As memorable as the honors recital was, it wasn’t quite as dramatic for me as the recital which came right after it… the senior recital of a very special voice student of mine named Matt Weiskotten. When he transferred to Carthage several years ago and began studying voice with me soon after, his main idea of great singing came from Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley- his musical idols. . . and it was hard to imagine a day when Matt would be excited about singing the songs of Schubert.
But in fact Matt proved to be an open and enthusiastic student almost right from the start, and willing to tackle anything I threw in his path. Gradually he came to embrace as well the new ideas of singing that I was introducing to him, although I’m sure a lot of them were completely bewildering at first. (He was as bewildered as I would be if I ever decided to take voice lessons at the Dolly Parton Academy of Country Twang.) And before long, Matt was earning what my voice teacher at Luther, David Greedy, called the Green Apple Award for most improved student.
Earlier this semester, Matt surprised me with the news that he was hoping to graduate in May (because he was a transfer, I had sort of lost track of where he was in his studies at Carthage) . . . and that he wanted his senior project to be a full-fledged voice recital. Gulp. For all of his great improvement, he was still such a newcomer to this kind of singing and it was a little bit hard to imagine such a thing. But he had his heart set on it, and I knew that he would work as hard on it as any voice student of mine has ever worked, so I said he could do it.
We were so late with this decision that all of the prime time recital time slots were already taken, but we were able to secure a spot on Sunday afternoon, not long after the honors recital finished. And as the date approached, I was delighted (and actually not at all surprised) by how well he had learned all of his songs. My only fear was that in the intimidating setting of a formal recital, in front of an audience of his peers, he might freeze up or revert to the Johnny Cash-isms and Elvis Presley-isms that we had worked so hard to expunge from his vocalism. (That’s fine when you’re singing “You ain’t nothin‘ but a hound dog” but not so much for “Du bist wie eine Blume.”)
But neither Johnny Cash nor Elvis Presley paid a visit Sunday afternoon. Instead, it was Matt Weiskotten all the way, singing so nicely and assuredly. He opened with two songs by Kurt Weill (“September Song” and “Lost in the Stars”) – sang three of the famous early Italian songs that just about every voice student sings (“Per la Gloria” “O del mio dolce ardor” “Che fiero costume”) – three songs by Robert Schumann (“Du bist wie eine Blume” “Widmung” and “Mondnacht”)- three songs by John Jacob Niles (“The Lass from the Low Countree” “Gambler Don’t You Lose Your Place” and “Black is the Color of my True Love’s Hair”) – and finally “It is Enough” from Mendelssohn’s Elijah. This was not exactly a walk in the park; this was a challenging program, especially for someone so new to this arena. But Matt sang very well- and was awarded at the end by a heartfelt standing ovation from the audience.
By the way, the only snag in the whole afternoon was when we realized right beforehand that Matt had forgotten to bring his music along. . . which meant that I got to play basically the entire recital from memory. (I just happened to have “It is Enough” with me.) It was scary but it also made the success of it all just that much sweeter.
After it was all done, Matt and I exchanged a long bear hug- and he gave me a gift as well as one of the most beautiful thank you notes I’ve ever received in all my life. But for as much as I appreciated all of those lovely gestures, the very best gift of all was watching this Elvis fan sing a tender love song by Robert Schumann with such feeling and beauty. You see that with your own eyes, see that with your own ears, and you realize All Thing Are Possible.
pictured above: The audience gives Matt a standing ovation at the end of his senior recital.