Four Nebraska Wesleyan University vocalists and their director will spend much of July in Greece to be part of a renouned cultural festival.
Students Meagan Fowler, Kaitlin Beck, Malorie Winberg and Rae-Lee Tresiera and NWU Director of Choral Activities William Wyman landed on the Island of Syros on July 1 to begin preparations for the International Festival of the Aegean.
The festival —held July 12-24 —attracts world-class musicians, dancers, and actors from dozens of countries. The event has been recognized as Greece’s best cultural organization, and last year received the International Gina Bachauer Award for its excellence.
NWU students will perform in three choral concerts and will be part of the Greek chorus for the opera, “Medea,” which will be performed throughout the festival. This unique opportunity is a result of a long-time relationship between Wyman and the festival’s production company, MidAmerica Productions.
“I have conducted a number of concerts for this production company, and they asked if I’d be willing to conduct at this festival,” said Wyman. “From that grew an opportunity for our students to be part of the major opera that will be produced during the festival.”
Participation in the festival and opera meant long hours of rehearsal during the spring semester. “Medea” will be performed in Italian.
“We have all taken Italian diction, and have studied extensively in the rehearsal process,” said Tresiera, a senior music major from Quesnel, British Columbia. “So after doing our own work, we got together every Tuesday to make sure we are all on the same page with tempos, musicality, phrasing, and dynamics.”
The University Choir has a long tradition of performing at some of the world’s best concert halls and festivals. They’ve performed at Carnegie Hall twice in the past three years, were the first American choir invited to perform at the St. Petersburg, Russia International Choral Festival, and they recently returned from Ireland where they performed in their ninth international choir tour.
The opportunity to perform on another international stage is another important experience, said Wyman. Students will perform in the Apollo Theater, the oldest indoor theater of modern times.
“This is a very different experience because of the professional opera piece. There will be major international leads in the opera as it is staged and produced by professionals,” he said. “These students are going to be part of a professional opera so they are going to learn a lot. It’s an incredible opportunity to learn.”
Beck, a senior music education major from Omaha, hopes to use this experience in her future classroom.
“I think getting to experience another culture is essential to a person’s development, and will also be something I can draw on within the music classroom,” she said.
Tresierra looks forward to the opportunity to grow as a musician.
“I hope to learn and extend my knowledge of vocal technique, exercises, stage production, opera production, and rehearsal processes as well as engage in a new culture and new directors,” she said. “It will really stretch my abilities as a student, performer, and educator.”
Wyman said he is proud of the valuable experience this will provide to students and the opportunity to give Nebraska Wesleyan another international presence.
“It’s a really unique opportunity for NWU students, and the entire institution should feel pride that they are being represented in professional performances in Greece,” said Wyman.
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Two other NWU music students are currently participating in premier summer music programs. Gavin Rasmussen of Blair is one of five students in the country selected to participate in the Ashville Lyric Opera’s Young Artists Program. Students prepare a recital of scenes and arias from standard opera and musical theatre repertoire for touring performances in North Carolina.
Joanna Mackley of Hershey has been selected to participate in Pacific Lutheran University’s Young Artist Program in Tacoma, Wash. This experience gives her the opportunity to work with coaches and teachers from the Tacoma Opera Company and Seattle Opera.
“Both of these students just finished their junior year and are getting accepted into programs that people in masters programs are getting into,” said NWU music professor Dawn Pawlewski Krogh. “It’s very impressive for them.”