Gregory Rike, Assistant Professor      WEBPAGE
D.M.A., Ohio State University, voice
Office: Room 36, Fine Arts; Telephone: 812-488-2885
e-mail: gr15@evansville.edu

Gregory B. Rike, DMA, is an assistant professor of voice at the University of Evansville, Evansville, Indiana, where he teaches applied voice, diction, class voice to majors and non majors and also serves as the musical director for the nationally recognized UE theater program. Dr. Rike is in demand as a performer, clinician, and coach being equally comfortable with opera, oratorio, art song, and musical theater genres. He has coached such shows as A Little Night Music, Follies, Company, Urinetown, Grand Hotel, The Last Five Years, and Into the Woods as well as The Marriage of Figaro, Baby Doe, and Tartuffe. He has performed with various opera companies as well as the Evansville, Toledo, Charleston, Columbus, and Ohio State Symphony Orchestras. He has judged National Association of Teachers of Singing competitions in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Ontario, Canada, as well as the Metropolitan Auditions in Memphis, Tennessee. He has held teaching positions at the University of Mississippi, The Ohio State University, Ohio Northern University, Heidelberg College, and the University of Findlay.

Elizabeth Truitt, Adjunct Instructor
M.M., Baylor University, voice
Office: Room 26, Fine Arts; Telephone: 812-488-2407
e-mail: bt45@evansville.edu

Soprano Elizabeth Truitt has performed across the United States with companies including Fort Worth Opera, Mobile Opera, Pensacola Opera, Asheville Lyric Opera, St. Petersburg Opera, Crested Butte Music Festival, Waco Lyric Opera, Granbury Opera, Oklahoma Shakespeare Festival, and in numerous educational tours. She has performed such roles as Cio Cio San in Madama Butterfly, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Lady Billows in Albert Herring, Mimi in La Bohème, Alice Ford in Falstaff, and other roles in the lyric spinto repertoire. Equally comfortable on the concert stage, Ms. Truitt has sung a variety of works including Handel's Messiah, Vaughn William's Sinfonia Antartica, Dubois' Seven Last Words of Christ, Faure's Requiem, and Verdi's Requiem with such noted ensembles as the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, Acadiana Symphony, Waco Symphony, and the Baylor Symphony. Ms. Truitt is also frequently seen on the recital stage, having recently performed in Chicago, Illinois; Springfield, Missouri; Crested Butte, Colorado; and Evansville, Indiana. Noted for her interpretation of the 20th century repertoire, she sang the role of Lady Macbeth in the world premiere of nationally recognized composer Richard Faith's Scenes from Macbeth (a role specifically written for her), has appeared to critical acclaim in Carlisle Floyd's one-woman opera Flower and Hawk in the role of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Most recently, she performed a recital of music composed specifically for soprano and horn. In the competition arena, Ms. Truitt was a semi-finalist in the Orpheus National Music Competition and a winner of the Houston Gilbert and Sullivan Society's Opera Career Grant.
          Ms. Truitt received both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Baylor University, where she was the recipient of a full graduate assistantship and studied under internationally recognized pedagogue John Van Cura. At the University of Evansville, Ms. Truitt teaches both traditional vocal students and members of the University's internationally recognized theatre program. Her students have gone on to such prestigious graduate programs as Yale, NYU, Brown, ACT, UCSD, Rutgers, and UC Irvine. She has previously served on the faculty of the University of Mary Hardin Baylor and taught voice at Baylor University. A sought after master clinician, Ms. Truitt has presented classes on singing both the traditional and musical theatre repertoire across the United States.

Jon Truitt, Associate Professor      WEBPAGE
D.M.A., Louisiana State University, voice, opera
Office: Room 101, Fine Arts; Telephone: 812-488-2758
e-mail:jt82@evansville.edu

A native of Houston, Texas, Jon Truitt has performed with professional opera companies across the United States, such as New Orleans Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Mobile Opera, Pensacola Opera, Asheville Lyric Opera, St. Petersburg Opera, Opera Illinois, the Crested Butte Music Festival, Jacksonville Opera, and the Jefferson Performing Arts Society. He as appeared as Figaro in Barber of Seville, Marcello in La Boehme, Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni, Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, Ford in Falstaff, Captain Corcoran in HMS Pinafore, and more than forty other roles in the lyric baritone repertoire. On the concert stage, he has sung with the Evansville, Jacksonville, Acadiana, Waco, Florimezzo, Baylor, and LSU symphonies and in numerous public solo recitals. He is also a two-time apprentice artist with the Des Moines Metro Opera, a Metropolitan Opera Regional finalist, and a NATSAA Indiana State Winner. In addition, he was a 2007 winner of the prestigious Lynam Competition in North Carolina.
          A frequent collaborator with noted American composer Richard Faith, he performed the title role in the world premiere of Faith’s Scenes from Macbeth and also sang the premiere of the song cycle Songs from the Voice of Gaia. Additionally, he is the founder of the Crested Butte Music Festival's Opera Young Artist Program in Paradise, which has become a well-known program training operatic artists from across the United States. He is building a national reputation as a stage director, having recently directed Le Nozze di Figaro, Hansel and Gretel, Tartuffe, Barber of Seville, Amahl and the Night Visitors, Die Fledermaus, La Boheme, Don Giovanni, The Elixir of Love, Gianni Schicchi, and Suor Angelica.
          Currently, Truitt is an associate professor and serves as the head of the voice area and director of opera at the University of Evansville, a highly ranked small liberal arts college in the Midwest. While teaching there his students have been featured in many choral and operatic performances, and some have gone on to professional performing and important graduate programs. Others are already making their mark in the fields of music therapy, music education, sacred music, or in the world of music business.  

Roberta Veazey, Assistant Professor
M.M., University of Illinois, voice
Office: Room 105, Fine Arts; Telephone: 812-488-2882
e-mail: rv5@evansville.edu

A renowned soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, soprano Roberta Bebb Veazey is equally respected as a teacher, clinician, and conductor. Long a member of the voice faculty of the University of Evansville, she has also chaired the Department of Music. Mrs. Veazey is a cum laude graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (where she has been recognized as an outstanding alumnae) and the University of Illinois where her teachers included Grace Wilson, William Warfield, and the internationally famous coach/accompanist John Wustman.
          Having received a two-year national recital tour as winner of the International Artist Competition and being a finalist in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Mrs. Veazey's performance career has had a broad national base encompassing recital, chamber works, and oratorio.
          Selected twice as an artist-fellow of the Bach Aria Festival of Stony Brook, New York, she has also received a fellowship to the Aspen Music Festival as a member of and frequent soloist with the Chamber Choir. Recital performances include New York's 92nd Street Y and Weill Auditorium, Carnegie Hall. She has been a soloist with the symphony orchestras of Indianapolis (IN), Jacksonville (FL), Phoenix (AZ), Champaign-Urbana (IL), and the Baroque Consortium of Los Angeles (CA).

Richard Williams, Adjunct Instructor
M.A., The Ohio State University, voice       
Office: Room 29, Fine Arts; Telephone: 812-488-2885

Richard Williams, tenor, is a graduate of The Ohio State University. He holds a bachelor of music education and a master of arts degrees and is currently completing his DMA in voice. Mr. Williams has an extensive performance career in both the United States and throughout Europe, including the Vienna Staats Opera, Carnegie Hall, and The Kennedy Center. He has worked with Leonard Bernstein, Keith Lockart, Eric Kunzel, Robert Shaw, and many other internationally known conductors. He has taught voice at The Ohio State University, Muskingum College and Kenyon College and is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and Phi Mu Alpha.