The Collegio Pittsburg's student voice since 1916
Thomas Deane performed his senior voice recital on Tuesday before beginning his last semester in Spring where he will begin student teaching to complete his degree at Pittsburg State.
Thomas Deane, senior in vocal education from Shawnee, KS, started at 7:30 pm on Tuesday in the Sharon Kay Dean Recital Hall in McCray Hall. His performance included pieces such as “Madamina, il catalogo e questo” from Don Giovanni by Mozart, “L’horizon chimerique” by Gabriel Faure, “Liederkreis” by Robert Schumann, and “Down East in Flanders Fields” by Charles Ives.
Deane began his music experience singing solos and in choirs since he was young. He began in church choirs then moved into school choirs and solos moving into middle and high school.
“I chose to do this because I always wanted to teach and be involved with that part of the education setting,” Deane said. “But I didn’t know what I wanted to teach. So going through high school and beginning college, that kinda helped me learn this is right for me.”
Jung Hee Lee, performer accompanist, played the piano with Deane’s performance.
“Tom is my previous student, when he was a freshman here…,” Lee said. “This is the last vocal performance for him, so he will graduate”
Deane said last week’s Fall Break caused worry with the recital, but he still felt good with the results.
“I felt really good about it,” Deane said. “Going into it, there were a few pieces that I was a little worried about because of the break last week, so I had a week off not practicing much. But once I got into the groove of the performance they all went very well and I feel very happy about them.”
Patrick Howle, professor of voice and opera, helped Deane pick the music for the vocal recital.
“A lot of the pieces that I chose were chosen over the course of a couple years,” Deane said. “I’ve been working on the aria, the first piece, for almost two years now. The other pieces were a little bit newer, but I collaborated with my professor, Mr. Howle to kind of pick pieces that fit my voice and also that I liked and had a connection to the text. So a lot of the pieces I sang, I sang because I liked the text or the meaning behind them, so that’s why I chose them.”
Hunter Jacobs, junior in music education, also attended the recital.
“I’ve known Tom for a few years, I’m actually in the honors college with him,” Jacobs said. “He was the person who kinda introduced me to the whole thing, so it was great to see him performing at his best. He sounded great, fantastic, and it was great to hear a good culmination to his career here.”
Deane wants to move into the classroom as soon as possible, he has a tentative placement for student teaching next semester.
“I feel pretty good about (graduating),” Deane said. “I feel a lot better about it than I used to. Last semester, obviously, everybody was having a rough time getting through that and making sure I have everything ready to go did kinda ease my mind about the whole process, so I’m looking forward to it.”