Choral conducting major and graduate student Catherine Duensing will be directing her Choral Conducting Graduate Recital. She will be the first person at Southeastern to complete the degree.

The concert is a requirement to finish the new choral conducting program. Duensing’s first degree was general studies, which focused primarily on teaching classes as well as classes one would seek in a piano performance degree. Duensing described it as a “piano education major, except without a recital.” The student conductor enjoyed expressing her favorite aspects of conducting.  

“I think it’s just the fact that it’s a lot more collaborative than playing solo, playing piano by yourself or playing another instrument,” said Duensing. “It’s the fact that it’s teaching and performing all in one. You get to select the music, help lead the choir through it and help teach them the music and you get to perform it with them. It’s just a big collaborative thing, and it makes the experience even better.”

She is the first student to complete a graduate degree in choral conducting, and Duensing has also found time to teach a class at Southeastern. 

“I’m teaching Music 101, which is an introduction to voice class, although it’s being covered by another teacher until I finish my recital,” said Duensing. “It’s open to music majors and non-music majors, so it’s open to anyone who wants to register for the course.” 

Duensing also shared what her plans as a director are after her recital. 

“We’ll see,” said Duensing. “I might be conducting one of the choirs, but I might be done after this semester because we have some other concerts coming up. But, we have another graduate student as well, so after the recital, it will be her turn to conduct for this semester. But, after I graduate, I’d like to find a job where I can continue to conduct because I love it.”

Finally, Duensing shared who would be performing at the concert.

“It will be Southeastern’s concert choir, which will be our top choir at school, which will be a smaller group,” said Duensing. “We have about 35 people. We have women’s choir, or women’s choral, and that’s about 40 to 45 women. They’ll be doing four pieces in the concert, and concert choir will be doing seven pieces. We also have instrumentalists who will be coming and playing, so we’re going to have a violin player, four percussionists, a flute and an oboe. So it will be both a choir and some instrumentalists performing.”

The concert is free for students to attend, and is considered a Southeastern event despite being held off campus. It will begin at 6:00 p.m. at First United Methodist Church in Hammond, on February 3.