Fun Facts

What do you like most about your field? 
What I love most about teaching is the feeling of helping others. I also enjoy being with my students. We laugh and learn together. 

What is a favorite moment of working with students at Ouachita?
Any time a student has an “ah-ha!” moment and grasps a concept that they then apply to their singing, resulting in a vocal, physical, or mental “breakthrough”. 

What is your go-to song? 
"I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor

What is your go-to artist? 
The Beatles, U2, Kelli O’Hara, Dawn Upshaw, Broadway soundtracks, Mozart, Debussy, Beethoven symphonies. The list goes on and on. 

What is your go-to book? 
The "Harry Potter" series by J. K. Rowling. Anything by Jane Austen, Dorothy Parker, or Judy Blume. 

What is your go-to snack?
Chocolate. Chocolate ice cream. Chocolate chip cookies. Chocolate coffee. You get the picture. 

What is your go-to movie? 
"Star Wars." All of them.

If you were anything other than a professor/staff position, what would you be and why?
If I were anything other than a music professor, I would be a Disney travel agent so I could get discounts to Disney attractions and say “Hi!” to Mickey Mouse often. I love to plan trips! 

What is your favorite place on campus and why?
When I have a little spare time, I love to take walks along the Ouachita River by the Speer Pavilion. It is so serene. 

 

Areas of Expertise

Courses taught

• Applied Voice
• Vocal Literature
• OBU Connections: Becoming the Beatles
• Previous courses: Ouachita Sounds, Vocal Diction 2: German and French, From Sight to Sound: The Journey stories Take Becoming Musicals and Operas (Honors Seminar); Upcoming: The Beatles and Religion (Honors Seminar) 

Representative Publications/Presentations

• “Operatic Influences on the Hymn Tunes Used by John and Charles Wesley”, Amazing Love! How Can It Be: Studies on Hymns by Charles Wesley, ed. Chris Fenner and Brian G. Najapfour, Biblical Spirituality Press, 2020. 
• Everything Changes: A Cabaret. Presented with John Alec Briggs at the National Association of teachers National Convention, Las Vegas, NV, 2018. 
• Dissertation: A Director’s Guide to staging the Song Cycle, Songs of Fields and Prairies, by Jocelyn Hagen, 2008. 

 

Involvement

• National Association of Teachers of Singing (Arkansas Auditions Chair)
• National Opera Association
• Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society
• Sigma Alpha Iota (Epsilon Delta Faculty Advisor and Treasurer)
• College Music Society
• Classical Singer
• The New York Singing Teachers' Association
• Arkadelphia Philharmonic Club
• Musical Theatre Educators’ Alliance

Artist Bio

In September of 2019, Dr. Garrett performed Caffeinated; a recital based on the Bachelor of Music in Musical Theatre senior recital. It included classical songs and arias, vocal chamber music, musical theatre songs and duets, a song and tap dance number, and a scene by Shakespeare. In 2016, she co-wrote and performed an autobiographical musical theatre cabaret about motherhood, Everything Changes, with OBU professor John Alec Briggs serving as pianist and music director. The show was co-written and directed by Broadway veteran Kelli Barrett (Liza Minelli – Fosse/Verdon) and has been presented at the 2018 National Association of Teachers of Singing National Conference (Las Vegas, NV), OBU (twice), Arkansas Tech University, and Blue Mountain College. 

She was a featured artist in a program entitled, Gems of French Opera, presented by Opera in Concert in Dallas, Texas, in 2014. Other opera credits include the title role in Little Red Riding Hood, Mabel in Pirates of Penzance, Sandrina in La Finta Giardiniera, Laurie in The Tender Land, Emmie in Albert Herring, Worldly Spirit in The Obligation of the First Commandment, and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, in Rendezvous with Destiny (World Premiere). She has also performed with the Kentucky Opera (Dialogues des Carmélites, Les pêcheurs de perles, Madama Buttlerfly, La bohème), Piedmont Opera (Cavaliere Rusticana/I Pagliacci, Il Trovatore, Don Giovanni, L’elisir d’amore), Opera Carolina (La bohème), and the Indiana University Opera Theater (Suor Angelica, La bohème) and IU Opera Educational Tour (Polly in Polly Patchwork). 

She has performed as an oratorio soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Fauré’s Requiem, Haydn’s Creation, Brahms’ German Requiem, Bach’s Magnificat, Vivaldi’s Gloria, and Vaughan Williams’ Pilgrim’s Progress. As an orchestral soloist, she has performed Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate, Glière’s Concerto for Coloratura Soprano and Orchestra, and Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre. 

Her theater credits include It’s a Wonderful Life, Matilda, My Fair Lady, A Little Night Music, The Butterfingers Angel, The Most Happy Fella, Once Upon a Mattress, Play It Again, Sam, Jonah and the German Whale, and Grease. 

DR. GARRETT PLAYLIST

STUDENT PLAYLIST

 

SELECTED ACHIEVEMENTS BY DR. GARRETT’S STUDENTS

Professional Performances

• Million Dollar Quartet National Tour
• Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios (Orlando, FL)
• Jedi Training Program (Nedriss)
• Indiana Jones Stunt Show (Marian)
• The Great American Movie Ride
• Sight & Sound Theatre (Lancaster, PA)
• Prima Theatre (Lancaster, PA)
• Arkansas Children’s Theatre (Little Rock, AR)
• Wayside Theater (VA)
• TEXAS Outdoor Musical (Canyon, TX)
• Horn in the West (Boone, NC)
• Missoula Children’s Theatre (Missoula, MT)
• Trumpet in the Land (New Philadelphia, OH)
• Six Flags over Texas (Dallas, TX)
• Silver Dollar City (Branson, MO)
• Murry’s Dinner Playhouse (Little Rock, AR)

Summer Programs

• Musica nellle marche opera in Italy program
• Opera in Italy
• OBU’s NYC Professional Intensive for Musical Theatre
• Broadway Artist Alliance Workshops
• University of Miami Salzburg Program

Awards

• Arkansas District Metropolitan Opera Encouragement Award Winner Winner
• Trinity Presents Collegiate Performance Showcase (2013)
• Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Musical Theater Initiative (KCFTCF) Music Theatre Winner 

Graduate Program Acceptances

• University of Arkansas
• University of Alabama
• North Texas University
• New York University
• Indiana University-Bloomington