Faculty Pianists Victoria Neve, Inara Morgenstern Have Performed 'Scary Concert' for Nearly 30 Years at SF State

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY NEWS -- For nearly 30 years, SFSU Music Professor Victoria Neve and lecturer and accompanist Inara Morgenstern have been performing the Scary Concert the week before Halloween. Both pianists, Neve and Morgenstern play a large repertoire of pieces related to All Hallows’ Eve — what Neve describes as “scary, often very exciting pieces.” The sinister show kicks off with Henry Cowell’s “The Banshee,” played entirely on piano strings to summon the sounds of wailing spirits. This time around, Morgenstern’s daughter, professional singer and actress Ariela Morgenstern Wilson, will join the duo as narrator for the setting of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." “We usually dress as witches,” Neve says. “One year we dressed as angels, and nobody bought it for a minute.”