Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss.—An acclaimed opera and musical theatre performer is joining students in Mississippi State’s Department of Music for a Friday [Jan. 18] recital as part of the fourth annual Mississippi Voice Symposium and Institute.

During the 6 p.m. recital in Old Main Academic Center’s first-floor Turner A. Wingo Auditorium, baritone Corey Crider will sing a variety of selections from oratorio, art song, opera, musical theatre and popular genres. All high school and college students and educators participating in the MVSI may attend the recital free of charge. Tickets are $20 at the door for non-institute participants and the general public.

Crider is among guests visiting the Starkville campus this week for the MVSI, which connects youth and adult musicians with respected instructors in vocal science, pedagogy, literature and performance from the U.S. and abroad.

Crider has performed as Marcello in “La bohème” with the Munich Philharmonic, Arizona Opera and Opera Roanoke in Virginia; Sharpless in “Madame Butterfly” with Dayton Opera in Ohio; and Escamillo in “Carmen” with Lyric Opera of Kansas City and the Madison Opera in Wisconsin.

Recently, Crider performed at Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center as Malatesta in “Don Pasquale” and as Germont in “La Traviata” with the DuPage Opera Theatre. Additionally, he has performed the role of Ford in Verdi’s “Falstaff” for Opera on the James in Virginia and sang the title role in “Rigoletto” with Mississippi Opera, as well as Michele in “Il Tabarro” with Opera Company of Middlebury in Vermont.

This season, Crider’s performances include a company debut with The Dallas Opera, a role and company debut as El Capitan in Pensacola Opera’s “La Florencia de los Amazonias,” along with a return to Opera on the James for a reprisal of Germont in “La Traviata.” For more, see www.coreycriderbaritone.com.

Additional recital information is available by contacting Jeanette Fontaine, voice area coordinator and assistant professor of voice in MSU’s Department of Music, at 662-325-3070 or jfontaine@colled.msstate.edu.

More on MSU’s College of Education and its nationally accredited Department of Music can be found at www.educ.msstate.edu and www.music.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.