BUTLER UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MUSIC presents

STUDENT SHOWCASE SERIES

Butler Opera Theatre Oliver Worthington, director

Jordan Jazz Erin Benedict, Director

Butler University Jazz Combo

Sandy Williams, director

Livestream Thursday, November 12, 2020

7:30 P.M.

The twenty-eighth program of the Butler University School of Music 2020-21 season

BUTLER OPERA THEATRE “Se tu m’ami” from Arie Antiche Alessandro Parisotti

(1853-1913) Emma Hubeny, soprano

James Caraher, piano With Maggie Emmons, Emily Mead, Jana Tuttle, Kayla Stevens, and Matt Ajdaharian, actors

JORDAN JAZZ

Yesterdays Jerome Kern (1885-1945)

arr. Kerry Marsh

BUTLER UNIVERSITY JAZZ COMBO Like Someone in Love James Van Heusen (1913-1990) Landmarks Brian Blade

(b. 1970) Fourth Street Steve Allee

(b. 1950) Flux Ike Sturm

(b. 1978)

Jordan Jazz Erin Benedict, director

Annie Brown Reilly Crouse Walker Demel Noah Ditzler

Lauren Frederick Marianne Martin Garrett Phillips Calvin Prenkert

Meg Schiliro Emily Schlorf Ethan Schopp

Antony Winfrey Joey VanHooser

Butler University Jazz Combo Sandy Williams, Director

Xavier Robertson, saxophone

Tom Pieciak, trumpet Ethan Veliky, guitar David Richards, bass

Malcolm Butler, drums

BIOS OLIVER WORTHINGTON Oliver Worthington, baritone, has performed extensively as an opera singer, oratorio soloist, and recitalist in Texas before moving to Indianapolis to join the faculty at Butler University. He has appeared with regional opera companies like South Texas Lyric Opera, San Antonio Opera, San Antonio Symphony, Hill Country Lyric, Austin Opera, and Lone Star Lyric in diverse roles from Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus to Mamma Agatha in Viva la Mamma. Other roles include Count Gil in Il Segreto di Susanna, Bruschino in Il Signor Bruschino, Dr. Greg in Gallantry, The Duke of Plaza Toro in The Gondoliers, Le Podestat in Le Docteur Miracle, and others in more traditional repertoire. Dr. Worthington maintains a full schedule as an educator and performer and serves as the President of The Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation (www.jensenfoundation.org), a non-profit dedicated to supporting the arts with cash prizes to young singers. ERIN BENEDICT Erin Benedict is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, and holds a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Voice Performance and Commercial Music. While in school, she traveled with the Manhattan School of Music Big Band to Italy where they were featured performers at the Venito Jazz Festival. Erin had the

privilege of studying under Jackie Presti while in school. During her years in New York, she worked as a session singer, recording movie backgrounds for Disney, including the motion picture “Mission To Mars.” If you visit the Hayden Planetarium of New York’s Museum of Natural History, you will hear her singing in the featured program “Passport to the Universe,” narrated by actor Tom Hanks. Erin toured the United States with “Pieces of 8,” an eight-person a cappella jazz ensemble, performing songs written and arranged by Dr. Charles Mead. She now resides in Indianapolis with her husband Greg and three children. In addition to being a soloist at Second Presbyterian Church, Erin is also a regular session vocalist at The Lodge Studios, Aire Born Studios, and Gaither Studios. She is a background vocalist for renowned Christian singer Sandi Patty’s studio albums “Broadway Stories” and “Forever Grateful.” In 2015, Erin released her first album “Steal Away,” and currently serves on the jazz faculty at Butler University. SANDY WILLIAMS Sandy Williams has been a fixture on the Indiana music scene for several decades. His live performance credits include performing with Idina Menzel, John Waters, Liza Minnelli, Marvin Hamlisch, alt-country rocker Steve Earle, Michael Feinstein’s live PBS special, the Steve Allee Big Band, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. He has performed in the pit orchestra for a number of touring Broadway shows, including The Lion King, Chicago, Legally Blonde, Motown, and Beautiful. As a studio musician, his credits include The Rounder Records box-set (with Carrie Newcomer), jazz arranger John Clayton, John Mellencamp’s movie soundtrack Falling from Grace (with Larry Crane), Hal Leonard Publications’ Essential Elements series, hundreds of jingles, and gospel singers Sandi Patti and Bill Gaither. He is the author of Live Sound for Guitar (pub. Cengage Learning) and technical editor for many of the Guitar for Dummies series. In November 2014, he performed four concerts in Guangzhou, China, with jazz pianist Steve Allee.

JCA LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT STATEMENT We acknowledge that we gather here at Butler University on the traditional land of indigenous peoples including the Potawatomi, Miami, Delaware, and Shawnee. We honor with gratitude the land itself and the indigenous peoples past and present who have stewarded it throughout the generations. This calls us to commit to continuing to learn how to be better stewards of the land we inhabit, while also acknowledging that some were brought to this land not by choice.

The Butler University School of Music is proud to acknowledge Meridian Piano Movers

as a corporate sponsor of our programs.