Two Jacobs School of Music faculty members will play at 8 p.m. March 19 in Auer Hall alongside students in an opera concert.
During the concert, the professors and students will perform André Previn’s “Four Songs for Soprano, Cello and Piano,” Katherine Bodor’s “Absent an Adjustment for Soprano, Clarinet, Violin, Viola and Double Bass” and selections from Ricky Ian Gordon’s “Genius Child.”
Assistant professor of voice Katherine Jolly will sing soprano during the concert. Jolly has previously had leading roles in companies such as the Florida Grand Opera, the New York City Opera and Lyric Opera Cleveland. In 2006, she was a national grand finalist winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council contest, an annual singing competition judged by the Metropolitan Opera.
“Jolly used her agile, bright lyric soprano to superb effect,” New York Times writer Allan Kozinn wrote of the performance.
Jolly has also been recognized by the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, a summer opera festival, and the George London Foundation, a nonprofit that holds competitions and awards singers.
Kyung-Eun Na, a visiting assistant professor and postdoctoral student in the Department of Chamber and Collaborative Music, will play piano during the concert. In 2007, Na won the Marilyn Horne Foundation competition, and since then she has performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. She teaches undergraduate opera workshops with Jolly.
“She is a very dear colleague,” Na said about Jolly. “I have always wanted to collaborate with her and was happy when the opportunity presented itself.”
This performance will be special because of the performance's tone, Na said.
“The music itself has been making more and more sense to me,” she said. “It is very evocative music.”
Na said these performances will be different from traditional opera concerts.
“When we imagine voice recital, it is traditionally just a voice and a piano,” Na said. “Here you will hear different instruments and how that interacts with the human voice.”
Bodor, the composer of “Absent an Adjustment for Soprano, Clarinet, Violin, Viola and Double Bass,” is working toward a master's of music in composition. Per Bjørkling, a student in the Artist Diploma Program, will be playing double bass. Christa Cole, the show’s violinist, is an assistant instructor of music theory in Jacobs.
Joshua Harper is pursuing a choral Conducting doctorate degree and will conduct during the concert.
The concert’s clarinetist, Samantha Johnson-Helms, is in the exam and dissertation stage of a doctorate in music. Rachel Mossburg, a viola music performance student, will play the viola, while cello performance student Travis Scharer will play cello.
The event is free and open to the public.
