Just ahead of the holiday season, UTM’s Department of Music has trotted out what amounts to a veritable cornucopia of impressive talent with their Voice Area Studio Recitals on November 4.
The hour-and-a-half recital featured 20 separate solo vocalists ranging from first to fifth year students of the program, a wide array of compositions both Classical and more contemporary, and voices ranging from soprano to baritone. The length of the performance, as it began with the younger vocalists and gradually wound itself up to the more experienced, displayed the effectiveness of the program and the capabilities of Dr. Mancusi and Dr. Yeung in molding singers who are confident, poised, powerful in projection and controlled in articulation.
I cannot possibly speak on every single song and performer, but I will discuss some of the more memorable performances. One of the only songs of the night that could be characterized as “happy” was Griffen Powell’s performance of “The Jolly Rodger,” which was whimsical and entertaining, and his projection, while obviously not as refined as his older peers’, was quite admirable.
DaeShuana Aldridge’s performance of “Clouds,” by Zach Sobiech was also enjoyable, although more somber in tone.
One of the most impressive performances by the up-and-coming students in the program was given by Josiah Phelps, who sang “What Songs Were Sung” by John Jacob Niles, a resonant piece of religious music which, despite appearing to be moved emotionally by the song, Phelps discharged well and delighted the audience with the rich timbre of his voice.
Of the upperclassmen, all of the performances were splendid, but a few seemed to stand a cut above for one reason or another.
Firstly, Meleah Gateley’s treatment of “When I Am Laid in the Earth” from the 1683 Henry Purcell opera Dido and Aeneas was emotionally rich and captured, I think, the essence of the tragic Carthaginian queen.
Shelby Johnston’s rendition of “He Was Despised” from Handel’s Messiah was simply impressive for its power and spirit. Continuing the series of powerful female vocalists, I found “The Willow Song” from The Ballad of Baby Doe was handled excellently by Rebekah Mansfield who was the singer I found best combined power and articulation in her performance.
Finally, I would be remiss to not mention Mason Parker and his performance of “Mandoline” by Gabriel Fuare which was one of the best foreign language pieces for Parker’s seeming command of the language, closely matched by the last performance of the evening: Hugo Wolf’s “Auf Einer Wanderung” sung with lively gusto and much bombast by Darius Taylor.
This may seem a detailed report, but I promise you that it is in fact a small sampling of the array of talent that was on display at the recital, and all of the performances represented. I feel it’s only a preview of the high caliber of the vocal training here at UTM.
