OBU Welcomes Lyric Arts Trio

Oklahoma Baptist University's Warren M. Angell College of Fine Arts will host the Lyric Arts Trio on Tuesday, Feb. 15, at 7:30 p.m. in Yarborough Auditorium.

The Trio consists of Dan Velicer, pianist; Elena Lence Talley, clarinetist; and Suzanne Hillis Ackin, soprano. The performance is part of the Heartland Arts Fund Program, supported by the National Endowment of the Arts and the Oklahoma Arts Council.

The trio's program is titled "A Shakespeare Festival" and concludes with selections from West Side Story.

Velicer is a native of East Lansing, Michigan. He attended Cornell University and Rice University, where he received a master's degree in piano chamber music and accompanying.

A former instructor at the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music, he now resides in Kansas City, where he teaches at the Music/Arts Institute and performs with the Kansas City Symphony and Lyric Opera of Kansas City Education Program. He has attended the Sarasota and Sandpoint Music Festivals and was an Opera Coach Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival.

Talley, who founded the Lyric Arts Trio, is a graduate of the University of North Texas. She performs frequently with the Kansas City Symphony, and is music librarian for the organization. She also has performed with the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Kansas City, the Missouri Symphony, the Kansas City Camerata and the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra.

The author of several published articles, she is the membership coordinator of the International Clarinet Association and has taught at Emporia State University and Mid-America Nazarene College.

She has performed at the International Clarinet Association Clarfest, the International Double Reed Society conference, and the University of Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium.

Ackin has been a frequent performer with the Opera of Kansas City, most recently in the world premiere production of Coyote Tales. She also has performed with Dorian Opera Theatre, Fort Worth Opera, Springfield Regional Opera, Opera/Omaha, Cincinnati Opera and Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

She is a featured soloist with regional orchestras and chamber ensembles, including the Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City, the Liberty (Missouri) Symphony, the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra and the Cedar Rapids Symphony.

She has sung Handel's Messiah at universities, in concert halls, on National Public Radio and twice at the renowned Messiah Festival in Lindsborg, Kansas. She is the featured soprano in the Kaw Valley Films video, "The Messiah at Lindborg."

The concert at OBU, in the newly renovated Yarborough Auditorium, is free and open to the public.