Editor’s Note: The headline and dates in this story were updated for timeliness.

 Sar Strong was just over 4 years old when he started taking piano lessons. Unlike others, he wasn’t forced into playing. He did it because it was fun. Strong also played the violin in high school through college. But with the violin being “more of a social instrument” and having not played it since then, he stuck to the instrument he was best at, the piano. 

“[The] piano is fun because you can play something that sounds like an entire song,” Strong said. “You have melody. You have accompaniment. You have rhythm. It’s a very complete instrument.” 

On Feb. 21, Strong performed a solo recital during the Jackson Lunch Hour Series and will return on March 20 with saxophonist and clarinetist Ronald Caravan for a classical performance. 

Strong doesn’t write his own music. He tried it before in high school, but doesn’t think he has “great ideas as a composer.” Instead, he enjoys playing music from other musicians. As a classical performer trained to “faithfully follow what’s on the page,” Strong’s ability to read music quickly has allowed him to become good at “translating the page.”

Despite such a long career, he continues to develop more efficient techniques because “it’s much harder to play softly than it is to play loud.” 

Pianists are without the luxury of playing on their own instrument, Strong said. Though the places where he performs have pianos he’s used multiple times, each still has a different feel, response and personality.

According to Strong, the majority of his time is spent collaborating with other musicians. In 1996, while completing his master’s degree at Syracuse University School of Music, Strong met Caravan, who taught at SU from 1980–2015. The musicians began collaborating in 1998.

“Our musical relationship certainly grew over the ensuing years,” Caravan said. “We also bring genuine humility to our collaborations [while] welcoming one another’s suggestions and being willing to be musically flexible for each other. There has never been any ‘solo ego’ in our musical collaborations, and that suits both personalities very well.”

In 2016, the two released an eight-part volume series titled “Single Reed Expressions.”

Both have performed at the university separately on several occasions. The performance — scheduled to last approximately an hour — will feature a mixture of clarinet music, alto saxophone music and soprano saxophone music. While at the performance, attendees can expect to hear pieces that are not “commonly performed.” 

“We want to expose people to things they aren’t necessarily familiar with while still giving them all the comforting things of a musical performance that they would expect,” Strong said.

Caravan added: “All our audiences get our full attention and preparation, and they deserve no less.”

The Professor Harry F. and Mary Ruth Jackson Lunch Hour Series musical performances are held at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesdays in the Library Concourse. All programs are free and open to the public.