SEMO SINGERS BRING HOME BONANZA OF AWARDS

Seven student singers put Southeast Missouri State University on the vocal map last weekend.

The students swept seven of the 18 awards presented at the National Association of Teachers of Singing Auditions held at Northeast Missouri State University.

They competed against students from every university in Missouri, including the University of Missouri's Columbia, St. Louis and Kansas City campuses, and Washington and Webster universities in St. Louis.

Four of the students won first prizes. The others finished second, third and fourth.

"I've been going to NAT contests for six or seven years and I've sung in some but I don't recall seeing one school take so many first prizes for a given contest like that," said Christopher Goeke, an assistant professor of music at Southeast.

Four of Goeke's students were among the winners. The other three are taught by Louisa Panou-Takahashi, also an assistant professor of music at the university.

Winning first prizes were Donna Smith of Cape Girardeau in the College Women Upper Division; Jeni Kafka of Cape Girardeau in the College Women Lower Division; Heather Bollinger of Washington, Mo., in the College Women Advanced Division; and Tom Lowery of Overland in the College Men Upper Division.

The other Southeast winners were Neal E. Boyd of Sikeston, second in the College Men Lower Division; Jason Shaffer of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, fourth in the College Men Upper Division; and Lance Lancaster of Cape Girardeau, third in the College Men Upper Division.

Lower Division connotes freshmen and sophomores, Upper Division is for juniors and seniors, and the Advanced Division is for students 22 and older.

The NAT competition also included high school students. All were judged on their command of languages, understanding of text, poise, suitability of repertory, accuracy, intonation, projection and interpretation.

In two previous NAT competitions, Southeast singers left with only a single fourth-place award.

Panou-Takahashi attributes this year's success to lessons learned from past contests.

"It helped for the students to hear singers who are much more accomplished than they were," Panou-Takahashi said. "They finally decided they were going to work harder."

Donna Smith is a good example, the assistant professor said.

Panou-Takahashi said one of the judges came out and said to Smith "You entered this competition two years ago, didn't you? And I rated you very low last time. How did you do this? How did you turn your voice around the way you did?"

Artists must learn to persist and to accept and use criticism, Panou-Takahashi said.

"I think it's the most difficult thing to do, to learn to take criticism without getting disappointed," she said.

Both Panou-Takahashi and Goeke said competitions are also good recruiting tools for the university, especially if the high school and university students see a school do well.

"I think they start to notice where the winners come from," Goeke said.

Smith, Kafka and Lancaster will compete again today in the Metropolitan Auditions in St. Louis. Kafka was a 1993 Metropolitan award winner.