Shorter student wins state voice performance competition

Rachel Roby, a senior vocal performance major at Shorter College, won the Georgia Music Teachers Association Young Artist Voice Competition held this past weekend at the University of Georgia. Roby will now advance to the regional competition at Virginia State. A native of Shelby, N.C., Roby said the win came as a surprise to her. “I was also equally excited because I had participated in the competition last year and gotten an honorable mention.” A lot of hard work goes into the performance, Roby said. A minimum of eight songs, or about 25 minutes worth of music, must be prepared for the competition. Roby, who studies under Shorter’s Associate Professor of Music, Opera Director and Vocal Coordinator Dr. Linda Lister, sang several songs, including  "Unvoca poco fa" from Gioachino Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, “Rastlose Liebe” by Franz Schubert, “As Imperceptibly As Grief” by Andre Previn and  “Lift Me Into Heaven Slowly,” by Libby Larsen.

Two other Shorter College students also received high markings at the competition. In the Young Artist Piano Competition, student Thomas Williams, from Temple, Ga., was selected as first alternate, and Christian Bigliani, from Bogota, Colombia, was awarded honorable mention. Both are students of Shorter’s Professor of Music Mary Ann Knight.

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