By Julie Bauer, Staff Writer
The Department of Music will present a student recital titled “Phenomenal Women” featuring sopranos Lena Costello and Michaela Wagner at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 10 in Stretansky Concert Hall.
Costello, a junior music performance and theater performance double major, and Wagner, a senior music composition major, will be accompanied by Lecturer in Music Jaime Namminga and junior Ali Hordeski.
The recital will be divided equally with solo performances from both Costello and Wagner and will end with a duet written by Wagner entitled “Phenomenal Woman.”
“[Wagner] and I had talked about her writing a duet when we decided to do a recital together and she was like, ‘Well, if there’s any text you want written into the duet, just let me know,’” Costello said. “I was trying to find something to letter and I found the poem ‘Phenomenal Woman’ by Maya Angelou … We just sort of brainstormed what we wanted [the duet] to sound like and she wrote it.”
Costello’s half of the concert will feature all female composers.
“I’m doing three art songs from Clara Schumann, Lili Boulanger and Amy Beach and then I’m doing a song from ‘Waitress’ with Sara Bareilles,” Costello said.
Wagner’s half of the concert will feature all male composers.
“They range from John Dowland, who was basically the first singer-songwriter, to Debussy who composes beautiful impressionist music and Marc Blitzstein, a 20th century opera composer who strays from traditional opera writing,” Wagner said.
Costello noted that the repertoire chosen focuses on some lesser-known and lesser-featured artists.
“It’s relatively rare to see so many female composers represented on one program,” Costello said. “I always get frustrated when we have forum for all the music majors [with] how few women [there are] – such a large percentage of any performance we do for any ensemble, any instrument – all the composers are men.”
“I think our recital is unique in that we are celebrating the life of all composers, men and women, from the 1500s all the way to those alive right now,” Wagner said. “We want to show our audience that we can sing a lot of different music in all styles and that we aren’t just classical singers.”
Both Costello and Wagner are required by their major to do a half-recital, which is part of the reason they decided to work together.
“I had decided I wanted to do mine in the fall and she also wanted to do hers in the fall … Being in the music department, you just kind of work with everybody, especially as a vocal major,” Costello said. “So we’re usually in choir or vocal ensembles together.”
Wagner echoed the same sentiments on working with Costello.
“We have been in choir together for the past two years and have had a fun time sitting next to each other but getting to do a whole recital with her has definitely been even more of a joy,” Wagner said. “I think we both have a similar passion and excitement for music which has helped this process go really smoothly.” Both Costello and Wagner are excited to share their hard work with the campus.
“The ability to write program notes for people to read and get the history behind these pieces is really exciting … Educating people – not only educating them through program notes, but giving them a full experience and being able to show all of the emotions that these women were writing and feeling – it’s really exciting,” Costello said.
