September 28, 2007

SIUC to host vocalist, pianist on Oct. 3

by Andrea Hahn

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Tenor J. R. Fralick comes to Southern Illinois University Carbondale accompanied by pianist William Shaffer for a free performance beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 3, at the Old Baptist Foundation Recital Hall.

Fralick chairs the voice department at the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music in Ohio and is part of the faculty during the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in Alaska. Currently, he is part of the Cleveland Cabaret Project with a performance there scheduled for late October. His performances are often in oratorio and opera and have included singing with the Kansas City Symphony and the Jerusalem Symphony, among others. His doctoral degree in musical arts, with specializations in vocal performance and pedagogy, is from The Ohio State University and he holds a vocology certificate from the National Center for Voice and the University of Iowa.

Shaffer is the music director and organist at the Old Stone Church in Cleveland. A Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music alumnus, he remains affiliated with the school as an accompanist. He also studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music and is a busy performer in the greater Cleveland area.