Eight current and former lyric theatre students from New Mexico State University competed at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque for the state’s annual Vocal Artistry Art Song Festival “Das Lied” on Nov. 1.
Two students from NMSU won top places. Grace Garcia-Rivera won first place, followed by Olivia Chavez in second place, both winning in the Music Ed division. Garcia-Rivera performed the songs ‘Die Soldatenbraut’ by Robert Schubert and ‘To Daisies’ by Roger Quilter. Chavez performed ‘Die Mainacht’ by Johannes Brahms and ‘There are Fairies at the Bottom of our Garden’ by Liza Lehman. The winners were rewarded with scholarship money, with Garcia-Rivera taking $1,000 and Chavez taking $500.
This year’s theme for the competition was German art songs, hence its second name “Das Lied,” which means “The Song” in German. Voice Instructor Sarah Neely said the themes of each year dictate the language the participants would sing in.
“Each student had to prepare one German art song and then a second art song that could have been from any language or style. For example, one year, it was an Italian theme where each student had to sing specifically an Italian art song,” Neely said.
Neely also explained although it’s similar to other related arts like choir, opera, and theatre, lyric theatre is still unique.
“The Lyric Theatre program used to be called the Opera Workshop,” Neely said. “So, it is primarily opera based, but it is different from choir, which is a vocal ensemble. What we do is take and put together scenes from operas and operettas, so that students get solos, duets, and trios to sing as opportunities to hold their own instead of performing in a large group. Then there is acting, there’s costumes, some of which are from the show we did last time. Prop pieces, the blocking, and all that. It is a culmination of all sorts of different stage craft skills that you do not necessarily use in ensembles.”
Garcia-Rivera described practice for these types of performances as “physically demanding” and like “training a horse.”
“A lot of it is just training your breathing. You must know your languages too, and our work involves acting with your voice and expression. As you are working on your technique, you also need to consider how such techniques will be reflected artistically,” Garcia-Rivera said.
Chavez found NMSU’s victory at Das Lied not only a major accomplishment for them as students, but for the entire university as well.
“In the past, we haven’t had a lot of participants from NMSU,” Chavez said. “There are often a lot of participants from UNM and Eastern New Mexico University. So honestly, having our school represented in Albuquerque and actually winning and doing good was a big achievement for us. Especially as it gets people to take us more seriously as a school for music.”
