Pianist Abriana Church bringing multimedia recital featuring Bach, the Bible and more to Longview
Young artist has impressed audiences with her keyboard brilliance and musical sensitivity in six previous local performances
Please try to spread word about this performance. Abriana is a special talent whose playing will leave you enriched.
Pianist Abriana Church returns for her seventh Longview performance next weekend, this time bringing a multimedia show that combines biblical scripture and visual imagery with the sounds of classical keyboard favorites.
“I am very excited to premiere the first in this series of audio/visual concerts. The creativity and philosophy behind this type of presentation are aligned with my goals as a Christian artist,” Church says.
Church says her show is meant to “immerse yourself in a musical celebration of God’s work in creation and the promise of a redeemed humanity.”
The recital starts at 4 p.m. Sunday, May 4, at Northlake Baptist Church at the corner of Pacific Way and Ocean Beach Highway in Longview.
Church, now of Arlington in Northwest Washington, grew up in Idaho and began her musical studies at age six.
In 2022, she graduated from The Master’s University, a Christian liberal arts school near Los Angeles. She has won several piano competitions, including an honorable mention at the 2021 Los Angeles International Liszt Competition.
Concerto and solo performances have taken Church throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Recent highlights include a performance of works by Prokofiev with the Culver City Symphony Orchestra and Mozart with the Chamber Orchestra of the Slovak State Opera in Vienna.
One of her previous Longview recitals — organized by the late Longview piano teacher Martin Kauble — featured the whole set of Franz Liszt’s extremely difficult and poetic Paganini Etudes. That recital, and others produced by Kable’s studio, can still be viewed on the “Martin Kauble Memorial Concert Series” on YouTube.
I and several of Martin’s other former students continue to try to bring Church to play for local audiences, both in homage to Martin and to further Abriana’s career.
Church has collaborated with other musicians to set biblical scripture to music. She sees her work as a means to glorify God.
So it’s no surprise, then, that her May 4 performance includes the Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach, who saw his work set to the same purpose.
The Passacaglia is based on a 17th century Spanish dance. It is a complex, majestic work in twenty variations, with intricate fugues and harmonies especially advanced for Bach’s time. At times it is haunting, brooding, stately and hymn-like. Listeners often say they feel they are in a divine presence.
The recital also will feature works by Frederic Chopin, who is known as the “poet of the piano.” Pieces will include several of Chopin’s Etudes. Among them are those nicknamed “The Bees,” “The Horseman” and the “Aeolian Harp” (an Aeolian harp is played by the wind).
Church also will play Chopin’s popular keyboard version of “La ci darem la mano,” which is based on the aria by that title in Mozart’s Opera Don Giovanni.
The program also includes Müller und der Bach, a song without words of both joy, sorrow and introspection by Liszt and Franz Schubert.
Biblical texts/themes presented in the performance will be from the book of Genesis and Revelation. Background imagery includes nature scenes and the biblical engravings of Gustave Dore, a 19th Century French artist known for illustrating scenes from the Bible and Dante's Divine Comedy.
The concept of combining multiple artistic mediums into one comes German composer Richard Wagner, who considered ancient Greek Drama the most powerful way of telling a story.
“For myself and other believers, the Bible is the greatest drama because it is a living drama encompassing the whole of creation and the full story of humanity, from beginning to end,” Church says.
There is no admission charge, but freewill offerings are encouraged. A brief reception will follow the performance.