Ten Students to Perform Feb. 14 for OBU’s Concerto-Aria 2021

Please note: Concerto-Aria has been rescheduled to Sunday, March 7. The original performance date was postponed due to inclement weather.

Ten students will headline the 47th annual Concerto-Aria concert in Raley Chapel’s Potter Auditorium Sunday, Feb. 14, on the OBU campus in Shawnee. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. However, to maintain physical distancing, reservations for seating must be made in advance through the College of Fine Arts events page or by calling (405) 585-4300. 

The first Concerto-Aria concert was organized in 1974 as a way for outstanding musical performers to have the opportunity to appear with a live orchestra and perform repertoire from the great catalogues of piano concertos and opera arias. Some years later, instrumental concertos and other works were added to the performances, including original compositions by student composers.

Headlining this year’s event will be Sarah Smith, senior music education major from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, singing “Je veux vivre” from Romeo and Juliet by Gounod. The Rachmaninoff “Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Second Movement,” will be performed by sophomore piano performance major Abigail Ekrut, from Denton, Texas. Cristian Celis, a sophomore musical arts major from Justin, Texas, will perform the third movement of Mozart’s “Clarinet Concerto in A Major.” Harmony DeWees, from Moore, Oklahoma, will sing “Il est doux, il est bon” from “Herodiade” by Massenet, and the first half of the concert will conclude with Herbert Clarke’s “Carnival of Venice,” performed by trumpeter Katie Krempl from Oklahoma City.

The “Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra in C Minor” by Cimarosa will open the second half of this year’s Concerto-Aria concert, performed on saxophone by senior musical arts major Alex Benito. Laura Stewart, a musical arts major from Enid, Oklahoma, will sing “Ebben? Ne Andro Lontana” from La Wally by Catalani, and Devon Armstrong, freshman music education major from Bedford, Texas, will perform “Scaramouche” by Milhaud. Senior vocal performance major Chase Davis will sing “Non pui andrai” from “The Marriage of Figaro” by Mozart. The evening will conclude with a performance of “Piano Concerto No. 1 in Bb Major (first movement)” by Tchaikovsky, performed by senior piano performance major Rachel Darvin.

The orchestra will be conducted by Dr. Teresa Purcell-Giles, assistant professor of music and director of bands.