Students can take a break from studying in the library and listen to live music without leaving their chair.

About every other Friday the Terrell Library Atrium has held recitals for students, staff and outside groups to perform for up to an hour starting at noon. The informal concerts in the library atrium have taken place for the past eight years.

Shannon Scott, graduate program coordinator for the School of Music, has put together the Library Atrium Music Series for the past seven years. Students and staff from the School of Music and outside groups contact Scott throughout the year for a time slot to perform.

The recitals are informal for the spectators but formal for the performers, preparing them for the professional world and upcoming recitals.

In the case of junior vocal performance major Sarah Tisinger, her recital scheduled this afternoon will prepare her for her upcoming junior recital.

Tisinger will sing a selection from the opera “Alessandro,” composed by G.F. Handel, three selections from German composer Robert Schumann, two selections from a French composer Camille Saint-Saën, and two pieces from the “Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson,” a song cycle written by an American composer Aaron Copland. She will perform with her accompanist junior piano performance and pedagogy major Carlie Berry.

These selections are somewhat of a preview of what she will perform Oct. 3 in Bryan Hall, Tisinger said.

A junior recital is equivalent to a midterm or final for performance majors, and most of the students who perform in the library are preparing for their recitals, Scott said.

“I wanted to perform this Friday to really prepare myself for my junior recital, which is a requirement for my degree,” Tisinger said.

Tisinger shares the hour time slot in the library with senior vocal performance major, Sami Cottam. Cottam is a soprano as well and is preparing for her senior recital before she graduates in May.

“(Cottam) is brilliant, and I am very excited to be performing with her,” Tisinger said.

Cottam will sing “Let the Bright Seraphim,” by G.F. Handel; “O las Gigantes,” by Joaquin Turina; “An Awful Tempest mashed the Air,” by John Duke; and “Nobody Knows this little Rose,” also by John Duke. She will be accompanied by junior piano performance major Regan Siglin.

However, Scott said she doesn’t put together the performances alone. Holland/Terrell Libraries human resource coordinator Bonny Boyan makes sure that the performances are on the library’s internal calendar, while custodians Mike Carter and Tom Brausen make sure the piano is ready for the performers.

“We wouldn’t be able to do this without their help,” Scott said.

Many types of music are performed in the atrium. Spectators will usually hear classical music, but jazz bands have played as well, Scott said. The singers who perform will often have a serious repertoire, but there will also be lighter pieces like musical theater.

More atrium performances will take place throughout October. The WSU Golden Class of 1945 donated the piano in the atrium for its 50th anniversary celebration, university archivist Mark O’English said.

The piano was donated nearly 20 years ago and now gives students the chance to both perform and hear midday pieces of music, he said.