SOUTHEAST MUSICIANS TO PERFORM IN ROME

Three Southeast Missouri State University music students and a former student hope to spend a month this summer learning Italian in Rome and performing Mozart's "The Magic Flute" in German.

The three singers and one pianist-percussionist are trying to raise the $3,500 each needs for airfare, room and board, and tuition for the Operafestival di Roma. Sixty-five vocal and instrumental students from around the world have been accepted to perform at the festival, held June 21 through July 20.

Students were required to submit audition tapes before they were selected for the festival.

The 14-member faculty includes a number of principals from the Opera di Roma orchestra, along with Eastman School of Music guitar professor Nicholas Goluses, and former violin and cello principals from the Berlin Philharmonic and London Symphony, respectively.

All the faculty members are donating their time.

The students will give six opera performances, 11 chamber music concerts and six symphonic concerts during the festival, which has an operating budget of $120,000.

Designed to provide students with professional training and performing experience, the festival was founded this year by Louisa Panou-Takahashi, an assistant professor of music at the university. She is the festival's artistic director.

The students who will participate are junior Donna Smith, junior Jason Shaffer, freshman Patryce King and Jeni Kafka, a former Southeast student who is not currently enrolled.

Smith will sing the lead role of Pamina in "The Magic Flute," and Shaffer has the supporting role of Monostatos. King will play piano and percussion instruments in various productions. Kafka will sing the supporting role of Papagena in "The Magic Flute."

James Sifferman, an associate professor of music at Southeast, is a member of the festival faculty and will give solo and chamber music performances.

Panou-Takahashi has been the director of the Rome Festival, a performance-only event, during the past three summers. Smith, who appeared in two of the previous festivals, loved the experience but says the student performers yearned for more.

"People coming to the festival wanted to work with Louisa and Stefano," she said. Stefano Vignati is the Operafestival's music director.

The Operafestival di Roma will provide the students with training in the Italian language, private lessons and master classes.

"I also wanted to introduce the students to the culture," Panou-Takahashi said.

Students will practice and perform six days a week. Mondays will be for sightseeing.

The festival site is the Istituto di S. Alessio Margherita di Savoia, the residence of Pope Pius V. Built in 1566, the institute now serves as a school for the blind during most of the year.

The students will perform on a covered stage in the institute's courtyard.

They will stay at a hotel called the Domus Pachis (House of Peace), which is run by the Vatican.

Margaret Woods Allen and Lynn Dempster, both of Sikeston, have provided two full scholarships for Southeast participants in the festival. Dempster is vice president of the university Board of Regents.

A solicitation on behalf of the students has been sent to more than 1,300 companies and patrons throughout the area. So far, the largest corporate donation has been $500 from Biokyowa Inc.

The students also are trying to raise money on their own. In addition, the students and professors will provide an evening of song and piano music at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 18, at Old St. Vincent's Church.

Admission is free, but donations will be accepted.

Performing in the cradle of opera before demanding but appreciative Italian audiences can be a life-altering experience for a student opera singer, says Panou-Takahashi, a frequent recitalist in Europe.

The audiences are like no other, and will let you know if they're displeased.

"They also will stand and cheer and ask for encores," she says.

Musicians will find out if they're going to be performers, she said, pointing to Smith, a Cape Girardeau native who first went to Rome as a freshman.

Last month, Smith finished third in the prestigious Metropolitan Opera National Council Midwest Regional Auditions.

"I didn't know if I was up to the standards of everyone," Smith said of her earlier appearances in Rome. "The feedback told me this is where I belong."