Opera vocalist hits high notes of success
Leah Miller sings during a rehearsal for “The Marriage of
Figaro,” a comical opera by Mozart. Miller will play a young
boy named Cherubino.
By Kristine Long
Staff Reporter
Leah K. Miller said it takes an
“eccentric person” to be an opera
singer.
“Opera people arc a strange type
of people,” she said. “They live in
their own world and arc constantly
practicing.”
Miller, a senior music and vocal
performance ma
jor at the Univer
sity of Nebraska
Lincoln, spends
most of her days
preparing for
opera auditions
and competitions.
She won the
Annual Nebraska District Metropoli
tan Opera Auditions on Jan. 12 at the
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery. Seven
people sang in the auditions, and two
people were chosen as winners.
Miller and L. Scan Buster of Omaha
won $400 each and advanced to the
regional competition Feb. 29 in Min
neapolis.
Miller competed in the regional
competition two years ago, but, she
said, she wasn’t as prepared as she is
now.
The people who win opera compe
titions arc the ones who arc serious
about their careers, Miller said.
“I am much more serious now.”
In the last two years, Miller said,
she has gained experience by work
ing at opera companies in Omaha,
Aspen, Colo., and St. Louis.
besides preparing lor rcgionals,
Miller is preparing for two other
competitions and an opera.
-u
Hike the opera because
it’s a dramatic outlet. It
involves acting, moving
and having the whole
body engaged.
Miller
UNL senior music and vocal
performance major
-tf -
One competition is with the Na
tional Association of Teachers of
Singing, for which she must memo
rize 22 recital pieces. The other
competition will be in Tulsa, Okla.,
in April.
Miller is preparing for “The Mar
riage of Figaro,” which will be March
13 and 14 at Kimball Recital Hall at
UNL. In this comical opera by Mozart,
she will play a young boy named
Chcrubino.
She also is taking classes and
working at the music and math librar
ies.
But Miller still makes sure she has
time for singing. She practices every
day whenever she has time — “a half
an hour here and there,” she said.
“Just like athletes have to exercise
their muscles everyday, singers have
to exercise their vocal cords,” she
said.
Miller said she always knew she
had a great singing talent and a “dra
matic vein.”
As a child, she danced, sang and
acted. She started singing solos in
grade school where she >yas encour
aged to continue. She went on to sing
in high school competitions.
She didn’t come from a musical
family, she said, but her parents al
ways encouraged her.
Originally from Portland, Ore.,
Miller came to UNL in 1988 because
of the university’s music education
program.
Instead of pursuing teaching, Miller
turned her talents toward the opera.
“I like the opera because it’s a
dramatic outlet,” she said. “It involves
acting, moving and having the whole
body engaged.
“It takes a lot of force and projec
tion to sing hard enough to hit the
back of the room.”
Miller said she also liked singing
concert and recital music.
Budget
Continued from Page 1
the Environmental Protection Agency
in May after an inspection of UNL’s
handling of its hazardous waste.
John Payne, chairman of the NU
Board of Regents, also told the com
mittee that he thought a hazardous
waste facility needed to be built.
“It is very difficult to say when a
situation turns into a problem, and a a
problem into a crisis. ..,” he said.
Payne said UNL produces 40,000
pounds of hazardous waste every year.
In a written statement to the com
mittcc, Payne said asbestos needed to
be removed from Burnett Hall “to
protect the safety of students and staff.”
Scott Moore, chairman of the
Appropriations Committee, said be
cause the Legislature is in the second
year of its current session, UNL might
have to prioritize its needs and decide
what appropriation it needs jnost.
“There arc a variety of questions,”
he said. “Should it (the $520,000 CBA
surplus) go somewhere else or stay in
CBA?"
Moore said he would consider
supporting the use of the surplus money
for building the hazardous waste fa
cility or repairing Burnell Hall if there
was not enough funding to do all
three.
But, he said he wanted to know
more about how UNL intended to
spend the $520,(XX) on equipment for
CBA before he made any decisions as
to what appropriations he would sup
port.
