The bell-like soprano soaring above the chorus in next weekend’s performance of Karl Jenkins’s oratorio The Peacemakers is the voice of Madelyn Zuro, a junior at Oregon State University and soprano section leader for the Corvallis Repertory Singers.
Madi will sing the whole of movement 7, “Peace is the fragile meeting of two souls in harmony,” with words by the British humanitarian and writer Terry Waite [link his name to previous post?].
She grew up in Keizer, Oregon, listening to country music (a favorite genre of her dad’s) and singing musical-theater numbers. Her first solo, in sixth grade, was “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair.” Now she studies voice with OSU professor Nicola Zielke, perfecting the more-nuanced breathing and tone control required for the classical repertoire.
“Just last year I realized I could do trills,” she says. “And I’ve gotten much better at producing a continuous legato tone with consistent vibrato.”
She still loves musical theater, “but the vocal techniques are really different,” she says. “I think of musical theater as a sprint, and classical singing as a marathon.”
Smaller solos sprinkled throughout The Peacemakers feature the voices of sopranos Anne Hubble and Krystina SanGiovanni, mezzo-sopranos Gale Hazel and Cynthia McGladrey, and contralto Diane Nelson.
Come and hear these brilliant voices in The Peacemakers, by the Corvallis Repertory Singers. The program is on Saturday, Nov. 9 (7 p.m.) and Sunday, Nov. 10 (3 p.m.) at the First United Methodist Church in Corvallis. Order your tickets here.