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It's the end of senior year! How're you feeling about that?
"Excited and nervous, which I imagine is how most people feel..." Besides your recital, what are you most excited about this year? "I'm really excited to be performing in Street Scene by Kurt Weill as part of UMD Weill Festival! I think it's an amazing show and I'm so excited to be a part of it." What's been your favorite experience studying music in college? "I've loved getting to make other musician friends. It's so special to be able to make music with people close to you, and the best part is that I know I will run into these people after I graduate because the music world is so small. I'm so excited to continue to make music with my friends as we all mature as musicians." Okay, so, recital time. Let's start with the easy question. When and where is your recital? "February 27 at 8pm in the Gildenhorn Recital Hall, which is in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center." What's your favorite piece on your recital? "I'm doing a set by Louis Beydts called Chansons pour les oiseaux. I think the music is so beautiful and harmonically interesting, and it's by a composer that not many people know. I love having the opportunity to introduce people to music that isn't widely known." 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 usually involves me changing my repertoire about 17 times... There's just so much I want to sing! But once I settle on the repertoire, I translate and IPA the text, learn the notes, and listen to the music as much as possible. I find that listening to the music helps me memorize quickly and it’s definitely a painless way to memorize." If there's only one thing you want audience members to get out of your recital, what would it be? There’s so much wonderful music out there that isn’t widely performed! The set on my recital I’m most excited to share with the audience is my set of Indonesian art songs. Not only is it cool to share my culture with the audience, but it also shows them that there is a lot of cool music that comes from non-western countries. I would encourage everyone to explore music that is written by composers other than those we typically perform like Mozart, Schubert, etc. 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! 
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!  Baritone Collin Power is very excited to be singing the role of Boaz in César Franck's oratorio, Ruth. On September 15, Collin will perform, along with some other fantastic musicians, at Glenelg Country School in Ellicott City, MD. Inspired by the themes and events of the biblical story, profits from this event will be donated to the International Rescue Committee to support their humanitarian efforts with refugees. In lieu of tickets there is a $15 suggested donation. For more information, click the button below!  Congratulations to Amanda Densmoor who just has not stopped performing this summer! (You'd think she likes it or something...) Earlier today, Amanda performed as the soprano soloist in Mozart's Requiem at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Sykesville, MD! Enjoy some pictures from the event below. Can't make it to Die Fledermaus at The Majestic? We've got you covered! Follow these links below to view the livestreams of each performance. See Eby Buscher (Rosalinda), Hannah Kolarik (Rosalinda, cover), Robby Napoli (Alfred), and Austin Nikirk (Adele).
Last weekend, soprano Bernie Tirador and the rest of Wheeling Jesuit University's cast put on Pippin for the last time. See what she has to say about her experience with the show in the interview below!
What's your favorite thing about playing Catherine?
"At first, I wanted to play Catherine because she was energetic and kind of cheesy in a fun way, but as I got into the role, I fell in love with the part because she was the turning point of the whole show. She breaks out of the imaginary world, becomes a reality, and saves Pippin's life. Because of Catherine, Death is foiled for perhaps the first time in that vicious cycle. I think her character is representative of the hope we all try to cling to. What was the hardest thing about playing her? "Because Catherine starts off lighthearted and sort of manipulative, just like all the other players, I had to make the transition to a real woman falling in love seem somehow realistic. She has to portray love, pain, and loyalty. It's kind of an emotional roller coaster!" What's your favorite song from the show? "I Guess I'll Miss the Man. This is the song Catherine sings after Pippin leaves her and she realizes she loves him. It actually has comical undertones, just like the whole show, but I found the song deeply emotional and honest. I actually struggled not to cry while singing it a couple times." What's your funniest tech week story? "Well I can't think of any funny tech week stories. But I have a slightly comical, somewhat disastrous show day story so we'll just go with that. Friday the Thirteenth, someone said the "M" word in the theater (for those of you who don't know, saying "Macbeth" inside the theater is bad luck; you're basically asking for disaster to strike). That night, the bad luck fell on me. I have a sex scene in Act II, and sometime during all the squirming and flailing my mic pack managed to open itself and spill the batteries. But I didn't realize this, I thought it had just turned off with all the steamy action. So while the audience thought Pippin and I were getting it on under the sheets, he was actually reaching down my costume and trying to figure out what the heck the problem was. I finished up the act having to project my lines and songs extra loud. When I took off my dress after the show, two AWOL batteries fell out. I taped my pack closed for the rest of the weekend." What makes this cast special? "We had so many newcomers and it pulled from so many different social groups. We have a freshman-heavy cast - Pippin, for example, was played by a freshman - and some upperclassmen who had never done theater before. It was an eclectic group that never would have formed without this show, and yet we quickly became a family. Our GroupMe and group snap are still blowing up my phone, and I can't see that slowing down anytime soon." |
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