Photo by: Henoc Kivuye
With graduation around the corner, students from all majors are busy presenting their undergraduate work. For music majors this means a senior recital to showcase songs and styles of composers they have studied throughout their college career.
This year the music department is hosting recitals for seniors Leah Graefe and Kalee Floyd. Though each will pursue a different career path, both have found a love for music, and their respected recitals reflect their passion and knowledge.
Floyd, an interdisciplinary studies major, has been involved with the music department since starting her career at Oklahoma Christian University. Aside from that participation, she also sings for New Reign and is a part of the Oklahom Christian Chorale on campus.
“I have been doing a lot of music things; music has always been a passion of mine,” Floyd said. “[The recital] is kind of like my last hoo-rah, the last big thing I am getting to do before I graduate.”
Due to Floyd’s interdisciplinary studies degree, a final senior project or capstone presentation was not necessarily required for the completion of her studies. Because of her involvement with the music department during her time on campus, Floyd was granted a recital as her senior project.
“For me, my situation is different from others,” Floyd said. “I have been involved in the music department since I got here and came in with the intent to be a music education major but didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do yet. For music education and music performance majors, a recital is required. For me being interdisciplinary studies, there is not really any good way for me to have a final capstone project because the areas of studies differ from person to person. My roommate suggested I do a senior recital, and even though I was not a music major I get to put on a junior recital.”
Though Floyd is able to perform a recital, her requirements were a little different from that of a normal music major’s recital. Graefe, a music major, will have the traditional recital.
“I decided to be a music major after I spent my senior year working with the Head Start program at my high school, teaching music,” Graefe said. “I loved giving these kids something that does not cost money, that they can always share to bless others and themselves. Music communicates in a way that speaks through every culture, history, and even opens avenues of communication to those with limited communication skills. It is an invaluable gift and it is a joy to share.”
A recital is an opportunity to show off the work of the senior music majors, but according to Graefe, it is much more than that.
“A senior recital is usually a 45-minute to an hour-long performance displaying various styles and skills that the student has learned through their repertoire,” Graefe said. “Often students try to have some contrast, including music from the different eras, which will display different skill sets, and sometimes students will try to have a theme.”
Graefe went on to explain the details behind a recital.
“Generally recitals are performed on one instrument, but occasionally students will perform with multiple instruments on one recital,” Graefe said. “For example, I was considering doing a half-piano, half-vocal recital, because my focus is in both of these areas. Beyond that, there is a hearing that the students must pass before receiving permission to perform their recital, then just a lot of preparing programs, notes and posters, pulling things together to come off very formal, and organizing a reception.”
Both Floyd and Graefe have spent countless hours throughout the course of their college career rehearsing and learning, but both recognize that their recitals would not be plausible without the help of teachers, and even more importantly teachers who have become more like mentors. Graefe has found knowledge and advice in Chair and Professor of Music Kathy Thompson.
“Dr. Thompson has been a true mentor to me,” Graefe said. “She has always been real with me about where I am academically, acknowledging and encouraging me in my successes, and helping me excel even when it is a struggle for us both. More than that, she is constant in her expectations of me as a student, but she is aware of and concerned with other aspects of my life, spiritual, mental, physical, etc.”
Graefe said that mentors allow students to push themselves to new limits.
“One of the things I am most grateful for about Dr. Thompson is that when I am stubborn she has allowed me to push myself sometimes to places where I had to fail, but she was there when I had to get back up again and learn from the experience in a way that I feel blessed by the growth and better for what I learned,” Graefe said. “She is someone I admire and I trust.”
Floyd has also found musical guidance from her mentors, but has also experienced spiritual guidance and mentorship as well.
“[Both my accompanist Susan Mogilka and my voice teacher Celeste Dvorak] are just wonderful Christian women and have been there for me throughout my career,” Floyd said. “At some point in my college career I was in this slump of not knowing what I wanted to do and sometimes whenever I would go to a lesson we would spend the majority of the time venting or just talking about things I was doing in my life. Celeste and Susan both gave me feedback on anything.”
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