Harding is hosting the Arkansas chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing’s (NATS) spring conference and competition on Saturday. As part of that conference and in collaboration with the Arts and Life program at Harding, opera singer Meroë Khalia Adeeb will be performing as the featured singer tonight.
Adeeb said she discovered a love for singing while in school for sales and marketing at Tuskegee University. She pursued classical training at Louisiana State University and then Binghamton University for her masters. She did not choose to sing opera so much as opera chose her, Adeeb said.
“The way that my voice naturally wanted to sing and move lended itself towards opera,” Adeeb said. “I tested it out, and liked it and decided to go for it because I knew I had this urge in me that I had to be singing.”
Adeeb participated in NATS while in school and said such competition was good for singers and performers.
“You need to get feedback on your singing that is outside of just what your teacher says, because sometimes you just need someone else’s opinion,” Adeeb said. “Even if it’s saying the same or similar things, they might say it in a way you identify with.”
Director of the Arts and Life Series Jay Walls said Adeeb was contacted on the recommendation of previous guest artist and alumnus David Walton.
“We were asking for some suggestions of people that we might get in touch with to see if they could come and perform for us,” Walls said. “She was one of the people that he highly recommended, so we’re looking forward to having her.”
Twenty Harding University and two Harding Academy students entered the competition, with 15 students, the two Harding Academy students and one graduate student making it past the preliminary round. One of those students, junior Chip Ashley, said the competition was a good growing opportunity and that it was an inspiring thing to share that growth with other people.
“I’ve been able to do it the past few years now, and I can safely say that my singing career has developed greatly because of it, and [the competition] has given me a newfound confidence for performing that I never really would have had without it,” Ashley said.
In the past, NATS has been completely in person, but during the pandemic it transitioned to being online instead. This year it was a mixture of the two — the preliminary rounds were submitted online, but those students who progressed will still come in person.
“It’s a smaller group, so it’s a little bit more of a contained center of chaos,” Ashley said.
The finals will be held on Saturday, and the winners will perform in the Reynolds Recital Hall that afternoon.
