Asbury Music Students Receive 2024 NATS Awards
October 15, 2024
Asbury University Music students recently received awards from the Kentucky chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS). Award recipients included Grace Jang ’24 (1st place: Senior Treble), Donovan Chung ’26 (1st place: Junior Tenor, Baritone, Bass), Emma Lighter (2nd place: Freshman Treble), Laney Hill ’25 (2nd place: Upperclassman Musical Theater Treble), Josie Pruitt ’25 (2nd place: Lower Advanced Musical Theater Treble), and Lindsey Melhorn ’26 (3rd place: Upperclassman Musical Theater). The mission of NATS is “to advance excellence in singing through teaching, performance, scholarship, and research.” Learn more: www.nats.org.
Lecturer of Voice Dr. Marie-France Duclos and Assistant Professor of Collaborative Piano Dr. Mary Ann Wilder ’03 helped the students to prepare for the competition.
“I am extremely proud of the students’ accomplishments,” Duclos said. “As their vocal teacher, I work with each student to find repertoire that fit their voices and personalities to allow them to shine. We rehearse the technical aspects of the music as well as the expressivity in the story telling, seeking to make each performance sincere and meaningful.”
“As their pianist, my primary responsibility is to be their duet partner and play the accompaniment for their pieces,” Wilder said. “However, I also coach the students through the details of their pieces, including rhythm and diction. The day of the competition, I help by calming nerves and serve as a strong support they can rely on as we make music together.”
Music majors Jang and Chung share about their experiences.
“I’ve really enjoyed participating in the NATS competitions for the past four years, and this one was especially special as it was my last NATS competition as an undergraduate,” Jang said. “I am grateful for the opportunity where I get to witness the growth and progress in both my musical and life journey, brought together with the help of God and the people He has put in my life. For my final piece, I sang ‘Amours bénis’ with my collaborative pianist, Dr. Wilder.”
“I enjoyed being able to listen to a lot of other singers around my age and listen to the large variety of classical and musical theater pieces sung,” Chung said. “With the piece I sang, ‘He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,’ it was interesting to see the audience react to the words and the style I used.”
The Asbury University Music Department offers a Music major (with emphases in composition and arranging, instrumental performance, pre-music therapy, vocal performance, and church music leadership), a Music Education major (with emphases in general music education, instrumental music education, vocal/choral education, and combined instrumental/vocal education), and a Music minor.