Two seniors give their final performance
For two seniors, the culmination of four years of work came to a close Monday evening, during a joint senior recital in the Sandoz Center Chicoine Atrium.
Tenor Brendan Mead, a music education major of Knoxville, Iowa, and baritone Jake Wirth, a music industry major of Sidney; performed their final recital to a full house of friends and family. Both singers were coached during their college careers by CSC music professor Joel Schreuder.
“I’ve seen big progress in both of them, in their production and musicality,” Schreuder said, “and a lot of that can be attributed to the entire music faculty.”
Both vocalists said that they began rehearsing the music for their senior recital last semester. They performed a number of pieces in English, French, and German.
Schreuder said that while they don’t necessarily get to select the literature that they have to study, they do have some say in the pieces they actually perform.
When asked which pieces were most challenging, Wirth said his French pieces were the most difficult.
“There’s so much vocal technique that goes into French, and it’s just not that easy,” Wirth said.
Wirth said English pieces by Ralph Vaughan Williams were some of his favorite pieces to perform.
“I love the pieces in my Vaughan Williams set,” Wirth said. “I think, personally, that my voice is tailored to those kind of art-song type pieces.”
Mead responded that his most challenging piece was “I hear an army” by Samuel Barber. The piece is inspired by a James Joyce poem of the same name, and featured syncopated rhythms between the piano and voice sections of the music.
“It has some very difficult and interesting rhythmic pattern, and so there’s a lot of parts at the beginning where the piano and the voice don’t match up,” Mead said. “At the begging it’s supposed to sound very uneven because it’s supposed to describe an army approaching.” Mead’s favorite piece is Gustav Mahler’s “Liebst du um Schönheit.”
“I really enjoy the translation,” Mead said, “‘If you love for beauty, do not love me; if you love for youth, do not love me; if you love for wealth, do not love me; but if you love for love, oh yes love me.’ I think that’s very interesting text, because of all the things it talks about, love for love doesn’t change,” Mead said.
Mead and Wirth alternated every few songs during the performance, and Wirth was accompanied on his second to last song, “Se a Caso Madama”, by soprano Jing Zhang, freshman of Beijing. The piece comes from Mozart’s Italian opera, “Le Nozze di Figaro.”
CORRECTION: The print edition of this article left omitted an important detail.
Wirth and Mead were accompanied by the wonderfully talented piano player, Mr. Brooks Hafey.
The reporter who wrote this story has been flogged and now deeply regrets his omission.
SECOND CORRECTION: The print edition of this article also incorrectly states Brendan Mead as a senior of Sidney in the headline, text, and photo caption. Mead is a senior of Knoxville, Iowa; NOT Sidney. The reporter should have known that, considering he and Mead were in Men’s Ensemble together for a year. Mr. Jordan was flogged again repeatedly, and the article has been edited to reflect the corrections.
Mr. Jordan would like to personally apologize to readers, and sincerely regrets that his last article for The Eagle contained so many errors.