Senior Chaylee McAdams performs senior voice recital

Senior Chaylee McAdams took the stage for her senior recital, culminating her studies of vocal performance and music education at URI. PHOTO CREDIT: Greg Clark | Staff Photographer

With the academic year quickly coming to an end, senior recitals are in full swing at the Fine Arts Center.

This past Sunday, senior music education major Chaylee McAdams performed her senior recital. McAdams said she has been working towards this final performance throughout her four years at the University.

The entire show was accompanied by a lecturer in collaborative piano, David Gilliland on the piano.

McAdam’s performance consisted of main sections sung in three different languages. The first section, performed in English, were selections from “Seven Elizabethan Songs” including “My Life’s Delight”, “The Faithless Shepherdess”, “Brown is My Love” and “By a Fountainside.”

“I practice anywhere from a half an hour to an hour every single day,” McAdam’s said. “It could be full out singing, reading the words, listening to the music or translating.”

The second section of the performance was sung in Spanish. The piece was called “Cuatro madrigales amatorios” which includes “¿Con qué la lavaré?”, “Vos me matásteis”, “¿ De dónde venís, amore?”, and “De los álamos vendo, madre” by Joaqin Rodrigo.

For the next selection, she said that she was determined to showcase her best friend Jessenia Grijalva on the violin.

“The violin and the soprano voice are almost equal in the music world, so there are not many pieces for both,” McAdams said. 

The selection she decided to sing from was “Five Hebrew Love Songs” by Eric Whitacre. The piece includes songs titled “Temuná (A Picture)”, “Kalá Kalá (Light Bride)”, “Laróv (Mostly)”, “ Éyze Sheleg! (What Show!)” and “Rakút (Tenderness).” This selection was sung entirely in Hebrew which she learned for this piece. 

Freshman music education major Kaylee Arnold, a fellow student in class with Chaylee, had the opportunity to usher at the performance.

“I have seen her perform this a couple of times now and I have to say my favorite part was seeing the final picture of how everything turned out and seeing the final picture,” she said. “I also loved the violin solo, it was perfect”

The final song listed in the program was “Papageno-Papagena”, a duet from “The Magic Flute.” In addition to McAdams, the duet featured Sean Connaughton, a junior music education major, in a baritone voice. Both voices complemented one another well with good balance.

After this performance, McAdams returned to the stage one last time to perform “Let It Go” from Frozen. 

“Ending the show with a Frozen song is very Chaylee of her,” Arnold said.

Chaylee plans to graduate after she finishes student teaching this December. She said that her goal after graduation is to work for Walt Disney World as a performer or in human relations. According to Chaylee, if she does pursue teaching, she would like to work in an inner-city school to use her knowledge of Spanish and music to inspire students.