Senior Recital: Samantha Eron, Soprano

Music and political science major Samantha Eron (Brighton, Michigan) will perform her senior vocal recital on Sunday, Nov. 3 at 1 p.m. in the Elizabeth Pastor Recital Hall. She will be accompanied by pianist Deborah Logan and fellow soprano Rebecca Young. Her program will include classical pieces by Debussy, Mozart along with operetta and musical theatre compositions by Menotti, Leonard Bernstein, Cole Porter and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The concert is free and open to the public.

Junior Recital: Rebecca Young, soprano, Mar. 24

Ashland University Department of Music presents a junior recital with soprano Rebecca Young accompanied by pianist Deb Logan on Sunday, Mar. 24 at 1 p.m. in the Elizabeth Pastor Recital Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

Rebecca is a vocal music and history major from Sherwood, Oregon and she studies voice with Sandra Ross. The program for her recital will consist of classical pieces by Haydn and Faure; as well as selections from operas and musical theatre such as The Merry Widow, Princess Ida, Firefly, Have a Heart and She Loves Me.

Senior Recital: Anna Rivero, soprano, Mar. 22

Ashland University Department of Music will present a senior recital with soprano Anna Rivero accompanied by pianist Deb Logan on Thursday, March 22, at 7:30 p.m. in the Elizabeth Pastor Recital Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

Rivero is a vocal music major from Three Bridges, N.J. The program for her recital will consist of classical pieces by Scarlatti, Mozart, Puccini, Schubert and Schumann; and more contemporary compositions by Satie and Duke.

Senior Recital: Rachel Kelly, Soprano, Feb. 4

Music education major Rachel Kelly of Columbus will present her senior vocal recital with pianist Deb Logan on Sunday, Feb. 4 at 1 p.m. in the Elizabeth Pastor Recital Hall. Her program will begin with classical pieces by W. A. Mozart, Franz Schubert, Gabriel Faure, Daniel Auber, and Gian Carlo Menotti, while the second half features more contemporary pieces by Jeanine Tesori, Adam Schlesinger, Jonathan Reid Gealt and Melanie Brooks. Free & Open to the Public

Kelly & Wise Junior Recital, 3/23

On Thursday, March 23 at 7:30 p.m., music education majors Rachel Parfitt Kelly (Columbus) and Hannah Wise (Hartville) will perform their junior recital in the Elizabeth Pastor Recital Hall. Both sopranos will be accompanied by pianist Deb Logan and joined by guest vocalists Jacob Markley, baritone and Jacob Poiner, tenor. The program will include several musical theatre selections from shows such as Mame, White Christmas, Cinderella, Shrek, The Addams Family, Seussical, Spamalot and more. The concert is free and open to the public.

Vocal Majors to Perform Senior Recitals

The Department of Music at Ashland University announces the senior vocal recitals for Deric Dove, baritone, and Abbie Brady, soprano, who both study private voice with Stephanie Sikora. Both recitals will be held on Sunday, Nov. 20 in the Elizabeth Pastor Recital Hall. Both concerts are free and open to the public.

Dove presents his concert beginning at 3 p.m. assisted by pianist Deb Logan and fellow baritone Michael Cowan. His program includes pieces from the Classical and Romantic periods with art songs from Maurice Ravel's Don Quichotte a Dulcinee and Franz Schubert's Heidenroslein, Die Forelle and Erlkonig; along with comedic opera arias from Gaetano Donizetti's Don Pasquale and Gioachino Rossini's Barber of Seville. He will also perform musical theatre selections from Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance, Lionel Bart's Oliver! and George Gershwin's Treasure Girl. Dove is a music education major from Newark Ohio.

Brady will begin her recital at 7:30 p.m. and will be assisted by pianist Deb Logan and Andrea Disch, mezzo-soprano. Her program will include pieces from the Baroque period with G. F. Handel's arias Va Godendo and Alma Mia, as well as the Classical period represented by W. A. Mozart's comical duet To Greet You My Lady from The Marriage of Figaro. She will also perform several art songs such as Richard Strauss' Nichts, John Duke's Little Elegy and Ernest Gold's Music When Soft Voices Die. Miss Brady is from Ashtabula, Ohio and is majoring in music and psychology.

