Classical vocal performance was not ‘plan A’ for three graduate students at Samford.
Rachel Boone, who graduated from Auburn in 2020 with a bachelor of arts degree, was originally seeking her undergrad in forensics. It took failing her forensics classes and receiving a friend’s suggestion to bring Boone into classical singing.
“I was like ‘Do you want to go grab lunch?’” said Boone. “We went and I was like ‘I don’t know what to do.’ That’s when she was like, ‘Well, do you enjoy singing?’”
This friend, Jordan Dark, was already in Auburn’s music program, after transferring from Troy to do biology and then failing her biology classes.
“I didn’t really know that people just sat around, singing 500-year-old music all the time,” said Dark. “Whenever I first called my mom that I was going to transfer from biology to vocal performance she said, ‘Well, I think that’s what God put you on this earth to do.”
Kalyne Henrichsen didn’t switch majors until her senior year at Oklahoma Baptist University, originally considering it a selfish major.
“As I kept getting involved and had professors pouring into me, I realized there are a lot of job opportunities,” said Henrichsen.
These three women all finished their undergraduate degrees in 2020 then took a gap-year before enrolling in Samford’s Master of Music in Vocal Performance Program.
“My voice when I got here wasn’t where it is now,” said Boone, who hadn’t taken a voice lesson until her degree-switch in 2018.
Boone sang in “Amahl and the Night Visitors” in 2022.
“Rachel got into the big production first year… then I got into what I thought was going to be the more chill… musical workshop of a new opera by these composers from New York, ‘Dragon’s Breath,’” said Dark. “It was the hardest music I had ever tried to learn.”
After working on the music for over a year, though, Dark was recast in the same role for the full opera of “Dragon’s Breath” last fall. She and Henrichsen doubled the same part, as the mom and her alter-ego, Somi.
Henrichsen has experienced personal growth as a vocalist through her various experiences at Samford.
“The full-fledged production takes most of your life,” said Henrichsen.
“It really grows you in your acting skills because you’re doing multiple parts at once.”
While growing in her collaborative skills through the opera, Henrichsen has seen growth in her creative process through developing her graduate recital.
“I went down this rabbit trail of nightingales… They always represent similar themes,” said Henrichsen.
She’s taking inspiration from Oscar Wilde’s poem, “The Nightingale and the Rose.”
“My professors have been really supportive in helping me do something unconventional,” she said.
Each of the six vocal performance graduates and one piano performance graduate will also perform a graduate recital, allowing them to take creative liberties and perform their favorite pieces.
“I have this one that I’ve kind of built up since I was in undergrad,” said Dark. “It’s from ‘La Bohéme’ by Puccini… I am going to sing it for my recital, it’s my first song,” said Dark.
“When I was younger, my teacher told me, ‘You can’t sing this till you 25.’ Now I’m 26, so I do get to sing it.”
Dark divided her recital up into three sections: love, loss and longing. Within the sections she’s including music by composer Lili Boulanger, Aaron Copeland, as well as “Maria” from “West Side Story” and the hymn, “In the Garden.”
After these three women wrap up their master’s degrees, they all plan on staying in Birmingham.
“I really like performing,” said Boone. “And then also like the production aspect… like backstage and then like stage management… I really enjoy that, so I just want to somehow be involved in productions even if I’m not singing.”
Originally from Minneapolis, Minn., Henrichsen plans on continuing to teach voice and piano to her students at Dawson Music Academy.
“It’s one thing to be a performer and perform your craft and then turn around and teach it to someone else,” said Henrichsen.
Dark also teaches in Birmingham, teaching voice lessons at Mason Music in Cahaba Heights.
“My plans right now are to take a break,” said Dark. “I think I’m going to take a break and then I’m going to go get my doctorate, but for now I’m going to… teach for a little while in Birmingham.”
The dates for the seven graduate students’ recitals can be found on the Samford Opera Instagram page.
