My name is Ben Ross. I'm a senior here at the University studying voice performance and music education and my hometown is Rockford, Illinois.
And I've had the opportunity to be involved at a lot of different things here at the University
both with my major and
things like being involved with the Opera Theater or singing in choir, but also just a lot of things all over campus.
I led an alternative Spring Break service trip. I was an orientation leader.
I worked for Housing and Dining.
So I've had a lot of different, fun ways of being involved while I've been here.
I got started with music
when I was a kid my my mom wanted me to take piano lessons
And I really wanted to take piano lessons when I was
Like 4 or 5 years old. A couple years after that I joined a choir,
and ever since then I've been singing. When I came to college, I didn't think that I wanted to stop doing music
I really couldn't stop doing music and I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to major in
And then I started taking voice lessons and all of a sudden
I was taking more music classes than I was
anything else. So that kind of that kind of sealed it for me, and then once I started taking voice lessons
that's really when I discovered opera.
My name is Dave Gier. I'm director the school music. I came to the University of Iowa in 1995 and
originally came as the trombone teacher and worked in that capacity for
quite a few years, and then moved over to administration in in 2010.
The the Voxman music building is an unbelievable facility for students. It was designed with student learning in mind.
It's a facility that's designed around our whole program, and so that means it supports student learning
There's lots of social spaces
classrooms, practice rooms, rehearsal rooms, specialized facilities that support
the courses and kind of interactions they have with our faculty. I think a music student's education is really
really stands apart in some way in those two ways: the personal relationship that they develop with their professor and how that
professor tracks the students growth from the first day until the day they graduate
over the entire course of their career.
And then that that second element that there's so much time spent with the intellectual academic side of music and all the
supporting educational
experiences that they have, but there's also the applied side the time spent making
music with with their colleagues.
Once I started singing opera and being involved with opera here at the University,
I just couldn't stop, so since then I've been involved in I think six operas with the University and I've had a
couple professional gigs too which has been really really exciting
I've always loved music, but the reason that I decided to be a singer is because of the text. I love poetry, I love literature
and putting words and music together is what makes things so exciting so being able to create a beautiful piece of music and then
present that and share that is just so exciting for me.
I've loved being at the University of Iowa
mostly because the opportunities that I've had to perform.
Being able to be in so many fully staged operas as an undergraduate student is
so exciting, and an opportunity that I don't think I would get at another institution.
So after I graduate from the University, I'm gonna look for a position teaching. Hopefully a high school choir
But I also hope to actively continue performing
whether that means joining a community chorus in wherever I end up moving to or
Continuing to audition for operas and other solo gigs, working in a church, or teaching lessons.
I need to be involved in music for the rest of my life.
I think that for a lot of prospective students when they come into the university it can be really difficult
because it's just so overwhelming. There's there's so many things to do and there's so many different things to try
and I think that
one of the best pieces of advice I could give to any prospective student is just
For a little bit don't be afraid to say no. A lot of people are gonna
Come up to you and ask for you to do something and maybe for your first semester, for your first year just say yes
And see what happens because some of those things might be things you've never done before and never even knew were possibilities and that
Could lead you to a totally different place than you ever thought.