Tuesdays with Tulsa: Spotlight: Vocal Performance majors

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Today’s Tuesday with Tulsa post is a spotlight on Vocal Performance Majors at The University of Tulsa and is brought to us by Kim Childs, Associate Professor of Vocal Studies and Voice.

Because TU is a smaller university, many people do not realize that we have a successful regional vocal program.

Welcome, prospective voice majors (and anyone else who wants to sing while at TU)! My name is Kim Childs, and I’m the Associate Professor of Vocal Studies and Voice at the University of Tulsa.

TU has a small but strong vocal program that includes two choirs (a competitive chamber singers by audition only [Cappella Chamber Singers] and a larger SATB chorus [TU Chorale], an opera workshop, voice lessons and numerous venues for performance, including conducting, vocal jazz and film studies.

TU vocalists have many opportunities for advancement and success. Each year, at least one of our vocal students wins or places in the prestigious Oklahoma National Association of Teachers of Singer Competition, and vocalists at our university have historically won competitions locally and regionally. Nationally known conductors, clinicians and performers come to TU each year, and our voice majors are fortunate to be a part of this.

In addition to solo opportunities, our vocalists are regularly featured in Oklahoma All-Collegiate Choir festivals, Tulsa PAC “Brown-Bag It” performances, the prestigious Bernsen Series, Tuesday at Trinity performances, and local and regional choir tours, including a recent performance at Carnegie Hall.

TU’s vocal faculty performs regularly. I am a tenor and a Baroque music specialist and perform regularly in early music performances and professional choral societies. Baritone-Bass and pianist Brady McElligott, head of the opera program at TU, performs regularly both local and regional.

TU’s scholarships are generous, and we look for fine vocalists each year. This year, we have substantial scholarship awards for tenor vocal performance or music majors. These top awards will be granted from our top selections during the audition process at TU for the 2013/14 year. Auditions are January 19, 26 and February 2, 2013 (all Saturdays) and you can find more information regarding the audition process at  http://www.utulsa.edu/academics/colleges/henry-kendall-college-of-arts-and-sciences/Departments-and-Schools/School-of-Music/Auditions.  Specific questions can also be obtained by calling our Vocal Departments Coordinator, Susan Goldman-Moore at 918-631-2768 or emailing her at:  susan-goldman-moore@utulsa.edu

The University of Tulsa is known for small teacher/student ratios and for a high rating of student satisfaction. As you can see, we have a tight-knit and fun-loving vocal family at TU! Come join the fun!

Finals, do or die

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Andres
One of the most feared aspects of the ends of college semesters are finals. Finals can range from papers, projects, regular tests, cumulative tests, or just a test worth more points than usual. It definitely is not someone to ignore. I found dead week and finals week pretty boring here on campus. Everything shuts down and people spend the days sleeping late and studying in their rooms or in the lobby. My finals were not that bad, but they definitely needed studying. Too many students’ college finals are something completely new to them. Most panic as they ruffle through half-kept notes and illegible worksheets that have become folded up in their backpacks, or flipping through the text books trying to figure out which parts of the book will be tested over. As an IB diploma student, I felt well prepared to study and found that I knew exactly what was going to be on each and every final. College studying is all about efficiency, and throughout the year it served me well to keep notes well-organized and do whatever I could to make it as easy as possible to review everything. Now I’m all done, and I’m very happy to have the rest of the month off!

Two Dinners and Lights

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Today was wonderful! How coud it not be when you have two dinners?  I had a final in the morning.  It was my last final, and it went well.  Then I went to lunch at the caf with some friends.  After that I went to the gym with my roommate.  Next I went out to Subway with my friends, but I didn’t eat anything because I knew I would be having two later.  My first dinner was at the Hillel House.  We celebrated the fourth night of Hanukkah (and ate latkes and some really good cookies that have nothing to do with Hanukkah.)

The Menorah!

My other dinner was at my friend’s house.  She is from Nebraska and apperently pizza from Nebraska is the best so we had some, and I have to admit that the hamburger pizza was amazing!  Although I am a sucker for desserts, and for dessert, they had homemade ice cream and brownies.  Everything was so good! :)

Avery showing off the pizza

The last thing we did was go to Rhema Bible Church in Broken Arrow (a subarb of Tulsa).  They have two million Christmas lights on dispthat are so pretty.  They had a bridge of lights that was very cool.  The trip there was definately worth it!

tunnel of lights

Fun times

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After our football team became Conference Champs students were allowed to rush the field and congratulate them in person before we all sang the fight song!

 

It was fun seeing the student section full during Tulsa Time with all the prospective students. We really want you to come :)

 

Just a typical TU Saturday…2 Basketball wins (Men beat TCU by 1 pt and the Women won their game).

Former TU Football players who are graduating in December came by and acted as “Security” for our philanthropy event.

New Member Retreat and My First Race

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Some fun things have happened recently.  First was the new member retreat for Kappa, (see pictures below).  The second is that I got to participate in a race for rowing called a regatta, but I’ll talk more about that later.

