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Cottey convocation breaks tradition with vocalist
Nevada Daily Mail
The traditional convocation ceremony at Cottey College features a not so traditional key note address 7 p.m. Monday at the auditorium of the Haidee and Allen Wild Center for the Arts.
Joseryl Beckley, a dramatic mezzo-soprano, will perform four arias to begin the academic year with inspiration at the 131st opening of the college.
Beckley is currently a doctoral student in opera and voice at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees in vocal performance from Indiana University, Bloomington. Beckley graduated from Cottey College in 2000. She was a vocal student of Professor Theresa Spencer.
She said she picked her first piece, "Adieu, for'ts" from the opera "Jeanne D'Arc" by Tchaikovsky, for its determination and inspiration. The second piece, "Va! Laisse couler mes larmes" from the opera "Werther" by Jules Massenet, represents sadness and loss.
"Weiche, Wotan! Weiche!" from the opera "Das Rheingold" by Richard Wagner features a powerful character who is full of wisdom, while "O don fatale" from the opera "Don Carlo" by Giuseppe Verdi is about love. Though of different languages and themes, all of the pieces feature strong female characters.
"I hope the students feel inspired and motivated," Beckley said. "As an opera singer, you have a leadership role, standing up front and giving a message. I want to show them what they can become. It's a long journey, but it's possible and very rewarding. It's a mature message."
A native of Freetown, Sierra Leone, Beckley escaped Freetown with her family on a tugboat to the Gambia when the rebel war escalated in 1997. She heard about Cottey during that year, from a friend who was studying in Wichita, Kan.
In Freetown, she was pursuing a degree in pure economics at Fourah Bay College in the Mount Aureol neighborhood. She also performed the leading role in the opera "Afiwa," by African composer Nicholas Ballanta, while also a student at the Ballanta Academy of Music.
During her time in the Gambia, she continued to study pure economics through the St. Mary's University (Canada) Extension Program. She was also working as an assistant choir director at an Anglican Church. She sang the role of Michal in Handel's "Saul Oratorio," and the performance was televised nationwide in the Gambia in 1998. This recording was used as her audition tape for a music scholarship at Cottey.
Impressed with the letters from Cottey, she arrived at Cottey in fall 1998. Her scholarships included a P.E.O. International Peace Scholarship for undergraduate and graduate study.
Following study at the University of Indiana, Bloomington, she returned to Sierra Leone to serve her country as the IPS scholarship expects. Her father insisted that she complete her study of economics, and she earned an MBA at the University of Sierra Leone in 2010. She also served as acting principal for her alma mater, the Ballanta Academy of Music. She is founder and CEO of the Rozinka School for the Performing Arts (2011) in Freetown, focusing in music, drama, and dance.
Beckley has performed in various operas such as "The Dialogues of the Carmelites" by Poulenc, "Cosi fan tutte" by Mozart, "Porgy and Bess" by Gershwin, and "The Florentine Straw Hat" by Roti. She is also a screenplay writer for films and is working on the film production of her script YAINKAIN.
She has chosen the opera "Afiwa" as the topic for her doctoral dissertation at the University of British Columbia. Her association with Ballanta led Dyke Kiel, Ph.D., Cottey professor emeritus of music, to become one of the leading Ballanta scholars. The American premiere of "Afiwa" was performed at Cottey in April 2010 with Beckley in the lead role.
"We chose Beckley to show how incredibly talented Cottey students are," Nancy Kerbs, Cottey director of assessment and institutional research, said. "For me, this is representative of Cottey. We have a young woman who escaped war, became an accomplished music major, returned to her country to contribute to its arts, finished an economics degree and continues to pursue music. We hope people take advantage of this opportunity to see and hear something they would have to travel far way to experience."
A reception in the Sculpture Garden follows the Convocation and signing of the Cottey Books.