Beautiful melodies drifted out of Walker Recital Hall this week as the D’Angelo Department of Music offered another brilliant faculty recital.

On Thursday, Jan. 14, at 8 p.m., Lydia Howery sang a program of art songs, accompanied by Dr. Shirley Yoo on piano. Howery is a member of the adjunct voice faculty, and Yoo is the assistant professor of piano in the Music Department.
Tyler Stauffer photo

Howery said that she tried to create a program that was made up of as many American Art Songs as possible. American Art Songs are compositions written by American artists for one voice with a piano or orchestral accompaniment. With her song choices and how she laid out her program, she also wanted to show the theme of the progression from birth to death.

Freshman Brittany Barko thought that Howery’s “choice of selection well portrayed her theme.”

Howery began her program with “A Simple Song” from Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass.” This piece also featured adjunct faculty member Anna Meyer on flute.

Next was a group of songs called “A Charm of Lullabies” by Benjamin Britten. This is a cycle of poems by poets such as William Blake and Thomas Randolph set to music by Britten.

The next piece was titled “Men with Small Heads” by Lori Laitman. These pieces were very comical, and even won an award for American Art Song in 2004.

After a short intermission, Howery performed a selection from a group of songs called “I Will Breathe a Mountain” by William Bolcom. This featured poems by poets such as Edna St. Vincent Millay set to music.

Howery then sang a few of the selections from Aaron Copeland’s cycle “Twelve Poems of Emily Dickenson.”

She ended the recital with “I Go On” from Bernstein’s “Mass.”
The audience seemed to enjoy Howery’s performance. Voice students in particular expressed an interest. Sophomore Christy Moore said that Howery had “very good vocal control. It was a very good learning experience.”