The retreat…first, the car I went in had a very difficult time getting there!  Our GPS led us to a factory and a very creepy small house on a hill.  When we finally got to the house, it was huge and we laughed because we were the second ones there and when other people arrived they said they had gotten lost too.  We also ate a lot, which is one of my favorite things to do!  Then we played a game where we had to guess who our bigs were based on clues. (A big is kind of like a mentor with which new sorority members are provided to help guide them through anything they might have questions about.)  I refused to go first because I am shy and that makes me uncomfortable, but when I heard the clues I knew it was my big.  Next we went upstairs and the seniors talked to us about what it means to be a Kappa, and because it was Kate’s and my birthday, they brought us cupcakes.  Then we got to make up a song about Kappa. We decided to make a song based on Taylor Swift’s song Love Story.  It turned out really cute.  By the end of the night I was really glad that they had this event because it was so fun and it was a great thing to do on my birthday.

The other thing was amazing was the regatta.  It wasn’t exactly a real regatta with medals and things but we raced Kansas in a scrimmage.  Since I am more of a coxswain (the person that steers the boat) I don’t typically race in the boat, but someone got sick and I did get to race.  It was really exciting because based on times our boat won 3rd which would have meddaled if it were a real race.  I also was really excited to spend the whole day with my friends and get to see the experienced rowers.  Because it was parents weekend my parents even got to see me row, which is awesome.  All and all it was a pretty exciting race for me.  I unfortunately don’t have pictures from this so just trust that it was soooo fun :)

Sometimes in college…

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you walk into the hallway and there are a whole bunch of your friends out there just talking and laughing and you decide to join.  It will only be for a few minutes you tell yourself, but then you end up talking to your friends for an hour and the homework you wanted to get done just has to wait awhile.  There are so many funny and nice people here to talk to that sometimes you just end up getting a bit distracted.  This month I had to interview one of my teachers for my business class.  I asked him what was the best advice he had.  He told me that while school is important and you should work hard and get the best grades you can, but you have so many opportunities in college that you will never have again so take advantage of them.  If your friends asks you to go to QT with them (and they will) or there is a speaker that you really want to see or one of your teachers invites you to their house for dinner, take time out of your super busy schedule to enjoy this experience :)

We’re Not in Kansas Anymore

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Mercedes
Our fall break just ended and now it’s time to step back into reality and the life of a TU student. Since I live in Arizona I didn’t fly back home for Thanksgiving instead I drove to Wichita with my lovely room mate and met my best friend there to continue our journey to her grandparents house outside of Topeka, Kansas. We got there Friday and had more of our friends arriving on Sunday and Thursday. We spent a lot of time in the car  between driving to and from the airport which was a couple hours away and exploring downtown Topeka, but it left a lot of time to catch up with everyone! A few highlight of my break included visiting the barn cats that live in the barn behind Korynne’s grandparents house!

We renamed all of the cats and this one we called Death by Cuteness. Other names included Bob Marley, 007, and Scrappy which all fit the personalities of the cats quite well.

The scenery was amazing! We spent one morning just walking around the field and even ventured into the line of trees just to see what was on the other side which proved to be an adventure to say the least!

We decided to have a picnic at a park and of course we pick the coldest and most windy day to do so but it was still very fun.

While driving in downtown Topeka after the park we found this flag painted on the back of a building which lead to basically a photo shoot! (They were spelling out USA!)

Lastly that day we found a bunch of trains and decided to explore a little around there!

Between the laughs, nights spent watching movies, and just having a good time with great friends I was not ready to come back to school. And yet as soon as I walked into my suite I realized how much I missed it here! We even had pre-Christmas with gifts from some of the girls moms, and we spent the night watching movies and catching up! I was even excited to sleep in my dorm bed! Sometime you have to go away so you remember why you like it coming here so much and this break did it for me! I will admit I cannot wait to actually go back home for the first time, and I am not thrilled to have to be studying for finals but we’re not in Kansas anymore and for now I am very much happy to be back to my college home with the girls of suite 404!

Finals are coming!

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This week has been very hectic because it is the last week of classes before finals.  Everyone has tests and papers due this week which makes for a bit of a stressful environment, but it is interesting to see how everyone handles it.  Personally I had a paper due right when we came back and that same day I had an oral presentation for English.  The next day I had homework and a quiz in math.  Wednesday was my last hectic day: I had a 10 minute french oral presentation that had to be completely memorized.  Over the week I de-stressed by going to an event put on by one of the RAs.  She had pumpkin muffins and cider, and we decorated things to put on our doors.  I got a lot of bows, but they were all red and I decided I needed some Jewish representation because I am Jewish too so I made a “Happy Hanukkah” sign for our door to go with the Christmas decorations.  My friend, Nicole, and I also decided to make masks to destress.  They are for the masquerade function being put on by Kappa.  I made three.  I like two of them and then the other I don’t think is the best, but someone else said they liked so ehh it’s good enough. :)   Nicole who had a test and a project due the day after we made the masks said they went great, and she feels really good about them.  I think while it’s important to power through the work don’t forget to take a bit of time for yourself to relax.  It’s been a good week overall!