Aria, Concerto winners prepare for March 9 performance

o the musically untrained ear, each run-through at rehearsal sounds the same, but for the Southeast Missouri Symphony Orchestra and the four aria and concerto winners who will be featured performers with the symphony next week, there is always one more step to perfection.

Perhaps that is why both marimba player Amy Vrbosky and flutist Monica Smith smiled nervously at the completion of one of their own rehearsals, after they heard some applause from professors or those in the auditorium seats waiting for their turn to practice.

They were practicing for the March 9 performance of "Sabre Dance!" at Southeast Missouri State University. While the second part of the program will consist of two Russian orchestra pieces -- "Caucasian Sketches" by Ippolitov-Ivanov and "Gayeneh Ballet" by Khachaturian -- it will open with featured performances from students who won the music department's Concerto and Aria Competition in November.

Junior Monica Smith, who graduated from high school in St. Charles, Mo., will open the concert with her flute performance of Cecile Chaminade's "Concertino for Flute and Orchestra." Senior flutist Christina Van Nostrand, a Cape Girar-deau Central High School graduate, will perform "Night Soliloquy" by Kent Kennan. Mezzo-soprano Erika Beasley, a junior and graduate of Jackson High School, will perform a lyrical aria from Guiseppe Verdi's opera "Il Travatore."

Finishing off the first half of the program will be Jackson High School graduate Amy Vrbosky's performance of Concertino for Marimba and Orchestra by Paul Creston.

Orchestra conductor and music professor Dr. Sara Edgerton said all the pieces the students are performing are at a high level of difficulty.

"For students to play these pieces well it means they're at the top of their game," Edgerton said.

Years of devotion

To get at the top, these performers have spent years devoted to their instrument. They all plan a future that involves that instrument.

Beasley has been singing seriously for the past 11 years. "When I was 10, I knew this is what I wanted to do," she said.

So she started taking lessons from Lori Shaffer until she entered college, where she is now under the instruction of Shaffer's husband, Dr. Christopher Goeke. After graduation, Beasley wants to go to graduate school and get her master's degree in vocal performance, which will be her undergraduate degree. After that she plans to teach or hit the big time as a singer, whatever happens first.

This is Beasley's first time as a soloist performing with an orchestra, but she said the nerves she first experienced have subsided and now she is just ready to sing.

Smith, who is majoring in flute performance and music education, said she is nervous and excited about the opportunity to be a featured performer with the symphony.

"It's an issue of knowing my piece and being comfortable with it," she said.

Smith began playing the flute after she became jealous that her brother was playing the trombone in the school band. Her father was leery about letting his daughter play an instrument because, in Smith's words, "I never stuck to anything."

After school, Smith plans a career in music where she can still play the flute. "I can't imagine doing anything else. Playing is so much fun, I can't imagine another profession being as much fun."

An instrument that has not won the competition before is the marimba, a percussion instrument similar to a xylophone. Although she has been playing percussion instruments since the seventh grade, Vrbosky became more interested in playing the marimba when she entered college. She plays a variety of percussion instruments in the symphony.

She has performed with piano accompaniment before, but playing with the backing of a whole orchestra is vastly different, Vrbosky said.

"It's a great experience for someone to have as a performer."

Vrbosky also plans to attend graduate school and to continue studying music after graduating from college.

'It's old hat'

Van Nostrand, a graduate of Central High School, is taking the stage as a featured performer for the second time. Van Nostrand performed with the orchestra two years ago after a previous win in the concerto and aria contest. "I used to be very nervous, but now it's like it's old hat. The more people the better," she said.

Van Nostrand wants to get a graduate degree in arts administration after she leaves college and possibly manage a symphony or become a museum director.

Although all the instrumental competition winners are members of the orchestra, and Beasley is a member of the University and Chamber Choirs, all said being a featured performer with an orchestra backing you is very different from their other performances and something most students are never able to experience.

"All of our music majors perform a lot, but as a musician, to be able to solo with an orchestra is a really special occasion," Edgerton said. "It's a fairly major accomplishment."

kalfisi@semissourian.com

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