Vocalists, Flutist and Trombonist Present Senior & Junior Recitals

The Department of Music announces upcoming senior and junior recitals featuring vocalists, a flutist and a trombonist. Scheduled throughout the months of March and April in the Elizabeth Pastor Recital Hall, these concerts are free and open to the public.

On Thursday, March 31 at 7:30 p.m., soprano Abigale Brady and trombonist Cody Henderson will present their joint junior recital accompanied by pianists Deb Logan and Susan Gregg, respectively. The program will include vocal selections by Mozart, Strauss and Fauré, while instrumental pieces feature compositions by Marcello, Ewazen and Fauré. Miss Brady is from Ashtabula, Ohio and is majoring in music and psychology while Mr. Henderson is from Bellevue, Ohio and is studying music and business administration.

On Sunday, May 1 at 7:30 p.m., soprano Fatima Imani Smith will perform her senior recital featuring classical, jazz and contemporary pieces from composers including Gioachino Rossini, Georges Bizet, Hugo Wolf, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Ricky Ian Gordon. Accompanied by pianist Deb Logan, Fatima will be assisted by guest performers mezzo-soprano Grace Keller, tenors Jake Riley and Jacob Poiner, baritone Deric Dover and guitarist Darion Dow. Fatima is an applied vocal music major from Copley, Ohio.

Flutist Emily Minns will present her junior recital on Sunday, April 17 at 1 p.m. accompanied by pianist Susan Gregg. Her program will include Fantaisie Pastoral Hongroise by Franz Doppler, Acht Stücke by Paul Hindemith, the first movement of Concerto by Jacques Ibert, Sonata in g minor by J. S. Bach, and Sonate by Francis Poulenc. Emily is from Brunswick, Ohio and is an art education major with minors in music and french.

Rebecca Wilson: Aria Competition Finalist & Award Winner

Photo by Gwen Juarez

AU Music graduate and former student of Stephanie Sikora, soprano Rebecca Glass Wilson (2000) recently was awarded a grant from the Gerda Lissner Foundation in the 2015 Wagnerian division and was a finalist in the 2015 Lois Alba Competition. In July, Rebecca will be singing the role of Venus in La púrpura de la rosa with Le Château de la Voix. Rebecca is thrilled to be joining Union Avenue Opera this August as Gutrune in their production in Götterdämmerung.

Also, Rebecca has been heard as soloist with the Baroque Artists of Champaign, The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Choir and Orchestra, Chicago College of Performing Arts Orchestra, the Ashland Symphony Orchestra, and Wheaton Symphony.

 Other Honors and Credits include the following: 3rd Place Finalist in 2007 Bel Canto Foundation, Bravo Award Winner in 2005 Bel Canto Foundation, Suzel in L’amico Fritz, Lady Billows in Albert Herring, Mimi in La bohème, Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte, 2nd Bridesmaid in Le Nozze di Figaro, La Countessa Le Nozze di Figaro, Pat Nixon in John Adam’s Nixon in China, the title role in Finding Yolanda (based on Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta) and WFMT’s Solo Recital Fazioli Salon Series in Chicago.

Video Credits:

Dich, theure Halle from TANNHAUSER by Wagner

Rebecca was accompanied by Maestra Janice Fehlauer

with HD Video provided by Robert Land Productions

Full Slate of Recitals Announced for March

The Department of Music at Ashland University announces numerous recitals in March including a guest artist woodwind quintet, a faculty trombonist joined by several guest performers, and two junior recitals featuring voice, piano and trumpet students. All of the recitals are free and open to the public and are held in the Elizabeth Pastor Recital Hall in the Center for the Arts. 

On Sunday, March 15  at 7:30 p.m., instrumental music education majors Rachel Crow, piano, (Reynoldsburg, Ohio) and Hannah Phillips (Plymouth, Ohio), trumpet, present their junior recital including selections from Handel to Gershwin. Pianist Susan Gregg is the accompanist for the recital. Rachel studies privately with Susan Schoeffler, and Hannah studies with Gary Davis.

