In the fall semester of every year, Baldwin Wallace Music Theatre juniors and seniors perform their recitals, showcasing their musical talent and creativity by producing an individual production.
The junior recital is the first in-person recital for BWMT students, and students choose either to perform a solo recital or duet with another student. Usually performed in the Conservatory of Music, these recitals give students the opportunity to sing for family and friends said junior music theatre student Kat Murphy.
“It’s kind of a culmination of everything you’ve gotten to learn and explore in your time at BW, and then you get to showcase yourself … coming into a new space as my own,” Murphy said.
Murphy performed her recital on Nov. 10 in Fynes Hall, being one of the first juniors to do so. She said this experience was very nerve-wracking because she would serve as an example to her fellow students about how to perform a junior recital. But in the end, she said she enjoyed being able to sing around the people she cares about.
“I just think Junior recital is so much fun,” Murphy said. “It’s such an exciting thing to finally showcase yourself on a stage in front of the people that you’ve worked with because we all get to see each other be in a show and singing in a show, but you get to watch someone sing pieces that really mean something to them.”
Murphy said her favorite piece to sing was “I Am Cherry Alive” by Ricky Ian Gordon, which she sang for the Hakola Vocal Competition in early October. Though thinking it difficult when she first received the song last year, Murphy said she quickly had to re-learn it for the competition and loved it.
“Just like having to learn it that fast, I fell in love with it,” Murphy said. “It just makes me so happy, and it’s so childish and playful. It’s just a really fun song to sing.”
The next major recital for BWMT students comes during the fall of their senior year, where the seniors must produce, direct and perform in their own 30-minute filmed recital that will stream on BWMT’s YouTube channel.
The seniors choose songs that showcase the talents and skills they have learned in their four years at BW, and they have full creative control of the production design and sound editing.
Senior music theatre student Jared Guerrasio said that students can begin filming whenever they want, and the students will take their pre-recorded audio mixes in GarageBand and overlap it with their videos.
“I think the best part of this recital is the creative freedom that we have because it’s not in a recital hall, where it’s just an hour in an evening,” Guerrasio said. “We have time to prepare videos like full cinematic videos wherever we want. You can get multiple tapes of whatever you’d like and edit them together in a way that makes you stand out.”
The seniors also create their own special effects and lighting. Senior music theatre student, Noah Roderiques, said that having the freedom to create exciting scenes and transitions was an enjoyable process.
“You basically become your own production team,” Roderiques said. “You’re not just acting, you’re also designing your sets, you’re also designing the lighting. All of that stuff goes into it and shows off who you really are as a creative.”
Roderiques said his senior recital, “Send in the Clown,” is a very joyful production representing his love of laughter. Each song’s production is stylized differently, and Roderiques had fun editing his recital and showing off those skills. He said his two favorite songs in the recital are “Music for a Sushi Restaurant” by Harry Styles and “For Forever” from “Dear Evan Hansen.”
“I love making people laugh, and I love kind of being a positive light,” Roderiques said. “A lot of the songs are funny and goofy, and that’s kind of what it’s based around, but most of them are very positive songs.”
Guerrasio approached his recital, “Dare to Dream (or Don’t),” by choosing music, which, he said, showed off his talent and flowed together to create a storyline. Like some other seniors, he collaborated with another student for one of his songs, “The Other Side” from “The Greatest Showman.” Another of Guerrasio’s favorite songs in the recital is “Epiphany” from “Sweeny Todd.”
“For my recital, I want to have a clear storyline throughout it,” Guerrasio said. “So, I took songs from other musicals, and I connected them together in a way to have fluid plot throughout my songs.”
Describing his overall experience, Guerrasio said that he appreciated having the opportunity to learn how to mix his audio and put together an entire production. He said that he knows this experience will be very beneficial in the future.
“Recording audio and trying to balance it in GarageBand is definitely one of the biggest struggles, especially songs with harmonies,” Guerrasio said. “But the best part is we learned how to do this in this project and mix our audio, so in future for maybe self-tapes or auditions, we have that skill set to make us more marketable.”
With the BWMT seniors nearing graduation, they will move on to the next step toward their future: the annual senior showcase.
“BW is a great place and you learn a ton of things from this program,” Roderiques said. “I think a lot of us can kind of look at our recital, step back and go, ‘Yeah, we did that. We have that ability. We have that talent.’ And we can finally get to see it on a screen, which is really cool.”
Senior recitals will stream from Nov. 29-Dec. 2 on the BWMT YouTube channel. Guerrassio’s recital will stream on Nov. 29 at 6:30 p.m., and Roderiques’ recital will stream on Nov. 30 at 6:30 p.m.
