Penn State Voice Professor to Present Master Class at OBU

March 11, 2014

OBU is hosting Mary Saunders-Barton, guest lecturer from Penn State University, for two vocal master classes. The classes will be held Thursday, March 13, at 7:30 p.m. and Friday, March 14, at 3 p.m., both in Raley Chapel's Yarborough Auditorium on OBU's campus in Shawnee. The classes are presented by the Warren M. Angell College of Fine Arts Division of Music.

Barton is a Cum Laude / Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Mount Holyoke College with a master's degree from Middlebury College and the Sorbonne in Paris. While in Paris, she studied with Pierre Bernac and received a diploma from the Ecole Normale de Musique. Mary is frequently invited to present her worship seminar Bel Canto Can Belto for convocations of singers and teachers of singing in the U.S. and Europe. She has presented workshops and master classes for the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), the National Opera Association (NOA), the Voice Foundation Symposium and for musical theatre programs at colleges and universities in the United States and abroad. She is currently a professor of voice at Penn State University where she serves as head of voice instruction for the bachelor of fine arts in musical theater and program head for the master of fine arts in vocal pedagogy for musical theater.

The Thursday evening program will feature OBU students Courtney King, Andrew Barker and Breana White. King will perform "Take Me to the World" by Sondheim. Barker will perform "Being Alive" by Sondheim, and White will perform "Don't Rain on my Parade" by Merrill and Styne.

The Friday program will feature Barker and White along with OBU students Dakota Unruh and Brittni Bilyeu. Unruh will perform "The Big Black Giant" by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Bilyeu will perform "Still Hurting" by Brown. Barker will perform "Proud of Your Boy" by Menken, and White will perform "The Light in the Piazza" by Guettel.

For more information on this master class, other concerts and performances, as well as music degrees and programs at OBU, call (405) 585-4300.