About 30 people gathered in the University of North Georgia Ed Cabell Performing Arts Center lobby in Gainesville on Monday night, March 2, for the UNG Music Department’s seventh annual International Women’s Day performance.
Hosted by Associate Chair of Music Joanna Kim, the concert featured award-winning student musicians from the Dahlonega and Gainesville campuses, as well as faculty from the UNG music department.
While not all of the music throughout the program was composed by women, all of it was performed by women.
“I’m deeply proud that we continue to recognize and elevate women in music,” Kim said. “Their dedication, discipline and artistry represent the very best of our musical department.”
Kim explained that performing in the concert was by invitation only, and all participating students must have received a 2026 UNG Music Department award the week prior, giving them limited time to prepare a repertoire.
Junior vocal performance major Sofia Perez, who received the UNG Music C.J. Dismukes Distinguished Musician Award, opened the concert with Jeanine Tesori’s “The Girl in 14G” and Gaetano Donizetti’s “Chacun le sait.”
Perez said Assistant Professor of Vocal Performance Yue Yin, who helped organize the event, personally requested that she perform both songs Monday night.
“I’ve done these pieces quite a few times now,” said Perez, adding that she appreciates Yin’s trust in students like herself to be available to perform within a week’s notice and put in the work.
Perez said it was an honor to be invited, “I love the women that I get to perform with this evening. I look up to them in every way possible, truly. They’re just some of the most kind and uplifting people I know and just wonderful musicians overall.”
Sophomore choral music education major Elena Mejia, who received the UNG Music Rising Musician Award for the Dahlonega Campus, sang “Frühlingsglaube” by Franz Schubert and “Let My Song Fill Your Heart” by Ernest Charles.
Freshman piano performance major Melanie Prichici, recipient of the UNG Music Rising Musician Award for the Gainesville Campus, played “La Fille aux cheveux de lin” from Prelude Book I by Claude Debussy.
Mariah Westmoreland, a junior music education major and recipient of the UNG Music Service Award, performed “Chanson Et Passepied” by Jeanine Rueff on the alto saxophone.
Piper Spraker, a junior dual majoring in astrophysics and musical arts, and recipient of the UNG Music Lyman Hammond Leadership Award, performed “Andante Expression” from Three Intermezzi, Op. 13, No. 1 by Charles Villiers Stanford.
Assistant Professor Yue Yin gave a vocal performance of “Ah! Je veux vivre” from Romeo et Juliette by Gounod and “Les oiseaux dans la charmille” from The Tales of Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach.
Sanghie Lee, who works as a part-time piano accompanist at UNG, played Frédéric Chopin’s “Étude Op. 10, No. 8 in F Major,” Franz Liszt’s “Transcendental Étude No. 10 in F Minor,” and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Moment Musicaux No. 4 in E Minor.”
Lee, along with part-time accompanists Vivian Doublestein and Chen Fang Hsu, provided piano accompaniment for the other performers throughout the evening.
Bethany Bruning, a junior music education major who received the UNG Music Service Award, performed “She Danced in the Rain” by Cait Nishimura on the euphonium.
Bruning said she was grateful to perform, “because especially as a woman in low brass, we don’t get represented as much as we should.”
“In the music world in general, women don’t get a lot of the representation they deserve,” she said. “It’s just really cool to have the opportunity to perform something centered around women as a woman.”
