Ricky Dubuisson II is a vocal performance major at MUW. This is his fourth year at the W and he has studied voice under the guidance of Dr. Susan Hurley since fall of 2022. While studying with Dr. Hurley, Ricky won first place in his category at the regional NATS singing competition in fall of 2023.
His past performance experience includes the previous 2 years of Opera Scenes performances at the W, plus Beautiful Beulah Belle, Little Mermaid Jr, Medea, The Wiz, and other stage productions with Perk Players and Mississippi Sound at MS Gulf Coast Community College.
Ricky would like to send out a special thanks to all of his friends, chosen family, and professors for encouraging him throughout this process. He encourages all to read the program notes between sets and hopes everyone thoroughly enjoys the recital!
Sonata in D Minor, K. 1 – Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
Sonata in F major, K. 332 I. Allegro II. Adagio – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Waltz in A minor, Op. 34, No. 2 & Etude in F minor, Op. 10, No. 9 – Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)
Allegro Barbaro – Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
Johnathan Lollar is a piano performance student under the instruction of Dr. Valentin Bogdan. Before he came to the W, he attended Bevill State Community College, where he studied music under Dr. John Stallsmith and piano under Becki Stallsmith. He would like to thank the faculty of the W music department for their guidance, the members and alumni of Beta Kappa Tau for their continued support in all of his endeavors, and his family and friends, who pushed him to begin this journey.
Date of Performance: March 26, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. in Connie Sills Kossen Auditorium, Poindexter Hall.
Program
Biographies
Dr. Susan Hurley, soprano, has performed in Europe and the United States in repertoire that ranges from opera and musical theatre to concert and recital literature. A prizewinner at the 2002 Meistersinger competition in Graz, Austria, she has sung 25 principal operatic roles and soloed with orchestras in Germany and Austria as well as throughout the U.S.
She is the founding Artistic Director of Phoenix Arizona’s annual AIDS Quilt Songbook concert series. Later this month, she will present her ninth annual AIDS Quilt Songbook benefit concert in Phoenix. The concert launches a week of World AIDS Day events and raises funds for Arizona HIV/AIDS service organizations. Dr. Hurley has commissioned several new songs, with texts by long-term HIV survivors, which have premiered on the Phoenix concerts. She has presented lecture recitals, masterclasses, and talks on the literature comprising the AIDS Quilt Songbook for Southern Regional NATS, the Mississippi Music Teachers Association, at universities, and most recently, this past August at the tenth International Congress of Voice Teachers (ICVT)in Vienna, Austria.
She has given presentations on the theories of Alfred Tomatis, founder of audio-psycho-phonology, at ICVT Stockholm (2017), NATS, and the Mississippi Music Teachers Association. She authored the chapter on Tomatis listening in the book So You Want to Sing with Awareness, published in 2020 by Rowman and Littlefield.
Dr. Hurley is currently Associate Professor of Voice at Mississippi University for Women where she teaches Voice, Opera Workshop, Voice Pedagogy, and Music Literature. Several of her current and former voice students have won top prizes at state, regional, and national NATS competitions. She earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Arizona State University in 2012.
Dr. William Reber is Director of Choirs and Staff Pianist at MUW. Professor Emeritus of Opera and Music Theatre at Arizona State University where he was on the faculty for 24 years and served as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Lyric Opera Theatre, he is former vocal coach, pianist and conductor for the Mittelsächsiches Theater in Germany, was head of the vocal coaching program for the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria (12 years) and was Music Director of the German Opera Experience in Freiberg, Germany (10 years). In summer 2019, he joined the faculty of Spotlight on Opera as conductor and collaborative pianist and was appointed music director in 2020.
Dr. Reber has been Music Director for more than 150 productions of operas and musicals and has been conductor of the Corpus Christi (TX) ballet since 1986. As a collaborative pianist, he has performed recitals with singers and instrumentalists in Germany, Austria, Macedonia and throughout the United States. He is the pianist and music director for the annual AIDS Quilt Songbook benefit performances in Phoenix. Dr. Reber earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Opera and Conducting at The University of Texas at Austin.
