Ouachita Stories

Ouachita Baptist University’s Division of Music will host Annie McMurray and Erin Cheshire in their senior recitals and Hunter Mackenzie Brown and Kayla Walker in their sophomore recitals on Friday, Nov. 20. All performances will take place in Mabee Fine Arts Center’s McBeth Recital Hall and are free and open to the public. McMurray and Cheshire’s performances will be at 11 a.m. Brown and Walker will perform at 2 p.m. A reception for McMurray and Cheshire will be hosted in Mabee Fine Arts Center’s Hammons Gallery at 12 noon.

“Performing a recital is not only another chance to perform, but a chance to glorify God with the talent he has given,” said McMurray, a senior worship arts major from Lindale, Texas. “I remember freshman year, sitting in my first Ouachita senior recital and thinking, ‘In four years, that will be me.’ Well four years have gone by, and now it is my chance to showcase what I have learned.”

McMurray’s recital will include the following selections: “When I Am Laid in Earth” by Henry Purcell, “Amarilli, mia bella” by Giulio Caccini, “Heidenrӧslein” by Franz Schubert, “Psyché” by Émile Paladilhe, “Patiently Have I Waited” by Camille Saint-Saëns, “At the Cry of the First Bird” by David W. Guion, Mark Hayes’ arrangement of “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho,” “That’s Amore” by Harry Warren and “The Parting Glass,” an Irish traditional song. Susan Monroe, OBU staff accompanist, will accompany her.

“It is so important to be able to learn the skills you wish to teach,” noted Cheshire, a senior choral music education major from Colorado Springs, Colo. “Performing in a senior recital gives an opportunity to do just this.”

Her recital will include the following selections: “Quia Respexit” from Magnificat by Johann Sebastian Bach, “La pastorella delle Alpi” from Les Soirées Musicales by Gioachino Rossini, “Non mi dir” from Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, “Ich liebe dich” by Ludwig van Beethoven, “Romance” from Deux Romances by Claude Debussy, “In My Garden at Night” from 6 Romances, Op. 38: I by Sergei Rachmaninoff and “Dearest Mama” from The Ballad of Baby Doe by Douglas Moore. Phyllis Walker, OBU staff accompanist, will accompany her.

“I am so grateful for how supportive my friends, family and teachers have been,” Cheshire added. “This recital would never have been possible without them. Ouachita creates such a supportive atmosphere, and it truly makes a great difference!”

Brown, a senior musical theatre major from Lavaca, Ark., said he is excited for everyone who attends his recital “to see the hard work and improvement I’ve made since coming to OBU.”

His recital will include the following selections: “I Met a Girl” from Bells Are Ringing by Jule Styne, a scene from After the Fall by Arthur Miller, “If I Didn’t Believe in You” from The Last 5 Years by Jason Robert Brown and “Seven Wonders” from Catch Me If You Can by Marc Shaiman. Phyllis Walker, OBU staff accompanist, will accompany him, and he will be assisted by Hannah Hines, a sophomore musical theatre and mass communications double major from Russellville, Ark.

Brown has received Ouachita theatre credits through his roles as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Papa Bear in Shrek the Musical, The Father in The Giver and the company of James and the Giant Peach.

Walker, a junior musical theatre major from North Little Rock, Ark., said she is “pumped to finally get to put on my recital” and credits her progress to her professors, especially Dr. Glenda Secrest, professor of music, and Dr. Scott Holsclaw, professor of theatre arts. Walker noted her gratitude to Secrest “for pushing me to be the best I can be. Even when I didn’t believe in myself, you always did.”

Walker’s recital will include the following selections: “Oh How I Loved You” by Mary Heisler and Zina Goldrich, “Story of Hope” from Almost, Maine by John Cariani, “Suddenly” from Xanadu by John Farrar and “I Can Cook, Too” from On the Town by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. She will be assisted by Will Stotts, a sophomore musical theatre major from Jonesboro, Ark. Stacy Hawking, a senior musical theatre major from Sherwood, Ark., served as her choreographer.

McMurray and Cheshire’s recitals will be streamed live online at livestream.com/obu. For more information, contact Ouachita’s School of Fine Arts at (870) 245-5129.

 

By Anna Hurst