The next evening, Monday, March 16 at 7:30 p.m., the Solaris woodwind quintet will perform a guest artist recital with bass clarinetist Dr. Thomas Reed, Ashland University Professor of Music. The program of new and standard works will include Chorale and Fantasy by the late Columbus composer Mark Flugge, a new work written in 2014 by Akron composer Nikola Resanovic, the masterpiece Mladi by Janacek, and the lovely Romantic Suite, Op. 57 by LeFebvre. Since its formation in 1976 as ensemble in residence at the University of Akron, Solaris has established a reputation as one of the foremost woodwind quintets in the United States. In addition to their regular concert series at the University of Akron, Solaris has toured Italy, Brazil, Sweden and the United States.

On Sunday, March 22 at 7:00 p.m. (Note the date and time change from previous publications), Dr. Scott Garlock, Professor of Music, will present a faculty recital on trombone with several guest performers including pianists Emily Garlock and Susan Gregg; fellow trombonists Paul Ferguson, Chris Simmons, Chadwick Applegate and Jaylynn Buchmelter; Don Roger Haught on guitar; Ben Schnell, bass; and Dan Shade, drums. The program will include Benedetto Marcello's Sonata in A minor, Launy Grondahl's Concert pour Trombone et Piano and Sonata Breve for Bass Trombone by Walter Hartley along with Garlock's arrangement "Songs from Liz's Juries" based on Bela Bartok's "Bear Dance," and Paul Ferguson's arrangement of Henry Purcell's Sonata no. 11. The program will conclude with Antonin Dvorak's Three Slavonic Dances and Michael Davis' "Blue on Green." 

The final recital in March presents vocalists Fatima Imani Smith (Copley, Ohio), soprano, and Deric Dove (Newark, Ohio), baritone, as they perform their junior recital on Thursday, March 26 at 7:30 p.m.. Both study privately with Stephanie Sikora with Fatima pursuing a degree in music performance and Deric studying music education. They will be assisted by pianist Deb Logan and percussionist Maria Cardonay.

ASHLAND SOPRANO KATHRYN MOUNTS PERFORMS SENIOR RECITAL

The Department of Music at Ashland University presents a senior vocal recital featuring Ashland High School graduate and Savannah resident Kathryn Mounts on Sunday, March 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the Elizabeth Pastor Recital Hall. The recital is free and open to the public.

With a double-major in musical theatre and vocal music and a minor in history, Miss Mounts studies voice privately with Denise Howell at Ashland University. Accompanied by pianist Deb Logan, the concert program will include a variety of classical pieces from Bellini, Mozart, Lotti, Poulenc, Obradors and Arnold Cooke along with musical theatre selections including Girl in 14 G, If You Hadn't But You Did from On the Aisle, Won't Say I'm in Love from Hercules and Let it Go from Frozen. 

BEST OF SPRING 2013 FEATURED AT HONORS RECITAL

The Ashland University Department of Music presents the spring honors recital on Wednesday, May 1, 7:30 p.m. at the Elizabeth Pastor Recital Hall in the Center for the Arts (formerly known as the Arts & Humanities Building).  The concert will showcase the department’s student musicians who accomplished exceptional work in the spring semester from instrumentalists including piano, percussion, guitar, trumpets and flute, to vocalists and an opera scene. The concert is free and open to the public.

Featured instrumentalists include seniors Ian Dively, trumpet; and Eddie Carney, piano; and Spencer Stadnik, guitar; juniors Andy Bartelheim, trumpet; Steve Morsher, percussion; and sophomore Devyn Renninger, flute.  Vocal performances will feature seniors Brandy Kay Riha, soprano; freshman Fatima Imani-Smith, soprano; along with a vocal ensemble performing a scene from the Pirates of Penzance including seniors Bret Cowden, baritone; Derek Jackenheimer, tenor; Katie Vargo, soprano; and Emily Plank, mezzo-soprano.

JANUARY RECITALS BEGIN THURSDAY NIGHT

The Department of Music at Ashland University presents several student recitals and a faculty recital in January featuring vocalists, a percussionist and organist.  All of the recitals are free and open to the public.  The student recitals are held in the Elizabeth Pastor Recital Hall in the Center for the Arts (formerly known as the Arts & Humanities Building), and the faculty organ recital is slated for the Jack and Deb Miller Chapel. 
 

