Ouachita Stories

Ouachita Baptist University’s Division of Music will host Matthew Landers in his senior composition recital Tuesday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m. in Mabee Fine Arts Center’s McBeth Recital Hall. Landers, a senior music theory and composition major from Texarkana, Texas, composed all of the pieces performed during his time at OBU.

“I am very excited to finally have this recital,” Landers said. “It has taken me a long time to complete these compositions, and it is always an enormous honor to hear them performed by faculty members and students who are so capable.”

Several OBU students and faculty members will participate in the recital as performers and instrumentalists. “All of the musicians have been a pleasure to work with,” Landers said. “I am actually very humbled by all of it. The fact that all of them have been so willing to practice the pieces has been such a blessing to me. Writing music is just a really special thing to me—and it’s a personal thing, so the fact that someone else wants to be a part of sharing it with an audience is so neat.”

Each of Landers’ compositions holds special significance for him. “Each piece has its own little story and usually begins with a very small theme or idea,” he said. “Some took months to complete, and others took a couple weeks. There are ideas in all of the pieces that I am fond of: little rhythmic motives, melodic ideas, etc.”

Carrie Brown, a senior piano performance major from Knoxville, Ark., will open the recital with the piano solo “Quirk.” OBU faculty members Kristin Grant, instructor of music; Dr. Heather Bynum, part-time instructor of clarinet; and Glenda Aldridge, part-time instructor of piano; will then perform “Hesitance,” a piece for flute, clarinet and piano.

Brown will again take the stage on piano with vocalist Julie Robinson, a recent vocal performance graduate, for “In the Presence of the Lord.” Vocalist Andrew Miller, a sophomore vocal performance major from Dalworthington Gardens, Texas, will then join Brown to perform “Cradle Song,” which Landers wrote especially for Miller. He wrote it “after I heard him sing in our very first studio class,” Landers said. “I knew right then that I wanted to write an art song for him to sing. And he performs it impeccably, in my opinion.”

Natalie Carroll, a senior choral music education major from Harare, Zimbabwe, will continue the recital with the piano solo “EOC,” followed by the Ouachita Saxophone Ensemble’s presentation of “Small Fortune.” Julie Tucker, a senior music major from Hot Springs, Ark., will then perform the piano solo “At One Time” before vocalist Cori Kidder, a recent musical theatre graduate, joins Carroll for “The Garden of Love.”

The Ouachita Singers, accompanied by Brown, will conclude the recital with two selections, “How Faithful Is Your Kiss” and “Soon.”

The recital is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the School of Fine Arts at (870) 245-5129.

By Brooke Zimny