Student to host concert featuring synesthesia -

A student is hosting and performing a solo concert based on synesthesia.

Austin Keller, guitar performance freshman, will use his guitar and painting abilities in the upcoming concert.

“Synesthesia is the crossover of different felt sensations experienced all at the same time,” Keller said. “In this instance, this concert, I’ll be playing music, but showing visual abstractions of how I see music.”

There will be eight pieces of music played and 11 pieces of art displayed. The solo guitar concert is free and open to the public.

Synesthesia is experienced differently for every person, Keller said.

“For some people, they might look at numbers and see color or might associate textures or even smells with days of the week, numbers or people,” he said.

Keller said a huge inspiration for this project is the last piece he’s playing in the concert called “Aquarelle,” which means “watercolor” in French.

“The piece starts with three notes which continue to develop upon each other throughout the piece,” he said. “Similarly to a watercolor painting, where it may start with three colors that continue to mix and flow into each other.”

For this piece, Keller will be showing a watercolor painting on canvas, he said.

Keller said he chooses paintings based off of what he associates a piece of music with. He said an example is that, to show heaviness in a piece, he would add texture or make the paint look like it’s dripping off the canvas, but he would create more “modern” pieces of art to match a contemporary song.

Tomi Vetter, piano performance freshman, said Keller is the first friend she made at OCU, and she plans on attending the concert.

“I would definitely say I’m most excited about his performance overall,” Vetter said. “Whenever Austin performs, he brings in emotions that are so unique and special to music.”

The concert will be at 7 p.m. April 27 in Bishop W. Angie Smith chapel.

Keller said that with synesthesia, art doesn’t have to fit within individual molds.

“People experience it in different ways, and I just want to share that with others,” he said. “Arts don’t have to conform just in one particular area, but they can be experienced all together.”

Vetter said she has witnessed some of Keller’s preparations for the show.

“I’ve hung out with him while he’s worked on some paintings, and I’ve also heard him playing some of his pieces before,” she said. “He is one of the best performers I know, and his music is among the most beautiful things I’ve heard.”