Your future, our focus
P O W E L L, W y o. - A few Northwest College music faculty decided the questionable arrival of spring and the guaranteed arrival of tax day were good reasons to turn the tables on students by presenting a Sunday, April 15, faculty recital of music commonly assigned to music students. The performance begins at 3 p.m. in the Nelson Performing Arts Center on campus.
Baritone Jan Kliewer and soprano Emily Poindexter will perform songs from "24 Italian Songs and Arias," a traditional music book used the world over by voice teachers and which most voice students are familiar with, according to Poindexter.
"We usually assign songs from this book to students," Poindexter said. "This time, we'll be singing and modeling them for our students." In addition to the Italian works, the two voice instructors plan to sing arias written in French and German as well.
The program takes a lighter turn and a more "historical proportion" when the repertoire shifts to jazz.
"This will be the very first time in my entire life I've sung jazz," Kliewer said. "I've found I'm heeding the admonition my colleagues are always giving their vocal jazz students to listen, listen and listen some more to the great jazz singers." Because Kliewer has chosen to sing without a microphone, he said his delivery will be more reminiscent of Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett than more modern performers.
Contrasting Kliewer's newly developed jazz stylings, Poindexter will perform her jazz tunes with the comfort that comes from a familiar genre. Some of the jazz standards the audience can expect to hear include "The Shadow of Your Smile," "Bye Bye Blackbird" and Cole Porter's famous "Just One of Those Things."
Timothy Schoessler, the NWC Music Program's pianist, will accompany the two singers on their classical numbers, and Lloyd Sheets, an adjunct music faculty member, will take control of the ivories when the program turns to jazzier fare.
Interestingly enough, the concert has a definite Cody flair - all the performers except Kliewer either live or previously lived in Park County's windy city.