Bethel Per­form­ers Pre­pare for Recital Sea­son

MISHAWAKA--Recital sea­son is some­thing most per­form­ers look for­ward to. It will be stress­ful, and it causes anx­i­ety, but it sums many ex­pe­ri­ences for se­niors as they look to­ward their fu­ture ca­reers, whether they be per­for­mance or ed­u­ca­tion.  

Megan MeGe­hee, a dou­ble ma­jor in the­atre arts and gen­eral mu­sic, has the first recital hap­pen­ing in this sea­son. She will kick off with a smor­gas­bord of mu­si­cal the­atre songs, some as so­los and some as duets. She says she feels good about the recital even though she did not have much time to re­hearse with the oth­ers in­volved be­cause of quar­an­ti­ning and be­ing iso­lated last se­mes­ter. She is look­ing for­ward to singing “For Good” from the show “Wicked” with her friends.  

“It wraps up my time at Bethel re­ally nicely,” McGe­hee said. 

The McGe­hee Recital is hap­pen­ing on Fri­day, Feb. 5, at 7:30 p.m. in Ever­est-Rohrer Au­di­to­rium. 

The sec­ond recital be­longs to Bran­don Slabaugh, a gui­tar per­for­mance ma­jor. He loves the del­i­cate stylings of clas­si­cal gui­tar and the flare it can ig­nite in lis­ten­ers.  

“All the ef­fort and work that was put in last year will bring a pay­check, if you will,” Slabaugh said. 

He is most look­ing for­ward to play­ing “The Girl from Ipanema” in his recital. He loves hav­ing a group of peo­ple to play with, es­pe­cially for jazz tunes. The Slabaugh Recital is hap­pen­ing on Fri­day, Feb. 19, at 7:30 p.m. in Kelly Au­di­to­rium. 

McKenna Liebenow, a per­cus­sion per­for­mance ma­jor, has the third slot in the up­com­ing recitals. She will be do­ing sev­eral marimba pieces in­clud­ing a piece with has nine­teen in­stru­ments to play. She says she feel pre­pared be­cause of all the work she put in dur­ing the pre­vi­ous sum­mer break and win­ter break. This is a step­ping­stone for her as she pre­pares to go for her grad­u­ate stud­ies for per­cus­sion. The piece she is most look­ing for­ward to play­ing is “Cold Pressed.” 

“There’s a bunch of dif­fer­ent move­ments, there’s nine­teen in­stru­ments, a lot of dif­fer­ent styles, and even a cou­ple of dif­fer­ent mal­let choices, so it should be re­ally cool,” Liebenow said. 

The Liebenow Recital is hap­pen­ing on Sat­ur­day, Feb. 20, at 3 p.m. in Ever­est-Rohrer Au­di­to­rium.  

Re­bekah Scott, a pi­ano per­for­mance ma­jor, has the fi­nal recital of the sea­son. She will per­form an ar­ray of pi­ano styles. She says she feels con­fi­dant, but ac­knowl­edges she still has work to do. She must mem­o­rize half of the recital per her in­struc­tor’s re­quest; she is work­ing on mak­ing that hap­pen. She has trou­ble with choos­ing which one is her fa­vorite. 

“I like all the ones I’m do­ing, but I would say Chopin’s Noc­turne in d flat ma­jor,” Scott said. “It’s re­ally pretty.” 

The Scott Recital is hap­pen­ing on Fri­day, March 12, at 7:30 p.m. in Ever­est-Rohrer Au­di­to­rium.