Lilite to Perform in Faculty Voice Recital Feb. 11

February 8, 2022

***UPDATE: This recital has been rescheduled to Friday, Feb. 11, at 7:30 p.m.***

Dr. Louima Lilite, McGavern-Montgomery Professor of Music and professor of music, will perform in faculty voice recital Friday, Feb. 11, at 7:30 p.m. The recital will be held in Raley Chapel’s Yarborough Auditorium on the OBU campus in Shawnee. The event is presented by the Warren M. Angell School of Visual and Performing Arts and the OBU Division of Music. The performance is free and the public is invited.

Lilite will perform a variety of works, composed by Barber, Hogan, Poulenc and Santoliquido. He will be joined by his wife, Dephanie Lilite, on piano. The recital is titled “Night and Day” because all of the songs have to do with themes of night or day, darkness or light, morning or evening.

The performance will open with “I canti della sera” by Francesco Santoliquido, which includes “L’assiolo canta,” “Alba di luna sul bosco,” “Tristezza crepuscolare” and “L’incontro.” Lilite will follow with “Tel jour, telle nuit” by Francis Poulenc. This work is comprised of nine movements, including “Bonne journée,” “Une ruine coquille vide,” “Le front comme un drapeau perdu,” “Une roulotte couverte en tuiles,” “Á toutes brides,” “Une herbe pauvre,” “Je n’ai envie que de t’aimer,” “Figure de force brûlante et farouche” and “Nous avons fait la nuit.”

Following a brief intermission, the recital will continue with “Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Op. 2” by Samuel Barber. The performance will conclude with three works by Moses Hogan, “My Good Lord’s Done Been Here,” “Deep River” and “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”

Lilite is excited for this recital and for the audience to be touched and moved by the music just as he has been during his many months of preparation.

“This recital comes during a season of great anticipation. Our world needs hope after enduring the despair of a long-lived worldwide health crisis, the darkness of personal and professional losses, and the dwindling of opportunities for cultural gathering. I look forward to seeing lives transformed, or at least touched, by the music we've prepared. I know we have.”

Dr. Louima Lilite is a Haitian-American tenor and serves as the McGavern-Montgomery Professor of Music in the Warren M. Angell School of Visual and Performing Arts at Oklahoma Baptist University. He was awarded the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award in May 2016. Under the tutelage of Ms. Carol Webber, he earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in voice performance and literature in April 2008 at the prestigious Eastman School of Music where he was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Prize in 2007. Previous study with Jennie Wong (piano), William Lock, Jeanne Robison, Richard Kennedy, Susan Boardman and Marylène Dosse (piano) granted him his Master of Music in voice performance and pedagogy at Penn State University in 2002, as well as a Bachelor of Music in 1999 at Biola University in La Mirada, California, with a double emphasis in voice and piano performance.

Lilite previously served as a member of the voice faculty at Houghton College and Nazareth College, and as a teaching assistant at the Eastman School of Music from 2004 to 2008. He has taught, lectured and coached in the United States and overseas in private lessons, master classes, seminars, and summer workshops. He has also served as an adjudicator for the Phyllis Triolo Competition and for regional and district auditions for the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS). His students have won various awards and have been invited and/or accepted at Houston Grand Opera, Sarasota Opera, Tulsa Opera, the Eastman School of Music, Juilliard, Peabody, Michigan State University in Ann Arbor, Penn State University, the University of Illinois, and at various Young Artist and summer programs.

Critics have hailed his “warm tone and sensitive interpretation” and “his clear voice [which] soars and carries.” A seasoned performer, he is known as a recitalist, soloist, pianist, and accompanist, performing in master classes conducted by Dawn Upshaw, Leonid Smetannikov, Douglas Yates, Earle Patriarco, Menahem Pressler and Béla Siki. Among his honors at OBU are the 2013 Provost Award of Excellence, the 2009-2010 Promising Teacher Award, and the Seven Who Care Award. Other honors include the 2007-2008 MTNA StAR Award, the Presser Award, Outstanding Musician of the year in both piano and voice, First Place Winner in the Advanced division of the NATS Eastern Region Conference Auditions, and Honorable Mention in the Jessie Kneisel Lieder Competition.

An avid supporter of chamber music, some of his favorite performances include Poulenc’s “Tel jour, telle nuit,” Ravel’s “Chansons Madécasses,” Vaughan Williams’ “Four Hymns,” John Corigliano’s “Three Irish Folksong Settings,” and the six Heine settings from Schubert’s “Schwanengesang.”

He has sung several operatic roles including Count Belfiore in Mozart’s “La finta Giardiniera,” Prunier in Puccini’s “La Rondine,” Tapioca in “L’étoile” by Chabrier, Brother Paul in Trinkley’s “York,” Samuel in Rorem’s “Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters,” Aeneas in Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas,” Nerone in Monteverdi’s “L’Incoronazione di Poppea,” Léon in Pasatieri’s “Signor Deluso,” Ferrando in Mozart’s “Così fan tutte,” and The Counsel in Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Trial by Jury.”

Having a keen interest in the oratorio and symphonic repertoires, Lilite has performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Eastman-Rochester Chorus and Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Consort in Handel’s “Messiah,” the Shawnee Community Orchestra, the Biola Conservatory Chorale and Orchestra in Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” the Sainte Trinité Symphony, maestro Gerardo Edelstein in Saint-Saëns’ “Christmas Oratorio,” and the Penn State University Chorus and Orchestra in Schubert’s “Mass in G.”

Dephanie Lilite has concertized extensively in London, Haiti, and all over the United States as a versatile pianist whose brilliance shines as a soloist, accompanist and chamber musician. Her playing is best described as sparkling, clear, sensitive and effortless. She has performed in master classes conducted by Menahem Pressler, Béla Siki, Howard Karp and Christopher Taylor. Among her accolades are the Presser Award, Outstanding Musician of the Year, and Second Prize winner at the Graduate Exhibition for her performance of Beethoven’s “Appassionata Sonata.” A southern California native, she graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music in piano performance from the Conservatory of Music at Biola University.

Upon graduation, she was hired as the staff accompanist at Biola, providing accompaniment and managing the accompanying schedule of all performance areas. She pursued graduate studies under the tutelage of French pianist Marylène Dosse at Penn State University and obtained her Master of Music in piano performance and pedagogy in 2001 with the highest recognition for her graduate lecture on Mendelssohn’s “Songs without Words.” She was named director of the Piano Preparatory Program at Penn State and served more than 100 students in that capacity until 2004. A dedicated homeschooling mother, she currently devotes the majority of her time to the training of young minds all the while maintaining a rigorous schedule encompassing private teaching and ministry.

Learn more about the Division of Music at OBU.