The student recitals begin on Thursday, January 24 at 7:30 p.m. with a junior recital by soprano Kathryn Mounts.  She will perform with pianist Deb Logan and fellow soprano Erin Lingenfelter including classical pieces from Rossini, Shubert and Debussy to contemporary works by Ricky Ian Gordon and Stephen Schwartz. Kathryn is a graduate of Ashland High School and is a musical theatre and vocal performance major studying privately with vocal instructor Denise Howell.  

On Sunday, January 27 at 2:30 p.m., soprano Katie Vargo will perform her senior recital with pianists Pavlina Draganova and Kyle Gould, and Maggie Rickard on oboe.  Katie is a music education major and studies privately with vocal instructor Dione Bennett. She graduated from Riverside High School (Painesville, OH).  

Dr. Timothy Guenther

At 4:00 p.m. on January 27, University organist and instructor of music Dr. Timothy Guenther will perform a faculty recital on organ and harpsichord in the Jack and Deb Miller Chapel. In addition to serving as the University Organist since 1996, Dr. Guenther also teaches applied organ and harpsichord, as well as courses in fundamentals of basic musicianship, and serves as accompanist as needed for the University Choir, Chamber Singers and Ashland Area Chorus. He holds degrees in organ performance from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, the University of Alabama, and The American Conservatory of Music. He frequently performs as keyboardist for both the Ashland Symphony Orchestra and the Mansfield Symphony Orchestra. Rostered as an Associate in Ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, he currently serves as Organist and Director of Music Ministry at Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Columbus. He is active professionally in the American Guild of Organists, the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, the Hymn Society, the Organ Historical Society, the Reed Organ Society, the American Theatre Organ Society, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. He also performs regularly on the Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ at the Renaissance Theatre in Mansfield. 

Also on January 27 at 7:30 p.m., percussionist Matthew Dawson will present his senior recital.  Matthew is from Perrysville, Ohio and is a graduate of Lexington High School.  He is a music education major studying privately with percussion instructor Jeff Neitzke.

BENNETT AND DRAGANOVA PRESENT FACULTY RECITAL

The Department of Music at Ashland University presents a faculty recital with soprano Dione Bennett and pianist Pavlina Draganova on Sunday, February 26 at 5:00 p.m. in the Elizabeth Pastor Recital Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

The concert program offers a "World of Colors" through the Latin rhythms of Xavier Montsalvage, the jazz fusion of Ricky Ian Gordan, the classical musings of Robert Owens, H. T. Burleigh, John Carter and Rosephanye Powell. Bennett will also highlight the poetry of Langston Hughes.

An established pedagogue, Bennett is in her eighth year at Ashland University and is an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS). She expects the conferral of her doctorate in May from the University of Illinois where she studied with professor Cynthia Haymon. Further study has taken her to Graz, Austria with the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) where an Austrian newspaper said she was “the discovery of the evening”. A performer in such operatic roles as Micaela (Carmen), Bess (Porgy and Bess); Mimi (La Bohéme); Suor Genevieffa (Suor Angelica); and Lucy (Treemonisha); and such oratorio’s as Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Mass in C, Schubert's Mass in G, Dubois' Seven Last Words of Christ, and Mozart's Vespers, she has been featured with the Warren Philharmonic, Akron Symphony, Ashland Symphony, Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra, Columbus Symphony, Eastern Illinois Symphony as well as Cleveland Opera and Opera Western Reserve. As an avid recitalist, she paired with pianist John Wustman singing Brahms, Berlioz, and Burleigh as well as a journey of the development of spirituals.

A native of Bulgaria, Mrs. Draganova is a staff accompanist at Ashland University and the principal pianist of Ashland Symphony Orchestra. She earned her first masters degree in piano performance from Pancho Vladigerov State Academy of Music, Sofia studying with Stela Dimitrova and the prominent Bulgarian piano duo Konstantin and Julia Ganev. After moving to the United States, she graduated with a masters in piano performance from The University of Michigan where she was a student of Louis Nagel. Mrs. Draganova has been on the faculties of the Music High School, Plovdiv; The Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts, Plovdiv; and Pancho Vladigerov State Academy of Music, Sofia. An active performer as a collaborative and solo musician, Pavlina has performed in major cities in Bulgaria, Michigan and Ohio, and appeared as a soloist with the Plovdiv Symphony Orchestra under Maesto Dobrin Petkov. As a member of the Michigan Music Teachers Association she performed at the organization's 120th State Conference.