Josie played her terrific final recital in Fairchild Chapel this week. She was celebrated by a huge crowd of fans, friends and well-wishers, making a memorable evening for all. Focusing on music of Latin America, she also included some contrasting pieces for variety, and handled everything on her program with ease and professional aplomb.

She opened with two of the sensuous, lyrical Choros by Villa-Lobos and followed them with two irresistible American Preludes of Abel Carlevaro. Her spiky rhythms and percussion effects in Carlevaro’s Tamboriles got a rowdy and enthusiastic audience response. (The full program is reproduced at the end of the post)

Music of Jorge Morel and Agustin Barrios followed. Morel’s Danza in Em flew by, with precision fast scales and jazzy interludes both speaking clearly and joyously. The charming and unusual Cueca concluded the Barrios set. She landed it with authority.

Next up was the beloved Sonatina in A by Moreno Torroba. She sounded at home in this romantic Spanish idiom.

Two modern works rounded out the program: the sultry and evocative Bogdanovic favorite, Mysterious Habitats, and Roland Dyens’ perennial crowd-pleaser, Fuoco. The crowd went crazy, jumping up as one into a raucous standing ovation.

Josie, clearly in high spirits, thanked the audience for their warm response by offering a lovely encore, M. D. Pujol’s Preludio Triston. It was a beautiful way to close the program.