Third-year DMA voice student Talea CMS Bloch, of Lincoln, Neb., is presenting a series of recitals at local schools with support from the Hixson-Lied Endowment.
The project began last December when she gave a recital at Kimball Hall titled “Through the Eyes of a Child,” which focused on texts written by or about children.
“I decided to find funny songs because I sing so much about death just because of the nature of my loud, full instrument. I sing a lot of Puccini and Verdi, where everyone is dying,” Bloch said. “I just wanted something light and fun.”
She began picking repertoire with her voice teacher, Professor Donna Harler-Smith.
“I introduced her to several songs by Francis Poulenc, a composer that Talea thought she didn’t ike. She sang the Poulenc songs beautifully on the recital,” Harler-Smith said. “She chose songs from the Irving Fine ‘Childhood Fables for Grownups,’ which I showed her. I was especially pleased when Talea greed to learn four songs in Russian by Modeste Mussorgsky from his song cycle called ‘The Nursery.’ They are charming and often humorous songs, which Talea delivered superbly in Russian.”
During the recital last December, Bloch invited the children to sit up on stage with her during part of the recital.
“Talea invited children in the audience to come on stage for her performance of the charming Fine songs during her doctoral recital,” Harler-Smith said. “The response from the children to Talea’s captivating delivery of these songs perhaps inspired her to take parts of this recital to create a recital that would appeal to children.”
Bloch said the children responded much better than she thought they would.
“I was worried they would get distracted about halfway through,” she said. “The only parts where they start to lose focus are when just the piano is playing. As long as I’m singing and my face is doing something and my arms are waving about, they are there.”
After the success of the initial recital, one of her faculty committee members suggested that she pursue presenting a portion of the recital to schools around the area, so Bloch began organizing it.
With funding from the Hixson-Lied Endowment and a successful Kickstarter campaign online, Bloch presented her first recital to 60 children at Christ Lutheran Schools in Lincoln in November and has three more scheduled in December. She hopes to schedule three additional recitals in January and February 2014. She is working with accompanist Bonnie Noack.
Bloch teaches part time at Christ Schools in the summer and during the school year.
“They were a perfect first school to go to since I knew some of the kids,” Bloch said.
She has tailored her program for children ages kindergarten through second grade.
“I’ll do one for Kooser Elementary [in December], and they’ll have seven classes of kindergartners,” Bloch said. “That will be an amazing amount of children.”
The best part of the experience, Bloch said, is just seeing the kids enjoy the music.
“Music is just for everybody,” she said. “Art song, in particular, people think is such a staunch genre, but really anybody can experience it. Art songs were the popular music, and it could be again if people are just exposed to it. If a kindergartner or first grader can enjoy it, an adult can, too, I hope.”
While educating children of this age level is not specifically in her performance degree program, she has found that her strengths match this type of performance.
“I’ve always known that I was really expressive,” Bloch said. “I was looking at the pictures that Christ Schools took of the performance, and they’re ridiculous faces. My strengths are perfect for something like this, I guess. I love to tell stories, and I love to be over the top. And that’s exactly what kids need at this age to enjoy this type of music.”
Bloch will complete her DMA degree in voice this May. She earned her B.A. from Nebraska Wesleyan University. After teaching social studies at Millard Central Middle School, she returned to Lincoln to complete her M.M. in vocal performance at UNL in 2011.
“I saw her in the role of Mrs. Beaver in a musical version of ‘Narnia’ when she was a senior in high school and was blown away by her charismatic performance on stage,” Harler-Smith said. “I think that performance was when I knew that Talea’s gifts were very special. She has accomplished an enormous amount of excellent work during her three years of doctoral study.”
Bloch’s most recent roles include Lady Billows in the fall opera production of “Albert Herring,” and Alexandria in last year’s “O Pioneers!” Last April she performed as the soprano soloist for the “Verdi Requiem” at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.
“I hope to teach college kids,” Bloch said. “I taught middle school for two years before coming back to graduate school. I like teaching all ages, and I teach during the summer to this elementary-age group, but it takes so much patience. My patience runs out after a couple of months of it, so it’s not really my life’s calling. I hope to teach the college students that will one day teach them.”
But this series of recitals does not necessarily have to end in February.
“I’ll have this 30-minute concert whenever I need it,” Bloch said. “When I go and find a job, hopefully in August, wherever that ends up being, I can pull this out and take it to those elementary schools, It’s just a good thing to have in my bag of tricks, I think.”