The spring semester’s Vocal Studio Recital showcased 19 students who performed pieces in a variety of genres and languages.
Held every semester, the recital occurred on Sunday, March 9 in the Redfern Arts Center Alumni Recital Hall. Each student performed one song, and while most students were from the music department, the recital also featured students from other departments, such as the theatre department.
Sophomore theatre major Melina Martello-Munoz performed “Vanilla Ice Cream” from the musical “She Loves Me.” According to Martello-Munoz, the musical follows the story of Amalia, a woman who discovers her pen pal is a man she knows in real life. “Vanilla Ice Cream” portrays the moment Amalia discovers who her pen pal is.
“In the song, Amalia reflects on how her life has changed in unexpected ways, comparing sweetness and simplicity of love to the pleasantness of vanilla ice cream,” Martello-Munoz said. “She sings about the feelings she never expected to have, and how this newfound love makes everything feel fresh, delightful and special.”
Martello-Munoz said her vocal instructor Professor Evangelia Leontis suggested this piece to her as a way to help restrengthen her voice following a break due to a sprain in her vocal cords.
“This year [Leontis] was like, ‘We’re going to give you a piece that I know you can do, you proved to me that you have this. You need to stop being scared of being up in that upper range, you’ve come so far,”’ Martello-Munoz said.
Leontis said Martello-Munoz is “a really strong actress … [‘Vanilla Ice Cream’] has a lot of acting in it, it’s a comedic song. She’s really shining in the acting of it.”
The vocal recital featured pieces in various languages such as Spanish, French and Italian. First-year Ellis White performed a Spanish piece titled “A cantar a una niña” which according to White translates to “When I sing to a child.”
“It’s this little piece about singing to a child and teaching her life lessons through song,” White said. “It’s very pretty, there’s a lot of repetition, but the piano part is very flowy. It’s very calming, it’s like a little lullaby.”
Prior to singing “A cantar a una niña,” White said they did not have much experience singing in Spanish but said, “It was really nice to extend my knowledge in that direction and learn a little bit more about singing.”
Vocal instructor for the recital and Associate Professor of Voice Morgan Bothwell said he considers Spanish pieces to be unique compared to the text of pieces in other languages.
“Spanish is almost ethereal a lot of the times in its descriptions, it’s very ‘My soul is bound’ or ‘My heart is wrapped in,’ sort of this ethereal description,” Bothwell said. “It’s interesting to see how languages and cultures differ in their descriptions in art song.”
Senior Liz Borelli performed “Ah, mio cor,” a piece from the opera “Alcina.” According to Borelli, the storyline for the piece follows the sorcerer Alcina who “kidnaps this guy and then his lover from the overworld comes down, dressed as a man, and tries to [get him back].”
Borelli said performing in the vocal recital is a rewarding experience because “it’s such a good atmosphere, everyone included: Instructor, accompanist. Other than my senior recital, it’s my last one altogether so it’s always really special to come out to events like this because you get to see how your peers have grown.”
Bothwell said he was proud of all the hard work the students have put in throughout the semester in preparation for the recital.
“They’ve done a really killer job. I’m proud of all of them, the characters that they get to paint on stage, it’s really a rewarding experience,” Bothwell said.
First-year William Horne attended the performance and said he was impressed by the skills the students displayed.
“I’m always impressed when people can actually sing and then they do it well,” Horne said. “So this was incredibly impressive.”
Nicole Dumont can be contacted at
ndumont@kscequinox.com
