Ouachita Stories

Ouachita Baptist University will host five student recitals on Friday, April 5, in Mabee Fine Arts Center’s McBeth Recital Hall. Joel Rogier and Caitlin Secrest will perform at 11 a.m., and Chad Burris, Blaine Surber and Tyler Wisdom will perform at 2 p.m.

Joel Rogier, a junior vocal performance major from Glen Carbon, Ill., will open his recital with “Di Cupido impiego i vanni” from Rodelina by George Frideric Handel. He will continue with “Auch kleine Dinge” by Hugo Wolf, “Oh quand je dors” by Franz Liszt, “Hai già vinta la causa!” from Le nozze di Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and “Silent Noon” by Ralph Vaughan Williams. He will conclude with William Finn’s “I’d Rather Be Sailing” from A New Brain. He will be assisted by Phyllis Walker on the piano. Rogier has earned multiple first place wins in National Association of Teachers of Singing state and regional auditions and has performed with Ouachita’s opera theatre and musical theatre as Papageno in The Magic Flute, Peter in Hansel and Gretel, Masetto in Don Giovanni and Aldolpho in The Drowsy Chaperone.

Caitlin Secrest, a junior vocal performance major from Arkadelphia, Ark., will open her recital with “Freschi luoghi, prati aulenti” by Stefano Donaudy, followed by “Prendi … il mio rigor dimentica” from L’elisir d’amore by Gaetano Donizetti and Jacqueline B. Hairson’s arrangement of “Dormi Jesu.” For “Dormi Jesu,” Secrest will be assisted by guitarist James Norton, a junior music theory and composition major from Texarkana, Texas. She will continue with “Tarentelle” by Georges Bizet and Franz Lehár’s “Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiß” from Guiditta before concluding with “My Book” by Jeff Blumenkrantz. She will be accompanied by Phyllis Walker on piano. Secrest will compete as a finalist in the 2013 Trinity Presents Collegiate Performance Showcase and has been a 13-time finalist at National Association of Teachers of Singing state and regional auditions. She also has earned first and second place finishes in OBU’s Mary Shambarger Competition for Singers.

Chad Burris, a sophomore musical theatre major from Van Buren, Ark., will open his recital with Alan Menken’s “Santa Fe” from Newsies, followed by “DMV Tyrant” by Christopher Durang and Leonard Bernstein’s “Maria” from Westside Story. He will conclude with Mel Brooks’ “Together Again” from Young Frankenstein; Burris will be assisted on this final piece by Timothy Drennan, a junior musical theatre major from Paron, Ark. Burris has earned first place finishes at state and regional National Association of Teachers of Singing auditions and received an honorable mention at this year’s Trinity Presents Collegiate Performance Showcase. He will make his professional theatre debut this summer in Avenue Q at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre.

Blaine Surber, a sophomore musical theatre major from Sulphur Springs, Texas, will open his recital with Jule Styne’s “All I Need Is the Girl” from Gypsy, followed by an excerpt from Act II of Our Town by Thornton Wilder and “The Next Ten Minutes” from The Last 5 Years by Jason Robert Brown. For the selections from Our Town and The Last 5 Years, he will be assisted by MaryLacey Thomson, a junior musical theatre major from Plano, Texas. Surber will conclude with Jerry Bock’s “Miracle of Miracles” from Fiddler on the Roof. He will be accompanied by Terri Lucas on the piano.

Tyler Wisdom, a sophomore musical theatre major from Russellville, Ark., will begin his recital with Mary Rodgers’ “Many Moons Ago” from Once Upon a Mattress, followed by Stephen Sondheim’s “Not While I’m Around” from Sweeney Todd. He then will perform the one-act play The Funeral Parlor by Christopher Durang and will conclude with “Wick” from The Secret Garden by Lucy Simon. Wisdom will be accompanied by Susan Monroe on the piano throughout the recital, and Lauren Linton, a junior musical theatre major from Coldwater, Miss., will assist him for the latter half of the recital.

For more information on these or other recitals, contact OBU’s School of Fine Arts at (870) 245-5129.