On Friday, Jan. 31 at 8 p.m., junior Sonya Penheiter and I gave a joint voice recital in Harper Hall. My goal with this article is to give a little bit of insight into our process preparing for it. Before I do that, however, I’d like to provide some context on our studio.
Penheiter and I are a part of Dr. Cayla Rosché’s studio for voice. Our studio comprises students from all over Lawrence University: some of us are in the college, and some are in the Conservatory but not as B.M. students (or at least not for voice). In addition to learning classical repertoire and musical theatre songs, our studio also has the opportunity to work on self-written pieces. This wide variety of genres makes for a super robust and interesting studio class!
There’s so much to say about our studio (I love it), but let’s get back to the recital. We made the decision to give a recital sometime during the last school year, but most of the planning took place this past fall. Since our recital was non-required (for both of us), our planning process was slightly different than if it had been required for our degrees. This granted us a lot of freedom, however, as we were able to really craft a program that felt meaningful to us.
We split the hour, each doing a half-recital. Sonya performed a total of eight pieces, including an aria in Italian and two songs in French. I performed four songs, including an Italian aria, as well as five poems, four of which I wrote. As part of our preparation for this recital, we had many rehearsals with our incredible pianist, Nathan Birkholz. He provided excellent emotional support and was really helpful when we (or at least I) would get off with the timing.
While I can’t speak on behalf of Penheiter, I know that for me this recital meant a lot. It can be hard sometimes when you’re surrounded by such accomplished musicians to not feel like you suck or like you don’t belong in music. But the truth is, no matter how talented or well-trained someone else is, your own talent and training will always be yours.
The entire process of this performance, from practicing to planning to finally performing, showed me just how strong I am, and I’ll say that for Penheiter too. You do not have to be a B.M. student to be an artist or performer of any kind. Of course, the B.M. degree is great; I’m not trying to say that it’s not. But I do want to emphasize just how much the arts — and the stage — are for everybody.
I have so much gratitude to Rosché, Birkholz, our voice studio, Penheiter and the entire tech team for such a wonderful experience. If you want to watch the livestream, it’s available at here. I hope everyone reading this feels empowered to create the kind of opportunities they want to experience. I promise you it’s possible.