

Hello Everyone,

My name is Rita Dunn, and I am a Junior Harp Performance major from Travelers Rest, South Carolina. My musical background started at age five when my mother started teaching me how to play the ukulele. She found it a perfect way for me to learn and appreciate my Hawaiian heritage- yes, I am part Native-Hawaiian. 😊

Although at age four I saw a harpist performing at the Greenville, South Carolina Highland games, and there I knew I wanted to play the beautiful instrument.  

                                                At a harp recital I attended with my first teacher, Mrs.  Rice

                                            At age nine, I played my first wedding ever with my harp teacher

 Several years late (age seven) I took harp lessons and learned the traditional Celtic and Classical harp styles. Through the years, I have enjoyed performing with my sister (violin performance major at another university) in our music business, Soothing Reflections LLC for many events such as weddings, banquets, funerals, churches, festivals, etc. I enjoy performing as a soloist in professional orchestras, and recitals. After I graduate from Converse, I hope to pursue my master’s and hopefully Doctorate degree from Cleveland Institute of Music.

                                                 Me giving my Jr. harp recital last October

Because I am Hawaiian, I love listening to Hawaiian music on my YouTube playlist. I enjoy many famous Hawaiian artists such as Keola and Kapono Beamer, The “Brothers Cazimero,” Keali’I Reichel, Aunty Genoa Keawe, and Raiatea Helm. However, I really love listening to coloratura soprano Emma Veary who is highly recognized in the Hawaiian music Hall of Fame. She was awarded a full music scholarship to Punahou Schools, and she also studied at the Juilliard School of Music (Information taken from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Veary). Emma Veary’s CD, “The Best of Emma” features the classic Hawaiian music written by the Ali’i or Hawaiian Monarchs, and my favorite song she recorded is titled “Song for Kai’ulani.” The song has special meaning to me because my family and I are related to the monarchs and my middle name is Kai’ulanipomaikai after the last Hawaiian princess. You can enjoy listening to Emma Veary’s beautiful voice on the first link below. Also, my sister and I performed our own arrangement of the song at Kawaihao Church- the Westminster Abbey of Hawaii or Church of the Hawaiian monarchs (in second link). 

                                                

                                                                "Song for Kaiulani"  

Image of Princess Kaiulani of Hawaii

I enjoy listening to Hawaiian, Celtic, Chinese, Jewish, and Spanish music. However, I primarily focus on the classical harp genre since the style of music has been my passion for roughly fifteen years, and I hope to become a professional harpist teaching in colleges and performing in orchestras. I believe when a musician is studying a piece, he will feel a deep connection after the vast majority of time preparing the work. The piece, “First Arabesque” by Debussy has special meaning to me because I (at age 12) won first place at a national music festival, and I performed this piece at the honors concert. I also remember playing “First Arabesque at my grandfather’s funeral. Another piece, “Impromtu” by Faure’ has significance to me because I won first place at the same festival (but several years later at age 16).  Unfortunately, I do not have a video of me performing “First Arabesque,” but I included another YouTube video of the piece followed by a recording of me playing “Impromptu” by Faure at the audition.

                                               "First Arabesque" by Debussy

                                                 "Impromptu" by Faure'

In a world with so many genres and styles and with a variety of opinions concerning music, I know people may enjoy music I do not particularly approve of or ever listen to ever.  I have several reasons why I do not like Rock music. First, I believe the genre goes against my Christian beliefs based on the meaning of Rock music. The word “Rock” comes from the phrase, “Rock and Roll” which means "having sexual intercourse". (Information from https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Rock%20and%20roll!) In addition, Rock music is way too loud where it just sounds like random noise with nonsense words thrown in the music. According to a decibel chart from https://decibelpro.app/blog/harmful-sound-frequencies/ sounds above 85 decibels are harmful to the human ear. The chart shows rock music in the danger zone between 120-129 decibels.

 Of all the rock music, Kiss (Kings in Satan Service) rock group makes me feel so uncomfortable because of the scary costumes and makeup to look like demons. Gene Simmon’s bloody tongue performance is terrifying. Also, the loud eclectic guitars and instruments elevate the supernatural-dark side of evil.

I truly do not see how anyone could sit through these concerts without feeling terror!

I also enjoy listening to Indian (India) music! Since I was twelve, I had a fascination for the Indian culture such as their spices, bright colors, Indian dresses called Saris ( I have four Saris) music, and some of their movies (I have watched a few 2- 2 ½ hour Bollywood movies spoken in Hindi but with English subtitles). I find it interesting how Indian music not only uses traditional instruments such as the sitar in their music, but also include an orchestra of European instruments (such as the violin and piano). You can hear an orchestra in the theme song from the Bollywood movie, “Dil Ka Rishta.” I included another video of famous sitar player, Anoushka Shankar. 

 

In 2019, I went to the India Day festival in Downtown Greenville, SC and wore my Indian sari! I had a blast!

Thank you for taking your time to read my blog! I hope enjoyed reading and learning more about me and my experience and love for music!:)