Jessica Burkey, mezzo-soprano and assistant professor of music at Lynchburg College, will present a faculty recital on Thursday, February 28, at 7:30 p.m. in Sydnor Performance Hall, Elliot & Rosel Schewel Hall. Appearing with her will be guest artist Fabian Jimenez Herra, pianist, from Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana.
The program will feature works by Joseph Haydn, Gioacchino Rossini, Franz Liszt, and Libby Larson, one of America's most prolific and most performed living composers. The event is free and open to the public.
A native of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Jessica Burkey is completing a doctor of arts degree in music and vocal performance from Ball State University where she served as graduate assistant in the opera and voice departments, as well as the opera outreach coordinator. Her operatic roles include Dorabella in Mozart's Cosi fan Tutti, Tisbe in Rossini's La Cenerentola, Second Lady in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, and Kate Pinkerton in Puccini's Madame Butterfly.
A frequent soloist with local and regional orchestras in Indiana and Virginia, she has performed Vivaldi's Gloria with the First Christian Church Orchestra of Lynchburg, Handel's Messiah with the Lynchburg College Choral Union and Festival Orchestra, Mahler's Lieder eines farenden Gesellen with the Ball State Symphony Orchestra, and Bach's Magnificat with the Warsaw Indiana Symphony Orchestra.
Her recent academic accomplishments include presenting her research on Bellini and Bel Canto, as well as vocal music related to war, at the 2005 and 2007 Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, as well as the CMS International Conference in Bangkok, Thailand in July 2007. While in Thailand, she performed for the Costa Rican Consulate and the Minister to the Prime Minister of Thailand. She will also be presenting at the CMS Great Lakes/Great Plains Super Regional Conference in Illinois in March, as well as the Music of War Interdisciplinary Conference at Stonehill College in Massachusetts in April.
Fabián Jiménez Herra, a native of Costa Rica, is currently pursuing his doctor of arts degree with a primary emphasis in piano performance and a secondary emphasis in accompanying and chamber music at Ball State University where he earned his master of music degree in piano performance and pedagogy.
As a soloist and accompanist, he has performed at the National Theater and the Melico Salazar Theater, the principal performance halls of Costa Rica. He frequently performs and accompanies at colleges and universities throughout the United States and also collaborates with choirs and soloists in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Thailand, United States, Mexico, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. Last July, he performed at the College Music Society International Conference in Bangkok, Thailand. In March, he will present at the International Festival Experiencing Villa-Lobos in Richmond, Va.