A lot of hard work paid off for a Bradley performer. Jordan Avellino, a fifth-year vocal performance major from Downingtown, Pennsylvania, has been preparing for her senior recital since her junior year.
She gave her last recital in the Dingeldine Music Center on Saturday.
Avellino has been active on campus throughout her college career; she is the manager for the Bradley Community Chorus, works at the Academic Success Center, was involved with Chi Omega and Sigma Alpha Iota – the women’s music fraternity – and she ran the Bradley opera workshop in the spring, which she is now co-directing.
Avellino has been singing since second grade, and started voice lessons in sixth grade. Originally, she wanted to go into the medical field but decided it wasn’t for her.
“My dream was always to be on Broadway, and my mom said, ‘Why don’t you go to school for music?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s a good idea,’” Avellino said.
She learned most of the music for the recital last semester, save for three pieces. She learned two of those pieces this semester, and one while studying abroad in Milan, Italy, last year.
Preparing for the recital is a lot of practice, according to Avellino. She practiced an hour every day, learning the music, notes and moves she was going to do and making sure she pronounced the words correctly.
Randy Sperry, a fifth-year music education major, has been on the musical journey with Avellino since their freshman year.
“It’s such a bittersweet moment because this marks the end of my career here at Bradley, as well as [it] does for Jordan,” Sperry said.
Avellino and Sperry performed Monteverdi’s love duet “Pur ti miro” together.
Sperry said it started off as a joke, which Avellino then challenged with a “Why not?,” This sparked them to ask their lesson teacher Kerry Walters for a duet. They loved performing together, inspiring Avellino to add the piece to her recital.
“It was a spectacular experience to witness such an incredible performer, and she’s just an undergrad student in performance who’s going to do such incredible things,” Sperry said.
Avellino said she will now be focusing on applying to graduate schools to pursue a masters in opera performance. She will also be applying for summer opera programs.
She explained how she felt now that she was done with the recital.
“Oh my gosh, I feel ecstatic,” Avellino said. “I was kind of nervous I was going to forget some words, but I didn’t. I’m very happy … This is my last hurrah at Bradley.”
