I viewed Suzzette’s performance “Latin Notes of Passion in Germantown” hosted by Artcinia at First Presbyterian Germantown. The music was very bright and warm, and Suzzette’s voice went with it beautifully as it was very clear and smooth. There were all consonant sounds used, and no dissonant sounds as far as I could tell. Even when pieces were darker like the one dedicated to her deceased father or to hurricane Maria, they still had a strong beat and light notes. I would describe the music dynamic level as forte, and I also found that in most songs the tempo was fairly fast. There were some songs with lyrics but not many, and these songs differed greatly from the rest of the music. One of these songs had lyrics that were spoken like spoken word poetry over the music, and one had slower, more held out notes and was the only song without a beat from the drums. A lot of the lyrics were in Spanish, and there was a duet between Suzette and one of the other performers in Spanish that was one of my favorite songs because their voices blended so well.
Suzzette’s performance was also very involved with the audience. Before the performance she was speaking to audience members and thanking them for being there. It seemed like she also knew many of the audience members, so she was also exchanging small talk with them and saying that it was good to see them again. The audience was diverse and there were many older people and many people who spoke Spanish, but there didn’t seem to be a target audience. The viewers, though different, were united by the music. Her joyful music matched her disposition, and she continually interacted with the audience to involve us in her music. In between songs she shared stories and was very excited to share her music and tell us what inspired it.