STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Soprano Mattigan Monschke was awarded the Carol Nie Outstanding Music Student Award Sunday evening.
The award was made at the end of the Sun Valley Music Festival’s 2022 Honors Recital at St. Thomas Episcopal Church.
Runners-up included Elena Alajbegovic, who earlier had played a mesmerizing version of Paul Simon’s “The Sound of Silence” on her cello as Joel Bejot accompanied her on piano. The other was Gracie Shiver, who played an impassioned rendition of Vivaldi’s “Concerto in F minor” during the recital.
Monschke sang “Will He Like Me?” from “She Loves Me” to conclude the program.
Nie, whose own daughter is a professional opera singer, noted that Monschke was destined to have a special career in theater. Monschke has appeared in a handful of Spot Young Company musicals, including “ONCE,” “Pippin” and “Cats.” She also has appeared in several St. Thomas Playhouse productions, including “Fiddler on the Roof.”
Along the way, she had some fabulous opportunities, including the opportunity to sing with Bryan Terrell Clark, who played General Washington in Broadway’s “Hamilton,” during a Sun Valley Opera show at the Sun Valley Pavilion.
She not only took voice lessons with Sun Valley Music Festival but at The Spot, as well, as she tried to take advantage of all she could to advance a musical theater career. She plans to study musical theater at Weber State University in Ogden this fall.
“I can say the lessons I learned I would not trade for anything,” Monschke said earlier.
Eighteen very talented students with the Sun Valley Music Festival’s Year-Round Programs won auditions to perform at the recital. They included Alexa Murllo-Guzman, who was dwarfed by the Baby Grand piano on which she played “Zimbabwe;” Mattigan’s sister –mezzo-soprano Marina Monschke, who performed a song from “Waitress,” and Alfredo Echevarria who swayed as he played “Wistful Waltz” on piano.
A quartet featuring Gracie Shiver, Gina Greenberg, Lucinda Frates and Reed Spencer kicked the recital off on a lively note with Michael McLean’s “Tango.”
This is the 25th year the Sun Valley Music Festival has provided free music education to youth.
Applications are being taken for the Sun Valley’s Music Festival’s summer music camp, which provides free instruction to nearly 300 students from 30 states during late July and early August. Visit https://www.svmusicfestival.org for more information.