The Los Medanos College Recital Hall was filled with the sounds of piano and vocals from Luis Zuniga’s Musical Recital students Thursday, May 3 at 7 p.m. For an hour, students Tyrell Burks, Tayadi Bush and Jonathan Haislip performed songs they had practiced throughout the semester for an audience made up of LMC students, faculty and guests.

First to take the stage was music student and vocalist Tyrell Burks, who hit the night off with his rendition of “The Colors of My Life” from the 1980’s musical “Barnum.”

Next up was Tayadi Bush who sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from musical and movie “Wizard of Oz.” Like Burks, Bush was also accompanied by piano.

After Burks’ performance, pianist Jonathan Haislip took to the stage. As a third year LMC student, Haislip had a fair share of experience with performing, and chose to challenge himself with various types of music.

His first song was “The Well-Tempered Clavier: Prelude and Fugue in C Minor” by Bach. Haislip followed this song with two Chopin songs, “Prelude Op. 28, No. 20 in C minor” and “Waltz Op. 69, No. 1 in A-flat minor.” His three songs varied in tempo, however, his Bach songs had a somber feel with the “Prelude,” dubbed as the “Funeral March,” sounding very slow, to the “Waltz” which is a song about Chopin saying goodbye to his love interest. 

Burks came back for his second song, “There’s Been A Change In Me” from “Beauty and the Beast.” Bush followed Burks once more with “Once Upon A Dream” from “Jekyll and Hyde,” which was his final performance of the evening.

Haislip came back for another set of songs including “Fantasy K.397 in d minor” by Mozart, “Nocturne Op. Posth No. 20 in c-sharp minor” again by Chopin and popular song “Somewhere,” from the musical “West Side Story.”

When Haislip finished his set and Burks joined the stage once more, he also brought with him a friend from his church, Isaiah Glasper who played the piano while Burks sang. A personal favorite of his, Burks sang “Grateful” which is a song by Hezekiah Walker and the Love Fellowship Choir.

“I was fully able to express who I am,” Burks said following his performance of the song, adding that gospel music is his favorite genre to sing.

Haislip came back to the stage for his final set, performing another three pieces including “Claire De lune” by Debussy, which was his favorite piece of the night and brought the crowd to silence, as they took in the familiar tune.

“It’s a song that everyone recognizes when it’s played,” said Haislip, adding that he enjoys playing the piece.

The night finished with Burks and Glasper taking the stage once more to perform another gospel song, filling the room with a soulful sound.