Penn State grads to solo Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in April 25 throwback event

Eisenhower Auditorium will celebrate its 50th anniversary on April 25 with a performance that reprises the auditorium’s first performance in 1974.

The grand performance of “50 Forward: Beethoven’s Ninth Revisited” will feature an orchestra (Penn State’s Philharmonic Orchestra), a mass choir (composed of all six Penn State choirs) and four soloists (a soprano, an alto, a tenor and a bass).

Julia Wolcott, soprano soloist

State College native Julia Wolcott graduated from Penn State in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in voice performance.

“Whenever something great would happen, whenever I’d have a really great meal, I would just burst out singing,” Wolcott said. “I grew up in a family of people who are much quieter than me, and so they would beg me to stop. [And then] at one point, they said ‘We have to get her some voice lessons.’”

Growing up in region, one of the first venues Wolcott performed in was Eisenhower Auditorium. Now, the New York-based soprano is returning to perform Beethoven’s Ninth.

“I'm just excited to bring this music to my community,” Wolcott said. “Getting to bring it to the town that raised me, it feels very personal. It’s almost like getting to say thank you in the best way that I know how, which is through music.”

“Ode to Joy” began as a poem by German poet Friedrich Schiller in 1785. Ludwig van Beethoven then adapted the text and gave it a melody in the final movement of his Ninth Symphony in 1824.

“I think the beautiful thing about music is that it is a living, breathing organism,” Wolcott said. “I think what's so amazing is getting to put your imprint on that music for a moment, and then you give it to the next person. And I think that's such a special human idea…First Schiller wrote the poem, and then Beethoven was like, ‘Oh, let me put my imprint on that piece of art.’ And then now it's passed on to us in State College, [and] who knows where it'll go next.”

Wolcott said it’s so important for young musicians to never stop learning, asking questions or being curious.

“When you are open to learning, when you are open to receiving the world around you, I think that's how you broaden yourself as an artist,” Wolcott said. “Accept that you will be an eternal student if you choose a life in music.”

Lisa Marie Rogali, alto soloist

Lisa Marie Rogali, from Hawley, Pennsylvania, graduated from Penn State in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in music education.

“At the time, I didn't really know much about opera,” Rogali said. “I liked to sing, and obviously, I was there to study music. But my professors were really the ones who pushed me into the opera field. They saw something in me, they heard this voice, and that's kind of where it all started. And ever since then, I just started pursuing performance as opposed to teaching.”

For the past 50 years, Eisenhower Auditorium has been a hub for the fine arts in Centre County, and Beethoven’s Ninth represents that legacy.

“Everybody knows the ‘Ode to Joy,’ but it’s a theme that has become kind of universal with unity and hope and inspiration,” Rogali said. “It feels very symbolic in that way, keeping the arts alive, keeping ourselves positive, through all this stuff that’s going on in the world right now.”

Rogali’s hope for the next 50 years is that people keep coming out to support the arts and trying new things.

“People might not even know that they know the music from [Beethoven’s Ninth],” Rogali said. “And the only way you're going to be able to know if you like something is if you give it a try. So I'm always pushing on people, ‘Come to the opera, you might like it.’ You never know, right?”

Kyle Tomlin, tenor soloist

Kyle Tomlin, from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, graduated from Penn State in 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts in music.

“I got into singing in high school,” Tomlin said. “I started my experience in music [playing trombone] in high school and had a bunch of friends kind of bring me into choral singing. And, through the PMEA system and honor choirs, I just really found my love for singing there, and it just kind of blossomed and grew ever since.”

Penn State is where Tomlin’s career grew and he found his passion for performing.

“The opportunities for the performing arts in Happy Valley really shaped the way that my career would start afterwards,” Tomlin said. “So it's really meaningful to come back and share that experience now, 20 years later.”

Tomlin advised young musicians to find what they love and focus in on it.

“The pieces that I ended up doing at Penn State, they were the first time I was doing them,” Tomlin said. “I found myself coming back to them again and again throughout my career. So, building that strong foundation and framework to come back to that music and have it grow on you as you continue through your career path, has been something that's been really fun.”

Michael Hanley, bass soloist

Michael Hanley, from Buffalo, graduated from Penn State in 2013 with a master’s degree in voice pedagogy.

“I've been singing my whole life,” Hanley said. “I started out singing in a lot of choral music. I wanted to be a choral conductor at first, or a high school music teacher. And so I went, did a music education degree for my undergraduate, [then] I came to Penn State to study voice pedagogy…I not only really dug into the teaching of other people, but also my own singing. And I think my singing really kind of took off after graduate school in terms of my desire to perform.”

While students at Penn State, Hanley, Wolcott and Rogali were in a production of “Così fan Tutte,” an opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Now, Hanley is a voice teacher based in Boston.

Hanley said it’s so important for young musicians to take advantage of all the opportunities they have in school.

“Once you leave academia, you’re going to look back and think, ‘Oh, what if I had done that independent study? What if I had spent time meeting with this professor?’” Hanley said. “I was in this position that all of this unstructured learning could happen [at Penn State]. So when you’re in the position to have these resources, you should just take full advantage of them.”

Hanley said that institutions like Penn State fuel the local and greater fine arts communities.

“I think it's just really important to continue the investment in the performing arts that Penn State has always had at a time when investing in performing arts is under scrutiny,” Hanley said. “Since we don't have a good state funded performing arts budget in this country, the responsibility falls to higher education and centers of learning. So, what I hope is that Penn State continues to use the performing arts as a way to bring the community together.”

The program will feature the works “Inspiration! Festive Overture” by Quinn Mason; “Blue Cathedral” by Jennifer Higdon; and Symphony No. 9 by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Tickets are $50 for an adult; $25 for those 18 and younger; and $10 for a University Park student and are available for purchase online. The Arts Ticket Center is the only authorized outlet for individual tickets for events presented by the Center for the Performing Arts.

Avoid the $4-per-ticket online service fee by calling 814-863-0255; or buying in person from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays at Eisenhower Auditorium.

Visit “50 Forward” online for more information about the performance and ticket information about a pre-concert benefit reception.

Alex Fischer is a communications intern for the Center for the Performing Arts.