Laurie Lewis-Fritz, assistant professor of music, and Mina McIntire, private applied voice instructor, took four voice majors (Jack John Barham, Miriam Carter, Tanner Stephens and Brett Wisecup) to the Central Region Conference of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Oct. 21-22. The conference provided opportunities to learn more about singing, network, hear wonderful performances and attend a performance class with Grammy Award-winning soprano Christine Brewer.

At the conference, all students sang for a panel of professional vocalists as part of the first round of the National Student Auditions. Barham, Carter and Wisecup all advanced to the semi-final round based on their scores in the first round. In the end, Barham earned an honorable mention, which qualifies him for the national level of auditions, and Carter won first place in her category.

Barham, Stephens and Wisecup study with Lewis-Fritz, and Carter studies with McIntire.