Two Eastern Mennonite University students have been named winners of the university’s first concerto/aria competition, thereby earning performance spots with the EMU Orchestra during its spring Concerto/Aria Orchestral Concert.
The concert, at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 5, in Lehman Auditorium, will highlight juniors Kiara Kiah and Robert Chaplin, Jr.
Kiah will sing “O mio babbino caro” (“Oh my dear daddy”) and “Quando men vo” (“Musetta’s Waltz”) from Giacomo Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, and Chaplin will perform the three movements of the Carl Stamitz Concerto No. 3 for Clarinet and Orchestra in B-flat Major: Allegro Moderato, Romanze, and Rondo.
The second half of the performance will highlight Beethoven’s “cheerful and underrated” Symphony No. 8 in F major, said director Benjamin Bergey.
“The richness of the evening’s selections attest to music’s depth,” Bergey said. “It’s all here: passion, liveliness and optimism. Of particular note will be the student soloists.”
The soloists
In the competition on Jan. 24, Kiah, a social work and soprano music performance major, sang “O mio babbino caro” with piano accompaniment by Ryan Tusing.
Kiah has loved classical music ever since attending the Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk, Virginia, where she first performed in operas. Yet pursuing her “true passion” is not without struggle.
“I joined the competition for performance practice,” she said. “I have bad performance anxiety and I promised myself this semester I’d perform every chance I got.”
Chaplin, a music education major, competed by playing the first movement of the Stamitz concerto with piano accompaniment by Kathryn Schmidt.
A member of the EMU Wind Ensemble and Orchestra, Chaplin also plays clarinet and tenor saxophone with the Jazz Ensemble and sings with the University Choir. He comes from a musical family, he said, and growing up always had access to a variety of instruments. He first learned to play the guitar in elementary school, but clarinet became his primary focus.
“I love performing, and it has always been a dream of mine to perform solo with an orchestra,” he said. “I really enjoy the piece that I worked on for the competition, and it is exciting to have the prospect of playing it with an entire orchestra.”
Judges comments
The competition was judged by Anthony Fortuna and Kyle Knappenberger, doctoral of musical arts candidates at James Madison University.
“Kiara’s voice was beautiful and her performance was stunning,” Fortuna said. “She will certainly shine with the orchestra.”
She sang, added Knappenberger, “with a lovely, rich tone and was able to deliver the long legato lines and passion of Puccini’s popular aria.”
In the competition, Chaplin performed with “great technique and a nice tone, which will surely help him to stand out in his soloist debut,” Fortuna said – and, added Knappenberger, he “presented a well-prepared, professional performance of the Stamitz that had some really excellent moments.”