Concerto-Aria Concert Set for Feb. 19 at OBU

February 7, 2017

Oklahoma Baptist University will host its 43rd annual Concerto-Aria Concert Sunday, Feb. 19, at 7:30 p.m. The performance will take place in Raley Chapel’s Potter Auditorium on the campus of Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee. A pre-concert lecture will begin at 6:20 p.m. in Raley Chapel room 203E. The concert and lecture are free and open to the public.

The Concerto-Aria Concert features student performers who auditioned for a place in the program in late 2016. This year’s program consists of seven vocalists, three instrumentalists, and two pianists.

The program will open with Mozart’s “Vedrai Carino” from the opera “Don Giovanni” performed by Julie Welch, a sophomore vocal performance major from Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Freshman instrumental music major Madison Trammell from Possum Kingdom, Texas, will perform the “Concertino for Clarinet” by Carl Maria von Weber. “O Mio Babbino Caro” from the opera “Gianni Schicchi” by Giacomo Puccini will be performed by Olivia Jones, a sophomore music education major from Arlington, Texas.

From the opera “Le Roi D’Ys,” the aria “Vainement Ma Bien Aimee” by Edouard Lalo will be performed by Jude Balthazar, a sophomore vocal performance major from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Hummel “Concerto in E-Flat Major for Trumpet” will be performed by Konnor Robertson, a sophomore music education major from Okemah, Oklahoma.

Worship arts major Emmalee Ewbank from McKinney, Texas, will perform an aria titled “Laurie’s Song” from Aaron Copland’s “The Tender Land.” The first half of the program will conclude with the Mozart “Concerto in D Minor for Piano” performed by Emilie Griffin, a freshman music major from Van Buren, Arkansas.

Following intermission, Paige Shelton, a junior music education major from Oklahoma City, will perform the song “O Divine Redeemer” by Charles Gounod. The “Fantasia for Bb Soprano Saxophone” by Heitor Villa-Lobos will be performed by junior music education major Brooklynne Seale from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Performing Puccini’s “Chi’il Bel Sogno di Doretta” from the opera “La Rondine” will be junior voice performance major Cassidy Olsen from Oklahoma City.

Junior music education major Jennifer Watson from Weatherford, Oklahoma, will sing the Verdi aria “Stride la Vampa!” from the opera “Il Trovatore.” Completing the program will by Shawnee native Mitchell Manlapig, a freshman piano major, performing the Edward MacDowell “Concerto No. 2 in D Minor for Piano.” Conducting the program will be Dr. James Vernon, professor of music.