Ouachita Stories

Ouachita Baptist University’s School of Fine Arts will host Maria McDaniel in a vocal recital on Tuesday, Sept. 20, at 7:30 p.m. in Mabee Fine Arts Center’s McBeth Recital Hall on Ouachita’s campus. McDaniel is one of the National Federation of Music Clubs’ Young Artist honorees for the year. The recital is free and open to the public.

“OBU annually presents a concert by a National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist winner,” said Dr. Ouida Keck, OBU’s Addie Mae Maddox Professor of Music. “There are four categories in the competition: man’s voice, woman’s voice, strings and piano. We try to rotate and have someone in a different category annually.”

McDaniel will open her performance with Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus and The Ariette by Bellini. She will follow with Zueignung, Ich trage meine Minne and Cacilie by Strauss. After a brief intermission, she will return to the stage to perform Siete Canciones Populares Espanolas by deFalla. Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été, Amor by Bolcom and You’ll Never Walk Alone by Rogers and Hammerstein will complete the last half of her performance with a finale of Sexy Lady by Ben Moore. She will be accompanied on the piano by Dr. Lei Cai, OBU associate professor of music.

All members of the audience are invited to join her at the reception hosted by the Arkadelphia Music Club in the Hammons Gallery following the performance.

McDaniel earned her bachelor of music degree from Millikin University in Illinois and a master of music degree in vocal performance from Georgia State University in Atlanta. She has experience performing compositions such as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Gainesville Symphony Orchestra and Bach’s Magnificat with the Cobb Symphony Orchestra as well as Vivaldi’s Gloria and Handel’s Messiah with the Atlanta Symphony and a special performance with the Savannah Philharmonic.

As an NFMC Young Artist winner, McDaniel received a $10,000 prize and two years of concert bookings. The competition is open to anyone with the goal of a career in music performance. Among the past winners are former OBU Artist in Residence David Allen Wehr as well as Kathleen Battle, Shirley Verrett and Gary Lakes.

For more information, contact Dr. Ouida Keck at [email protected] or (870) 245-5352.

By Anastasia Waymire