Vocalist to present guest recital

Northwestern College will host a recital featuring guest vocalist Michelle Crouch on Saturday, Nov. 21, at 7:30 p.m. in Christ Chapel. The public is invited to attend this free concert.

Crouch, who is originally from Alberta, Canada, has performed throughout Canada, most notably with Early Music Voices and Voicescapes in Calgary and at the intensive Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute in Toronto. An accomplished soprano, she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Alberta at Edmonton, studying voice under Eva Bostrand. She was on the faculty of a small college for 10 years, where she was in charge of the vocal area and taught theory and musicianship courses.

Crouch is currently in the process of completing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in voice performance and pedagogy at the University of Iowa and is involved in two projects with the University of Iowa’s Center for New Music. Crouch has a strong piano background and a love for language and is passionate about cultivating music literacy among singers.

Her recital, entitled “Confessions,” will consist of five selections. Crouch will be accompanied on the piano by Seong-Sil Kim. Crouch will begin by singing a collection of lullabies from Australian composer Greenbaum’s Three Songs of Sleep, which was composed in 1998. Next will be Francis Poulenc’s Cinq poèmes de Max Jacob. Poulenc’s songs are composed in the French literary song tradition, and Jacob’s poems feature the speaker as a 12-year-old girl dealing with preteen female angst.

Also in the program will be excerpts from Schubert’s Lieder, which could also be titled Courtship Confessions, and text from Augustine’s Confessions that has been selected and set to music by Dr. Luke Dahn, assistant professor of music at Northwestern. The concert will close with two selections from John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan.