Twenty music students represented the University of Arkansas at the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Southern Region Conference held Nov. 8-10 at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana.

Made up of music performance and music education majors, these voice majors study with UA faculty members Jason Burrow (Theatre),  Christopher MacRae (Music), David Malis (Music), and Moon-Sook Park (Music). The NATS conference, which is a regional conference of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, hosted around 400 students as they competed in a variety of categories and attended lectures and presentations on vocal health, Russian diction, and new song repertoire. 

Sixteen of the 20 the students from the UA made it through to the semi-final rounds of the competition, with nine of them placing in the finals:

• Rachael Foster: 2nd Place – Freshmen Women (student of Christopher MacRae)
• Max Hinojosa: 4th Place – Freshman Men (student of Moon-Sook Park)
• Anthony Dutton: 2nd Place – Sophomore Men (MacRae)
• Chandler Reid Evans: 1st Place (tie) – Upper College Musical Theater Men (Student of Christopher MacRae & Jason Burrow)
• Tori Rudolph: 4th Place – Junior Women (student of David Malis)
• Dennese Adkins: 1st Place – Older Advanced Women (Park)
• John Lackey: 1st Place – Younger Advanced Men (Malis)
• Mickel Gordon: 1st Place – Older Beginner (MacRae)
• Dekarius Dawson: 2nd Place – Hall Johnson Spiritual (MacRae)

Special thanks to Hyun Kim and Lisa Auten who attended the conference as collaborative pianists for the U of A students. Thanks to Ronda Mains, chair of the Department of Music, for providing financial support to the trip to Louisiana. 

The public will have the opportunity to hear these fine young singers in the Department of Music's Vocal Area Awards Recital held at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 30, in Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall.