Kling! Meine Seele gibt reinen Ton!

My Master of Music recital was December 1st. It represented about a year and a half worth of lessons, practicing, memorizing, and research. The program was near and dear to my heart. I selected all the pieces except the oratorio which was performed in last year's Chamber Choir concert and the arias which my teacher selected for me. I loved all the Ives pieces I listened to and had a hard time narrowing my selections down to these seven. And I don't know why I never sang Strauss before. His pieces are so moving. The program started with selections from Handel's oratorio Belshazzar.

O Sacred Oracles of Truth

Rejoice, My Countrymen

For Long Ago

Thus Saith the Lord

Then, the Ives selections-

In the Mornin'

Rock of Ages

Abide With Me

My Native Land

Watchman!

There is a Certain Garden

Memories

After the intermission I sang an aria from Ponchielli's La Gioconda, Stella del marinar

Then, the Strauss set-

Allerseelen

Traum durch die Dammerung (please excuse lack of umlaut)

Schlechtes Wetter

Morgen!

and Kling!

For an encore I sang Santuzza's aria from Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana

My teacher told me that she could listen to me sing In the Mornin' all day. I love this piece and it's my favorite too. I sing it every time I'm in the car and it's always running through my head. Kacey Link, a collaborative pianist grad student, played harpsichord for me in the first set and piano for the remainder of the program. My cousin Caroline made my beautiful recital poster. I had given her a couple profile pictures of mine. She was creative and went through my facebook tour albums and included in the poster a picture of the garden of the Medici palace in Florence and Mozart's piano in Salzburg.

I had a lot of fun and really appreciated all the support. My mom held a reception afterwards. There was quite a good turn out for a Wednesday evening in December.

Quire of Voyces 2010 Italy Tour: Ave Maria by Eglin at Basilica San Pietro

Summer and Smoke, Hoiby

Musica

This quarter has been a long journey. The Chamber Choir concert came on week 7 instead of 8 or 9. The choir returned to my favorite Santa Barbara venue, St. Anthony's Seminary. Since the choir is preparing for a European tour our year's concerts will feature American composers. Our Fall concert, titled Americana, kicked off the series. We revisited a few of my choral favorites including two Whitacre pieces, Her Sacred Spirit Soars and Lux Arumque, and Joshua Shank's Musica animam tangens.

The next afternoon the UCSB voice students presented the opera scenes we had prepared all quarter. My scene can be seen above. The scene is from Lee Hoiby's Summer and Smoke, adapted from the Tennessee Williams play. This was a very difficult scene. We had no help form the piano as far as musical cues or the other singers. But it came together nicely and was a lot of fun. The other scenes can be seen at www.youtube.com/user/UCSBVoiceDept .