It’s finally senior year! How’re you feeling about that?
It’s both really exciting and incredibly nerve wracking! It’s crazy to think how quickly time has passed, and how far I’ve come as a singer and performer since I first started my degree. I’m nervous about what the world will have to say about me as a musician, but also super excited to show them what I’ve got! Besides your recital, what are you most excited about this year? After finishing my recital where it’s just me, my pianist, and the audience, I get to immerse myself in two awesome collaborative/ensemble opportunities! This semester I will be playing the role of Presto in the Turner-Fischer Opera Center at LSU’s production of Les Mamelles de Tirésias by Poulenc, and I will be a part of the LSU School of Music’s performance of Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, one of the greatest masterworks in the Western canon. These two works are super different musically and thematically, so I’m excited to dive right into both! What’s been your favorite experience studying music in college? One of my greatest pleasures has been realizing the two sides of good musicianship. While many people think that music is only the “touchy feely” aspects of sentimentality, pageantry, and drama, I’ve also gotten to explore the more absolute sides of music, such as music theory, history, pedagogy and, of course, vocal technique. The marriage of preciseness and artistic license have really fascinated me, and I’m glad that I’m in a field that has the best of both worlds. Okay, so, recital time. Let’s start with the easy question. When and where is your recital? It’s Wednesday, February 20th, at 5:30 pm CST, in the Recital Hall in the LSU School of Music! I intend on streaming it via Facebook, so all my friends and family back home can see too! What’s your favorite piece on your recital? Why? I’m doing several great pieces, but I’d have to pick Till I Wake, which will coincidentally be the last song of the recital. It comes from the song cycle Five Songs of Laurence Hope which I will be performing the entirety. One of the things that I love about this song cycle is that it finds its music from H.T. Burleigh, an African-American composer living in early 20th century America, and it’s text from Adela Florence Nicolson, a young woman who wrote under the pseudonym Laurence Hope, which adds some much needed diversity to a recital comprised primarily of white male composers/poets. Till I Wake is a kind of dreamy, languid appeal of someone on their death bed asking their loved one’s to droop over them “like yellow roses in the South” that they knew in their youth, so that when the singer passes and then moves on to the next plane, they may see the faces of their beloved. It’s really pretty and very moving, and I think it’s a fitting farewell. How has the recital process been for you? What did you have to do to prepare, and how do you feel about it all? It’s been a MARATHON! My recital came upon me a lot more quickly than I realized it would, and I had to learn a lot of completely new music, since I recently transitioned from tenor to baritone. All the practicing time has really allowed me to hone my technique, and I am super excited to share the fruit of my labors! If there’s only one thing you want audience members to get out of your recital, what would it be? My recital has a LOT of themes surrounding love in it’s different facets; there’s some new young love, love that you have held closely to for years, love that was ripped away prematurely, and even love that transcends the grave. I want people to be able to appreciate love in all its forms, and I wanna convey my love for all of this great music!
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Soprano Austin Nikirk was one of nine students from Gettysburg College who presented their research as part of the Kolbe Fellowship last Thursday, January 24. Phoebe Doscher described Austin's research and the other Fellows in an article for The Gettysburgian: "Austin Nikirk '20 took an arts-oriented approach to her research and studied Floral Imagery and Birdsong in the Art Song of Amy Beach. Nikirk spoke passionately about Beach, an American composer, who pioneered women’s music performance and composition. Nikirk primarily studied Beach’s art songs, analyzing a variety of nuances in her stylistic tendencies, harmonies, and poetry. Nikirk described Beach’s modification of early strophic songs, and how she expanding upon melody and mood that was unprecedented for the time period. Ultimately, she intended to find how Beach used certain techniques to display originality and express emotion in her works. Nikirk will be singing songs by Beach during her junior voice recital at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music in March." Of the experience, Nikirk said "it was an invaluable experience to do faculty-mentored research so early in [her] academic career. [Her] mentor, Dr. William O'Hara, was incredibly supportive of [her] many interests in the field, and helped me synthesize them into a research topic that was both challenging and inspiring." To learn more about Austin's research, and to hear her perform these pieces, see her lecture-recital on April 12 in Paul Recital Hall at 3:00pm, at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College.  Just a few days ago, we gave our final performance of our Winter season, and we couldn't have been more excited to share so many wonderful moments with our audiences! We were absolutely overwhelmed by your support, and had so much fun sharing our music with everyone. Special thanks to Quorus, who joined forces with us to create an exhilarating concert between two of the best young choral groups in Maryland. But of course, our biggest thank you goes to you! Our fans and supporters. Without you, we simply couldn't have done what we were able to do this season, or any season! This Winter, we performed three different programs in two states and for three distinct audiences - more than ever before in our four-year history! This was also our first season as a non-profit business, and we are excited to announce that we are beginning the planning stages to release two new albums in 2019! Weren't able to make it to our performances, but still want to support our work? Never fear! Visit our Donate and Shop pages, and follow with our social media for more pictures and videos of this weekends' performances. In the meantime, enjoy some pictures below from our Baltimore concert with Quorus: Many thanks to Music, Gettysburg!, the Gettysburg Children's Choir, and of course the incredible audience we had tonight for the Gettysburg Christmas Offering. We had so much fun sharing the night with you all! Here's a short slideshow of some pictures to help relive the night. Just days away from soprano Eby Buscher's senior recital, she made some time to answer a few questions about her recital and about her final year! Joining her will also be director Robby Napoli, on two Schumann duets. If you can't make it, no worries, there'll be a livestream! For more information, check out the buttons below.
