The Eureka College Music Department took 4 students to NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) on the weekend of October 25th in Columbia, Missouri. Dr.Adriana Martinez, Associate Professor of Music at Eureka College, has taken students to the competition for years now, and this year the department had 4 students competing in vocal performance. Those students were Baylor Cluver (Senior), Janessa Cornell (Senior), Katherine Fontaine (Junior), and Tay Gammon (Senior). This year, the NATS competition named three semi-finalists from Eureka (Cluver, Cornell, and Fontaine), and of the three, Cluver advanced to the final round, earning 3rd place. The Eureka College Music department has never had more than two singers advance to the semi-finals until this year and has also never had a finalist in the upper musical theatre category, which makes this year the most successful NATS experience that the music department has ever had.
The competition consists of vocal performances and students from lllinois, Iowa, and Missouri, and while everyone is there to compete against each other, the atmosphere remains friendly and supportive.
“My favorite part of NATS thus far was the atmosphere and environment. While it is a competition (and I am a very competitive individual), I love feeling the energy in the room and through the hallways and quads of these college campuses and seeing the pure joy everyone shares in performing music. Even though there is a rivalry component between us, it is also super unifying. There is a real community here, and I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of it!” Cluver said.
Dr.Martinez always takes 4 students to NATS, but this is the first year in the past few that she has taken only treble voices. Dr.Martinez loves bringing students because it helps them develop skills outside of just vocal performance, by being in an audition setting, dealing with nerves, and being able to receive constructive feedback in a positive way. “It is a wonderful experience for students who attend because they get to perform for and receive written feedback from a panel of judges. It is a format that students will experience repeatedly in their careers, to walk into an unknown space and have a brief time to perform their best for unknown people. It can be nerve-racking but the more we do it the easier it gets. It can be humbling but also inspiring. The feedback from the judges helps reinforce the work we do here and gives folks a sense of what they need to be working on to get to the next level.” While making it to the next round, or going to the finals is a great bonus, the competition is so much more than that, and with Eureka being a small school without a huge music department, there are not a lot of opportunities for our school to hear singers from bigger schools, which is another great aspect surrounding NATS.
“My goal is for students to feel confident in what they can do and go out there and have fun performing in a new setting. If a person’s emotions are moved by our performance, even in that setting, we have done our job. I just want folks to share their talent with a new audience, and to come back with new goals and a renewed sense of what they want to work on for the future.”
The competition is split up between a classical, and a musical theatre category, and all students are split up based on how many semesters of voice lessons they have been a part of. Students who have been in 4 or less semesters of voice sing 3 songs for the competition, while students who have taken more than 4 semesters sing 4 songs. Gammon and Cornell competed in the classical category, while Cluver and Fontaine competed in musical theatre. The weekend was a momentous success as we had the most semi-finalists the music department has ever had, and Cluver was the first performer to earn a spot in the finals competing in the upper musical theatre category. The music department would also like to say a huge thank you to Caleb Wayman, the accompanist who puts countless hours into enriching the music department for all sorts of events.
If you would like to show your support for the Eureka College music department, please save the following dates, and tell your friends!
Friday, December 6th at 7pm- Holiday Cabaret (Terrill Rooms)
Wednesday, December 11th at 2pm – Studio Recital (McCallister)
