Soprano Beth Ann Talks Recital

Just a few weeks after her Junior Recital, our very own Beth Ann Zinkievich joined us to talk about it! Find out what preparation for a Covid-era recital looks like and more below, and when you're done, watch the full recital right here using the button below! You can also find the program order and texts & translations, as well!

watch full recital

program

text & translations

Congratulations on an amazing recital! Before we dig into that, let’s talk about some of your experience leading up to the junior recital milestone--what have been some of your favorite experiences studying music in college thus far?
I’ve had so many wonderful musical experiences in college that I can’t even begin to pick which ones are my favorite. There have certainly been a number of memorable performances that I could talk about, but I also really just enjoy going to my voice lessons each week. It’s always exciting when I have a breakthrough in a lesson that changes the way in which I sing something!

Besides your recital, what are you most excited about this year? 
I’ve had a lot of great experiences this year despite the pandemic, but I’m honestly just ready for the school year to be over.
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What's your favorite piece on your recital? Why?
My favorite pieces to work on were the Clara Schumann lieder. Because I can’t have a live accompanist at my lessons right now, I recorded my own accompaniments for these pieces, so it was really cool to learn them from both a vocal and pianistic standpoint. 

If there’s only one thing you want audience members to get out of your recital, what would it be?
I don’t think there’s any one thing that I want people to get out of my recital. I just hope they get something out of it!

You got to prepare and perform this alongside a classmate of yours--tell us a bit about that experience and what it was like collaborating on a joint-recital!
Especially after not being able to sing in-person with others for so long, it was really, really exciting to collaborate with my friend Helen on this recital. The first time that we rehearsed our duets in person, I could barely make it through them because I was smiling so much. It was also just really nice to have someone else to lean on throughout the whole experience.

How was the recital process for you, overall? What did you have to do to prepare, and how do you feel about it all?
I was really scared that I wasn’t going to be able to memorize all of my music because memorization has never been a strength of mine. However, after working on my recital repertoire for more than a semester, I felt confident going into my recital that I knew the music as well as I possibly could have.