Ouachita Baptist University will host Rachel Harris in her senior vocal performance recital Tuesday, April 2, at 7:30 p.m. The recital, which is free and open to the public, will be held in W. Francis McBeth Recital Hall of Mabee Fine Arts Center.
Harris, a Springdale, Ark., native, has earned first place in OBU’s Mary Shambarger Competition for Singers for Spring 2013 and earned first place in the upper musical theatre division at Arkansas’ National Association for Teachers of Singing (NATS) auditions in 2012. She was Ouachita’s Ben Elrod Scholar for 2012 and OBU’s Presser Scholar for 2011.
“I am looking forward to this recital because it is a diverse and challenging program,” Harris noted. “The preparation for my senior vocal performance recital has tested both my musicianship and performance abilities, and I am very excited to share the results of my hard work with my friends and family.”
This recital will also offer viewers a glimpse of what Harris will present for her thesis as part of OBU’s Carl Goodson Honors Program for Scholars Day on April 24.
Harris will begin with Henry Purcell’s “What Can We Poor Females Do,” followed by “Piercing Eyes” by Franz Joseph Haydn. Next, she will perform “Ah! Non credea mirarti” from La Sonnambula by Vincenzo Bellini and “Les oiseaux dans la charmille” from Les contes d’Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach. Harris will then present two selections from Richard Strauss’ Brentano Lieder, “An die Nacht” and “Amor,” followed by a selection from The Ballad of Baby Doe by Douglas Moore, “Willow Song.” Her final solo selection will be “Dreaming” by Lori Laitman.
Harris will conclude the recital with “Il dolce suono mi colpì di sua voce” from Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti. For this final piece, she will be assisted by baritones Joel Rogier, a junior vocal performance major from Glen Carbon, Ill., and John Tneoh, a senior vocal performance major from Sungai Petani, Malaysia, as well as flutist Elizabeth Baker, a junior music performance and French major from Grapevine, Texas, and percussionist Drew Ervin, a sophomore music performance and computer science major from Springdale, Ark.
For more information, contact OBU’s School of Fine Arts at (870) 245-5129.
