FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                              April 11, 2005 

SENIOR RECITAL TO BE PRESENTED BY ESTHER HOUGHAM 

            Mezzo-soprano Esther Hougham of Carbonado, Wash., will present her senior recital at 3 p.m., Sunday, April 17, in Room 200 of the Fine Arts Building at Northwestern Oklahoma State University.

            Hougham, a student of Dr. Aija Shrader, assistant professor of music, will be accompanied by Charla Parker on piano. The recital is free and the public is invited to attend.

            The recital consists of American contemporary compositions for stage and concert. Jason Paris will join Hougham for a scene from Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. “An Elizabethan Songbook,” written by Eric Ewazen, consists of four duets for mezzo and tenor and will be sung by Hougham and tenor Kevin Kerr.

            Hougham and soprano Jillian Bartow will sing “As Summer Brings a Wistful Breeze” from the opera The Ghosts of Versailles by John Corigliano. The recital will end with “to this we’ve come” from Gian Carlo Menotti’s opera, The Consul.

            While at Northwestern, Hougham has been named to the vice president’s and president’s honor rolls. She has been a member of the Concert Choir, University Chorale, University Singers, Studio Singers and served as president of the Phi Delta Music Society. She has competed in the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) collegiate auditions, placing third at state level.

            A participant in Evening of Song concerts and Swing Cabaret, Hougham also participated in Opera Workshop productions. She played one of the wards in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, Public Opinion in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, Dorabella in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte and, most recently, Fatima in Gluck’s The Cadi Outwitted. During the summer of 2004, Hougham reprised her role as Public Opinion at the Opera in the Ozarks.

-NW-  

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