A divine intervention - Opera singer visits hometown to perform

By the time of her performance Oct. 5 at Academic Hall, it will have been almost a year since opera singer Judith Farris last visited her hometown of Cape Girardeau.

Farris would like to return more often -- she still has two cousins who live in Cape Girardeau -- but it is hard to find the time between her career as a vocal teacher in New York City and routine trips around the country to teach classes and hold solo vocal performances.

But Farris made sure to find time to perform at the Southeast Missouri Symphony Orchestra's opening concert for the 2004-2005 season.

Last November, Farris held a vocal master class for vocal students at Southeast Missouri State University and even one for the Cape Girardeau community. That is when music instructor and symphony conductor Dr. Sara Edgerton asked Farris if she would open the 2004-2005 concert season with a performance, to which she readily agreed.

"If it wasn't for the Cape Girardeau support, I wouldn't be here today," Farris said. "That's why when they ask me back, I'll do anything to come back and help."

After graduating from Central High School, Farris attended Southeast Missouri State University on a piano scholarship and was planning on a future career as an elementary school music teacher. Then she took a required vocal class that changed her life.

Each student had to perform a vocal solo in front of the class.

"I went up with great trepidation and nerve, incredible nerve, and did OK. Then I kept doing it throughout the year and thought, 'this is great fun,'" Farris said.

In addition to being fun, vocal studies would allow Farris more time to perform piano accompaniments than would music education studies. She decided to become a voice major, although still not thinking she would actually be sought after as a singer.

The same year she became a voice major, she was asked to sing in the university's production of the opera "The Old Maid and the Thief" by Gian Carlo Menotti.

Farris said she went into the performance "kicking and screaming" against being turned into an opera singer, but to her amazement she found the experience a positive one. "It obviously changed my life," she said. "It was like divine intervention."

After graduating from the university in 1971, Farris attended Southern Illinois University for a year and went onto the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, where she soon discovered that she had already learned what she needed at Southeast.

Since she was in Philadelphia, Farris decided to keep heading east and set her sights on New York City, where she quickly got a job.

Although she put in a lot of hard work, Farris credits the university and certain Cape Girardeau residents for helping in her success.

"I wouldn't have a career if it weren't for SEMO. If it weren't for SEMO, I probably would have not gone to college," Farris said.

Which is why Farris is happy to return to the university and perform.

Farris performed a brief program at Academic Auditorium in 1992 when she received the Distinguished Alumnae Award, but the Oct. 5 concert is the first time she will perform a large-scale program at the university since she attended school there.

The Oct. 5 concert, "Beautiful Melodies with Judith Farris," will feature a variety of operatic arias and selections from "The Sound of Music."

According to Farris, the concert should offer something for everyone. The only problem is whether Farris will be able to make it through the performance.

"To sing at that Academic Auditorium stage where I first opened my mouth as a soloist is very poignant to me. The key is to keep my emotions in check," Farris said. "If I lose it, I can't sing."

kalfisi@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182