Being from Northern Ireland, moving around a lot and not coming to America until the age of 16, it is no surprise that one of junior Esther Atkinson’s favorite things to do is travel.
Coming from a family of six, Atkinson is the youngest of four children, where she is one of two girls. Although she grew up in a setting similar to that of some Ouachitonians, in a Christian minister’s home, her story was different.
Atkinson’s father is a Presbyterian minister. So, some might wonder how she became Baptist.
At a young age, her father, along with the rest of her family, left the Presbyterian church in Northern Ireland and began attending a different church there called Bethany Baptist Church.
“Through that church, that blessing of a church, I became converted. And then, my two older brothers were saved there, too, through the ministry of the youth program there,” Atkinson said.
Then it comes to how Atkinson ended up in America, it was also through her father’s calling. Atkinson’s dad worked for a mission organization called Christian Witness to Israel, and since 42 percent of Jews live in America, Atkinson’s family thought it would be a good idea to move to America to spread the gospel with the Jewish people in the United States. What was harder than deciding to come to America was how to get in. After three years of struggling to get two different visas, her family was finally granted one.
“I was struggling with it, basically in limbo for three years,” Atkinson said.
Her family finally obtained the visa in a way that involved being sponsored by a church in Northwest Arkansas. So, at the age of 16, Atkinson’s family said goodbye to their friends, packed up their belongings and moved across the Atlantic to the Razorback nation of Fayetteville, Arkansas.
It was here that Atkinson began to foster a love for all things music and where she ultimately decided that she wanted to be in the music industry for the rest of her life.
“I could always harmonize. My church called me the harmonizer,” Atkinson said.
After spending countless hours participating in several musicals and band concerts in high school, Atkinson started looking at many different schools with excellent music programs. After trying out for several scholarships from other schools, Atkinson finally tried out at Ouachita and got one, which confirmed where she would attend college.
After Ouachita, Atkinson plans to hone her skills that the Lord has given her so that she can use those talents more for him.
“The dream is after graduating [from] Ouachita to hopefully get accepted into a really good grad school,” Atkinson said.
This will give Atkinson more performing opportunities and allow her to even expand her techniques and abilities when it comes to her voice. She will be better equipped to be a performer and one day a professor. All in all, Atkinson’s love for music runs deep.
From her first role in high school of playing the evil stepmother in Cinderella, to her last role at Ouachita as Virginia Blythe in the Billy Blythe opera, Atkinson fell in love with musical theater.
Then it comes to being in productions, Atkinson believes that “one of the best feelings” is “bringing people joy.”
“Getting the laughs is the best part,” Atkinson said.
Besides getting the laughs, Atkinson has also fallen in love with something else, opera music, and this is her specialty and focus when it comes to how she sings.
Even though she didn’t enjoy it much at first, Atkinson realized after a while that classical music is what she loves singing. This love has been confirmed through many National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) competitions, where she has won several awards in musical theater and first place in Women’s Classical every year at Ouachita.
“I grew to love opera,” Atkinson said.
Although she loves performing operas, her real desire when it comes to musical theater is to glorify God through this part of her life.
“I was hoping to be a light in that dark place,” Atkinson said.
Atkinson not only has a very strong passion for spreading the gospel in the music world, but she also has a strong passion for the world of music and the arts in general.
“God has gifted us with so many numerous amount[s] of things on earth. The only thing that is not God’s is sin and he gives us the arts, different ways to express ourselves in beautiful ways. Music can touch people in ways that talking is never able to,” Atkinson said.
By Ethan Dial, Staff Writer
