To finish off the first week of classes, a crowd of students and faculty flocked to the Butz-Carruth Recital Hall for an exciting Friday evening of music.
Conor Angell, Music, Theatre and Dance department co-chair and professor of music, and Mary Kathryn Brewer, assistant professor of music, performed in a faculty voice recital accompanied by Sheila Todd on the evening of Sept. 4 in the Recital Hall.
“We collaborated on a recital last fall and had a wonderful time,” Brewer said.
When Angell asked Brewer to do so again, she happily accepted.
As the lights dimmed in the Recital Hall, Todd and Brewer walked onto the stage to thunderous applause. Brewer’s soaring soprano opened the performance with four lyrical Italian songs by composer Ottorino Respighi: “Pioggia,” “In alto mare,” “Nebbie” and “Stornnellatrice.”
“The four Respighi pieces are so beautiful and expressive,” Brewer said. “Three of the four express human experience and emotion through poetry about water.”
Kate Franklin, a sophomore music education major, attended both this year’s recital and the one held last Fall. She was able to better understand how much work went into the preparation this time after having to learn songs in other languages for her vocal diction class, she said.
“All the pieces that they were doing and all the different languages, I was like, ‘Wow, I really can appreciate how hard it is to learn to sing a song in another language,’” she said.
Translated lyrics from the songs in foreign languages were projected on a slideshow which advanced with the songs in real time so the audience could follow along.
According to Brewer, there was no overarching theme tying together the pieces she performed.
“I created my program to show a variety of styles, languages, and time periods,” she said.
Brewer and Angell alternated turns onstage, each singing three or four songs before trading off.
When Brewer stepped backstage to cede the spotlight to Angell, he followed in a powerful baritone with four German Romantic era pieces by Richard Strauss.
“Romantic era art songs are some of my favorite music, and the songs of Strauss and Duparc are among the best from that era,” Angell said. “The music is harmonically rich and the piano accompaniments are vivid and complex.”
Following these, Brewer returned to perform the first pieces of the evening in English, “Four Songs of Solomon” by George Rochberg.
“The ‘Four Songs of Solomon’ are just fun to sing,” Brewer said. “With texts directly from the Bible, they express the passion, joy, excitement, and beauty of love.”
The second half of the evening was dominated by the genres of jazz and musical theatre.
For Angell, the musical theatre pieces brought out facial expressions, gestures and movements around the stage which had not shown up as much in the classical pieces. They contributed an added level of emotional immersion into the music.
“In the musical theatre selections, I have the opportunity to inhabit specific characters’ circumstances and needs, which affects my physicality and singing,” Angell said.
Angell began this portion of the show with “First You Dream” by John Kander, “Flight” by Craig Carnelia, “Part of a Painting” by Benji Pasek and Justin Paul and “I’m Allergic to Cats” by Neil Bartram.
This last title drew the most lively audience reaction of the entire show, each line in the song getting more ridiculous. Angell had the entire room in stitches for the duration of the song with his dramatic interpretation and expressions, culminating in a collective gasp and more laughter at the plot twist at the end of the piece.
Brewer only had one musical theatre song in her lineup for the evening: “They Say It’s Wonderful” by Irving Berlin from “Annie Get Your Gun.” However, her jazz pieces, “What’ll I Do” and “Cheek to Cheek,” also by Berlin, shone.
“My pianist, Sheila, transcribed and arranged these pieces to go together, and that makes the set even more special to me,” Brewer said.
Finally, the performance ended with a delightfully humorous duet: Angell and Brewer’s rendition of “An Old-Fashioned Wedding,” also from “Annie Get Your Gun.”
“The variety of languages, styles, and colors we offer on this program is special,” Brewer said, “and I hope we can continue to offer collaborative recitals in the future!”
Indeed, throughout the evening, there was something in the program for everyone with selections from different styles catering to different music tastes.
Franklin echoed Brewer’s positive sentiment, expressing her appreciation for the care the music professors show both their discipline and their students on a personal level.
“I’ve had multiple interactions with Dr. Brewer and Dr. Angell, where maybe I was having a hard day, and they just have supported and encouraged me so much, or prayed for me and really, really care about and honor you as a person,” she said. “I think it’s such a blessing that there’s, like, the faculty in the Music department is so talented and really care about their craft, but they also are such wonderful people.”
