The audience is silent as she walks from the back of the chapel to the stage. Her long, black dress sways as she walks, and when she reaches the front, she turns to face those there to watch her. She smiles, takes a breath, and as the pianist strikes the first note, she begins to sing.

Junior Leah Wenger performed her junior recital on Mar. 16 in Martin Chapel. A junior recital is a requirement of the Music Performance major. Accompanied by Ryan Tusing on the piano and Maia Garber on the violin, Wenger sang selections from Carissimi, Handel, Mozart, Schumann, Quilter, Copland, and Holst. This recital was three years in the making.

“I got to choose pieces from what I learned in the last three years,” Wenger said. “James Richardson, my voice teacher, would choose three or four and have me listen and choose. At any given time I’ll have three pieces I’m working on.”

Wenger will also perform a senior recital next year, for which she will have to fill twice the time (an hour, rather than 30 minutes), and have one third as much time to rehearse. While this may seem daunting to some, Wenger has welcomed this opportunity. “[The recital] was different than everything I’ve ever done, but I liked that challenge.”

James Richardson is an assistant professor in the music department, as well as the department chair for voice and music history. He is also Wenger’s voice teacher and has played a large role in the recital process. “One of the treats of working with Leah is that she is very dedicated,” Richardson said. “She has a great work ethic— she has worked really hard and consequently grown in leaps and bounds over the past two years. It shows, because her poise during the recital was such that it instilled all of our confidence in her.” Richardson went on to add that Wenger’s dedication and talent has made her “pleasurable” to work with.

Junior Joseph Harder has been singing with Wenger since they were in fifth grade. “She does a good job of keeping morale high, and she’s a good singer and leader,” Harder said. “I thought [the recital] was really well done. I thought there was a good diversity of songs she was using and I particularly enjoyed the Romantic-era stuff she did toward the end.”

In addition to a Music Performance major, Wenger is a psychology major, an SGA senator, the goalkeeper for EMU’s women’s soccer team, in multiple choirs, and in the musical this semester. She also interns at both the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival and the Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir, both of which Richardson is on the board for.

Richardson’s teenage daughter is in the musical as well, and Wenger and others have taken her under their wings. “Wenger’s involved in so much, and she is able to do a lot of things with grace,” Richardson said. “She’s the kind of person that you’re happy is befriending your daughter.”