A recital of works all created by women composers of the 19th and 20th centuries was performed by Music Department instructors Carol Niblock, ’02, and Wendy Plyler on Saturday, Sept. 14, in Ford Memorial Chapel at Allegheny College. The artists included Mrs. H.H.A Beach, Isabella Colbran, Liza Lehmann and Cécille Chaminade. Vicki Jamison accompanied Niblock in a pair of duets written by Pauline Viardot.
James Niblock, ’97, professor of music and director of choral activities, was the program narrator and gave in-depth descriptions of each composer. The concert was around an hour long, with English, Italian and French pieces. Most of the songs chosen were from sets of music, for example, the opening set titled “Three Shakespeare Songs” included three pieces from the composer, Amy Beach.
Carol Niblock graduated from Allegheny College in 2002 with a degree in music, and her primary occupation since has been teaching. When she first left college she did a lot of piano lessons in addition to voice lessons, but over the years has focused on just voice.
Carol Niblock began singing when she was in the sixth grade as a cantor accompanying her father at church, and started professional lessons in the 8th grade with Vicki Jamison. Carol Niblock is an Instructor of Voice and the Coordinator of Applied Vocal Studies at Allegheny, and teaches voice lessons, the Music Theatre Scenes class and the Opera Scenes Class.
Plyler is from Meadville but graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music with a bachelor’s degree in music and piano performance. She began playing piano when she was 4, and her father was a music teacher, which heavily influenced her.
After graduating college, she came back to Meadville and began accompanying instrumentalists and vocalists in the music seminars at Allegheny. Plyler teaches the Applied Piano Lessons course, and last year was recognized for her 20 years of service at the college.
Carol Niblock explained that she was unable to do any concerts since the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020. She is immuno-compromised, so it made it extremely difficult to perform.
“Well, I want something different this time, and I want to learn something because I need to expand what I bring to my students,” Carol Niblock said. “I felt like there was a real hole in my own knowledge.”
She listened to many different composers, picked ones she liked that also wrote compositions that fit her voice, and narrowed it down to the five female composers she performed. Carol Niblock felt that there were no themes behind the order of the pieces, though there were some obvious notes.
“You had to end with the Chaminade because there wasn’t another piece in the program that was as big and flashy, and you can’t come back from that,” Niblock said.
Other than it finally being safer for singers, she missed performing for herself.
“It is different to do the performing as the performer, rather than in support of a student,” Carol Niblock said. “I pair with lots of students for recitals, and I sing incidental things here and there, but this (recital) is a much bigger undertaking…I’m doing it for me because it’s rejuvenating and something fun that I get to do.”
Plyler explained that while many of the pieces were in Italian and French, she “also wanted to have an English (piece) on both the front and back end” to help those in the audience who may not speak more than one language. She said that with the way the pieces are organized, the recital is a constant warm-up for Carol Niblock and because of that, the pieces flow.
Plyler’s favorite piece is the first set.
“I just want to play them over and over… they’re so dainty and (have) so much detail,” Plyler said. “Everything is different, you play and sing the same melody, but it’s different in some way.”
For Carol Niblock, her favorite set was the last.
“The Cécille Chaminade things,” Carol Niblock said. “They sit well in my voice, they always feel good, they’re fun to sing, and they’re fun stories to tell.”
The second-to-last piece in the program, Sombrero by Chaminade, is in French and tells the story of a girl who is the daughter of an old man named Pedro.
The girl waits for her lover and wears a pink hat. Yet, her lover never comes and she is distraught.
“It is four or five pages in French, and the piece goes by in a minute and a half,” Niblock said.
Rae Robison, ’26, is a student of Carol Niblock’s and takes voice lessons with her along with participating in both classes she teaches.
“I got to hear three pieces ahead of time,” Robison said. “And my favorite is the final piece of the show.”