OSU Voice Students Earn Top Honors at State Competition

Thursday, May 27, 2010

American Idol isn’t the only favorite singing competition around. Oklahoma State University had 16 student winners at the Oklahoma District National Association of Teachers of Singing Vocal Competition held at Southern Nazarene University.

More than 200 college students participated and were subject to three rounds of competition in which they were asked to sing in three different languages. OSU had the largest number of participants, says OSU assistant professor John Seesholtz, one of three faculty to instruct OSU’s vocal talent.

“Each student has their own unique style and each pursues music in their own different way,” said Seesholtz. “This wide range of student talent is very important to the success of our voice program at OSU.”

OSU music majors who advanced to finals were: Mason Combes, Ponca City senior; Rebecca Cook, Owasso junior; Stephen Cunningham, Denton, Texas, graduate student; Anthony Edds, Waco, Texas, junior; Zac Engle, Ponca City senior; Steven Eslick, Bristow junior; Jonathon Higdon, Stillwater incoming freshman; Ryan Lane, Checotah freshman; Kyrstan Langer, Huntingburg, Ind., senior; Paige Martin, Anadarko freshman; Jamie May, Tulsa senior; Morgan Reynolds, Stillwater senior; Marie Sanders, Southlake, Texas, sophomore; Laurynn Smith, Tulsa senior; Max Vowel, Edmond junior; and Anthony Weber, Fort Worth, Texas, freshman.

Those placing in the final competition were Cook, first place in the junior women division; Combes, third place adult; Cunningham, second place graduate; Eslick, first place senior men; Higdon, second place adult; Langer, first place senior women; Martin, second place freshmen women; Reynolds, first adult; Smith, third place senior women; and Vowel, first place junior men.

The voice students were under the direction of assistant professors Anné-Marie Condacse , April Golliver and Seesholtz. The OSU Department of Music is one of 24 departments in the College of Arts & Sciences. To learn more visit http://cas.okstate.edu.