• “There is some sound logic in
keeping it (the money) in CBA,” he
said, “but you also have to weigh that
against other campus needs.”
The Appropriations Committee will
make its budget recommendation to
the Legislature on March 1.
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The new teaching awards “will
recognize that the University of
Nebraska puts the same importance
on outstanding teaching in the class
room,” he said.
Jones said both awards would be
accompanied by a prize of about
$3,500, similar to jlhc prize given
with the ORCA awards.
Besides offering an incentive for
faculty, Millikcn said, the money
awarded could be put back into the
academic departments to enhance
education programs.
A committee formed to develop
criteria for the faculty awards is ex
pected to complete a report on the
criteria within a few weeks, Jones
said. He said he anticipated a call for
nominations sometime in February.
The process of forming criteria for
a departmental award has not ad
vanced as quickly, he said, because of
the diversity of each department within
the university system.
Search
Continued from Page 1
will have more responsibilities than
the previous academic officer, Aigner
said.
The new responsibilities include
receiving reports from international
affairs, graduate studies and comput
ing activities, she said.
The vice chancellor of academic
affairs serves as acting chancellor when
the chancellor is absent.
About 65 candidates are being
screened for the position of vice chan
cellor of research, said David Scllmycr,
chairman of the position search com
mittee.
The committee is in the process of
reading the applications, Scllmycr said.
The vice chancellor of research
used to be the dean of graduate stud
ies, but now has fewer responsibili
ties, he said.
The main objective of the position
is “to advance UNL in the area of
research,” Scllmyer said.
Retirees volunteer time
By Melissa Dunne
Staff Reporter
Through the newly implemented
Retirees of the University of Nebraska
program, retired UNL employees can
continue' their affiliation with the
university through voluntcerism.
“The idea behind the program is
that retirees still have so much accu
mulated wisdom and knowledge that
they arc just a huge pool of untapped
'esourccs,” said Clarice Orr, volun
teer coordinator of the RUN program.
The RUN program is accumulat
ing a database of all retirees.
Although many retirees already
volunteer at the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln, Orr said, only a few
have volunteered through RUN. On
said she would like to recognize indi
viduals who already were volunteer
ing their time, as well as allowing
other retirees to do the same.
“We arc just up and running and
working as diligently as we can,” she
said. “We have already received sev
eral requests from both departments
and retirees.”
Possible volunteer activities include
academic and career planning, con
sulting, helping landscape gardeners,
book- or record-keeping and office
clerical support.
“What we arc doing is defining
jobs which arc not being done and
matching those needs with people
who have had a longtime affiliation
and want to continue with the univer
sity," she said.
Orr said she did not anticipate that
volunteers would return to the depart
ment from which they retired.
“What would be better is if they
could choose an area which has al
ways interested them, but because of
employment they were never able to
do,” she said.
Orr, who earned her bachelor’s
and master’s degree from the UNL -
College of Home Economics, has been
an employee of UNL for 23 years.
She worked with the College of Engi
neering for 18 years and now works
for university relations.
The RUN program is Orr’s brain
child from a class term paper she
wrote on her “dream project” 10 years
ago. The paper became the program
proposal.
“It’s been fermenting all along ...
gcstaling, growing,” she said. “At the
lime, there were just no funds avail
able.”
Chancellor Graham Spanicr ap
proved funding for the RUN program
until June 30, 1992, as a pilot pro
gram. Permanent funding will be
considered after July 1.
“We arc going to prove that we are
a viable organization that can provide
a great service to the university and
help retirees adjust to retirement,”
Oit said.
Orr said that retirees, as well as
departments, would benefit from the
program.
“When a retiree leaves his job, the
separation is a very difficult transi
tion period,” she said. “It takes away
their whole existence.
“It’s very important that they can
continue relations with peers, friends
and institutions,” she said. “If they
can be productive and do something
of value, it gives them a reason to get
up in the morning.”
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