Okay, so, recital time. Let’s start with the easy question. When and where is your recital?
November 11, 2018 at 2:30pm in Paul Recital Hall in Schmucker Memorial Hall at Gettysburg College. What’s your favorite piece on your recital? “Pur Ti Miro” from L’Incoronazione di Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi. It combines my three loves: Baroque music, opera, and “la bella lingua,” the Italian language. Featuring Bridget Kennedy, mezzo-soprano, it is a duet full of crunchy suspensions and stunning lyrical lines. “Piangero, La Sorte Mia” from Giulio Cesare is a close second though, due in part to it being composed by G.F. Handel, my favorite composer. It is also stunningly beautiful and depicts raw emotion of grief and anger through both simple and challenging phrases. How has the recital process been for you? What did you do to prepare, and how do you feel about it all? The process has been actually really fun for me. I’ve done a lot of research into the background of the compositions and composers, the characters, listened to many recordings, as well as developed storylines of my own for the art-songs. It takes a lot of time in and out of the practice room but I’ve loved it and I’m super excited. If there’s only one thing you want audience members to get out of your recital, what would it be? Opera and Early music are not as boring as some people make it out to be. They are super challenging, extremely expressive, and can connect to the modern world in a number of ways. Congratulations to soprano Eby Buscher, who passed her hearing yesterday for her senior recital! Her recital repertoire, includes pieces with her collaborators, Olivia Higgins (harp), Bridget Kennedy (mezzo-soprano), and Robby Napoli (tenor). After performing her recital pieces for her hearing, her panelists congratulated her in telling her she had passed! This now means that she can move on to creating posters for advertising, printing program notes, and finalizing the last logistical tasks for her recital. Stay tuned for an interview with Eby about her recital! 
Lux is very excited to announce that we will be a featured ensemble in Music, Gettysburg!'s Christmas Offering concert on Dec. 16 at 7pm! Music, Gettysburg! is a premier concert series featuring international, regional and local musical artists for the greater south central Pennsylvania region. Lux will perform some pieces alone, and some alongside the Gettysburg Children's Choir and High School Chorale and artistic director Dr. Brent Talbot, with whom soprano Eby Buscher is an intern, following Robby Napoli, who worked with Dr. Talbot and the children's choir just last year. On the program, Lux will perform Paul Mealor's A Spotless Rose, which can be heard on our most recent album, and Morten Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium, as well as performing Daniel Elder's Elegy with the High School Chorale. To round out the program, Lux will join the Gettysburg Children's Choir on two more pieces: Nos Galan by Frank Ferko, and a newly commissioned piece specifically for the occasion. Between the event, the repertoire, and the performers, this will surely prove to be an especially exciting collaboration! The concert is free and open to the public, and will be held on December 16, 2018, at 7pm at the United Lutheran Seminary Chapel, at 147 Seminary Ridge, Gettysburg, PA. For more information, click the button below. Director Robby Napoli passed his recital hearing this week, which means his senior recital is official! After a months-long process of preparing music, program notes, and planning, he performed with collaborators Dr. Scott Crowne, Jasmin Eddy, Rick Hale, and Aaron Thompson, in front of his judging panelists, who approved his recital. We are incredibly excited to announce that his recital, featuring just over 30 minutes of music ranging from Bach to Barber to Craig Carnelia, will be on Sunday, October 28, at 2:30 pm. Aside from his student-teaching, which he will do in the Spring, this is one of the large projects leading up to his graduation at the end of the academic year! The recital, which is free and open to the public, will be held in Paul Recital Hall, at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College. For more information or to see the Facebook Event, click the button below!  Our friends at Chorus Connection wrote a wonderful article about Lux, our origins, who we are, and the nuts and bolts of how we work as an ensemble! Tori Cook, their Director of Marketing, discovered Lux online and contacted our director, Robby Napoli, to interview him for an article, which you can read by pressing the button below! Many thanks to Tori and the rest of her colleagues at Chorus Connection!  |
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