A not so spooky recital
From the minute she walked on stage in her sparkly dress, Mindy Reagan astounded patrons by her voice and presence for her senior recital performance. Her voice filled Lambert Recital Hall October 30, 2018 for her “Not so spooky recital”.
Back in February, the second semester of her junior year, she started planning for her recital.
“My incredible voice instructor and I sat down and selected the pieces for my recital and started working on filling in the gaps that we saw in my pieces,” said Reagan. “One of the struggles we ran into was the fact that somehow we never really worked on Italian in my lessons. At the time, it seemed like a huge roadblock, but Dr. Massie-Legg’s constant encouragement and lots of practice time lead me to be able to include an Italian piece in my repertoire.“
“I was responsible for providing the posters, programs, reception items, and photographs. A lot of time and money and practice went into putting all this together. Deborah Boling, Dr. Massie-Legg, and all of the Faculty members were so encouraging and provided me with resources and opportunities to build this recital.”
A senior recital is not a requirement for her Bachelor in Music thesis. Her recital was a “national requirement.”
“This recital had to be at least 30 minutes long and display pieces that I had been working on in my voice lessons,” stated Reagan.
“Some of the pieces I had been working on since Sophomore year while others I performed for the first time. The beauty of this was that I was able to help pick the repertoire that was performed. The music faculty encourages students to display a wide variety of musical genres, languages, styles. This helps for student like me who want to go into education, think about programming, presentation, and preparation. So although it wasn’t a part of my thesis, it was a huge mile marker in wrapping up my college career.”
Over 200 patrons attended Reagans’ recital. “Many more sent me words of encouragement and support,” said Reagan. “I still feel so overwhelmed by the outpouring of love I experienced throughout the entire process.”
Reagan recalled that her favorite part of the recital was “getting to share such a huge part of my college career with my friends and family.”
“For the most part, I see myself as a choral singer rather than a solo singer, unless it’s church music, so for me to sing 10 solo pieces was huge. I have had so many people say ‘I never knew you could sing like that’ or ‘I didn’t know you could sing so high,’ and a variety of other sayings. But even more than the success of my vocal abilities, I was shocked to see how many people came to see me perform.”
Reagan wished to recognize the professor who helped make this a reality. “Send a special word of thanks to my voice instructor Dr. Massie-Legg. She gave me the skills to grow in my musicianship and had been an amazing guiding force in my college journey.”