Kelly Collins ’21 wowed the audience in Wellin Hall with her junior voice recital on Sunday, Oct. 27 at 3 p.m. With accompaniment from Hamilton Staff Pianist Tina Toglia, and featured cello accompaniment from Stephanie Wu ’21, Collins showcased a wide array of musical genres in her program. These included Italian arias to twentieth century American musical theater.
Collins began with “Come l’allodoletta,” an early twentieth century Italian song by Stefano Donaudy, whose title translated means “like the little skylark.” The song, and Collins’s delivery, was hauntingly beautiful and captivated the audience.
Collins, in Italian, sang Mozart’s “Deh vieni, non tardar” from his 1786 opera
Le Nozze de Figaro
(
The Marriage of Figaro
). The song began conversational, with a recitative, and moved into an expressive aria. Collins’s ability to move seamlessly between these two styles of singing was impressive. Although Collins is a soprano, “Deh vieni, non tardar” showcased her strong low range. She described the song as “the most fun to sing, because it’s an operatic fun piece that has this beginning that’s super different than the end of it.”
Collins then moved to the German portion of the program with Brahms’s “Wie Melodien zieht es mir” (1866). The song, whose title translates to “Like melodies it pervades me,” is enchanting and Collins’s performance was enticing.
Continuing in German, Collins sang another of Brahms works, “Dein Blaues Age” (1873). The song’s text was written by poet Klaus Johann Groth, who also wrote the text of “Wie Melodien zieht es mir.” The pain, hurt, and passion in Groth’s poem was evident in Collins’s performance as her facial expressions and vocal inflections mirrored the song’s shift to a minor key.
Next, Collins moved to English with American composer Samuel Barber’s “Sure On This Shining Night” (1940). Collins’s clear tone on the song’s powerful high notes resonated through Wellin Hall, for a chill-inducing effect. Toglia’s lovely piano echo of the vocal line also shone through in this song.
Collins then sung “Spinning Song” (1976) by Hub Miller. Written for Miller’s family friends who were weavers, the song’s text tells the story of their daily struggles and the music reflects the spinning wheel that they used. Collins showed her excellent abilities as a storyteller in her performance. She also noted that “Spinning Song” was her one of her most challenging songs. Collins said, “It was a really difficult one to memorize, because it changes and it’s super long, and it’s very vocally taxing. Especially towards the end, it gets really high in my register and it’s just a lot of sustained jumps.” However, Collins overcame these challenges with her remarkable vocal agility.
Collins then shifted into the musical theater portion of the program with “Dream With Me” from Leonard Bernstein’s musical adaptation of
Peter Pan
(1950). This piece was a trio with Collins, Toglia, and Wu on cello. The music was warm and inviting, and the three worked together in perfect harmony. Wu’s cello solo section was stunning.
Collins’s program ended with “Yes, My Heart” (1961) from the musical
Carnival
by Bob Merrill and Michael Stuart. Collins’s energy in this song was infectious as she portrayed a character expressing her bubbly excitement to begin a new life with the man she loves. The song ends on a sustained high note on which Collins delivered strongly.
After rapturous applause, Collins left the stage and returned with an encore: “Vanilla Ice Cream” from Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s 1963 musical,
She Loves Me
. The song is playful, as the character reflects on the gift of vanilla ice cream that she received from a friend after being stood up on a date. Collins’s impressive abilities as an actress, as well as a vocalist, were evident in this character piece. Once again, the song ended with a high note on which Collins did not disappoint.
Music has surrounded Collins throughout her whole life. Her dad would always sing around her house and her brother grew up playing many instruments, though no one in her family has ever played music professionally. Collins first joined her school choir in middle school. She continued in high school, where her teachers noticed her talent and suggested that she should get formal training. Collins was interested in classical singing and contacted a retired opera singer who she trained with for three years in high school. Collins also participated in musical theater productions throughout middle school and high school and was a member of New Hampshire’s All-State Choir.
At Hamilton, Collins is a creative writing concentrator and music minor. She sings with the Hamilton College Choir, College Hill Singers, and the Hamiltones, Hamilton’s oldest all-gender a cappella group.
Collins began preparing for the recital over the summer, selecting repertoire from her high school vocal studies as well as suggestions from Kay Paulsen, her voice teacher on the Hill. Collins and Paulsen crafted her program in the style of standard recital. Collins said “[Paulsen] described it as putting together a meal. You start with a little bit of an appetizer, with light Italian pieces. Then, you get more to the meat with things like German and classical English. Towards the end, it’s more like dessert with [musical theater songs] like ‘Vanilla Ice Cream,’ literally dessert!”
Reflecting on the recital, Collins most enjoyed having her family and friends, some of whom had never heard her sing classically before, come to support her. She also appreciated the opportunity to showcase her vocal work in a solo setting, as most of her performances at Hamilton are with ensembles. Collins praised her accompanist: “Working with Tina was awesome. She’s super willing to just sit there and be like ‘Yeah! We’ll go through that part another four times!’” Collins would like to thank Toglia, along with Paulsen, advisor of her recital, Professor Rob Hopkins, Wu and her cello teacher, Sue Beevers, and her parents, family, and friends for their constant support.
