The Wichita State University Concert Chorale, A Cappella Choir and Symphony Orchestra will present Joseph Haydn’s “The Creation” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 6, in the sanctuary of East Heights United Methodist Church, 4407 E. Douglas in Wichita.

The orchestra is prepared by WSU faculty Mark Laycock, and the choir is prepared by Tom Wine. Tickets are $7, $3 students with discounts available.

The story of the oratorio represents the initial chapters of Genesis describing God’s creation of the world. It ends with a brief glimpse of the Garden of Eden.

“Haydn has created a wonderfully picturesque work full of colorful imagery in the orchestra and passion in the choral part,” Wine said. “Each day of the creation has its own character and energy.”

Rebecca Sherburn, a member of the voice faculty at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, will sing the dual soprano role of angel and then Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Rodney Miller, dean of the College of Fine Arts, and Will Browning, a WSU alum and current doctoral candidate at the University of Oklahoma, share the bass role. WSU voice faculty Paul Smith will present the tenor solo.

About the artists

Rebecca Sherburn is an associate professor of voice at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. In 2004 the conservatory honored her with the Kauffman Excellence in Teaching Award. As an opera singer her performing experiences are varied and international, including: The Queen of the Night, Lucia di Lammermoor, Gilda, Zerlina, Despina, Lauretta, Susanna, Musetta, Olympia, Carlotta Giudicelli (Phantom of the Opera) and many others. As a concert artist she has been featured by the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, the New York New Music Group (Robert Craft) and others. Sherburn’s master’s and doctoral degrees are from the University of Southern California. She joined the conservatory in 1999.

Rodney Miller, dean of the College of Fine Arts, is a veteran of the operatic stage whose career has taken him throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. His repertoire of nearly 50 roles includes, among others, Mephistopheles, Figaro and Emil deBeque. He has been on national broadcasts in the United States and in Europe, and has recorded for labels on both continents. He began his professional career with Chautauqua Opera in New York as Don Basilio in Barber of Seville.

Miller’s interests include 20th century American vocal music, both popular and classical, as well as administrative theory as it applies to American higher education.

Will Browning, a baritone, is a native Kansan who hailed from a cattle ranch near Madison. He spent 13 years as an over-the-road truck driver between pursuing his bachelor’s degree in music at ESU, studying opera at WSU and studying opera abroad in Italy. He resides in Norman, Okla., where he is studying voice at the University of Oklahoma. His career highlights have included appearances with Wichita Grand Opera as Figaro in “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” with Joyce DiDonato, Valentin in “Faust” with Kallen Esperian and Samuel Ramey, as Benoit / Alcindoro in “La Boheme” with Kallen Esperian and Marcello Giordani, and as Zurga in the “Pearl Fishers” with Larissa Yudina.

An assistant professor of voice for Wichita State, Paul Brodene Smith has performed in more than 10 countries. His concert and operatic career has taken him to such venues as Her Majesty’s Theatre (London), the Deutsches Nationaltheater (Weimar), Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Düsseldorf), the Prague State Opera, Théâtre des Arts Opera de Normandie (Rouen) and the Cairo Opera (Egypt). His operatic repertoire includes such roles as Romeo, the Duke, Faust, Almaviva, Pinkerton, Lensky, Belmonte, Ferrando and Tamino. After making his directorial debut with Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea for the University of Illinois, he directed and conducted the 2007 production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the University of Nebraska Kearney, where he also staged and conducted the 2008 production of Irving Berlin and Moss Hart’s musical “As Thousands Cheer.” Smith completed graduate and doctoral studies at Roosevelt University in Chicago and the University of Illinois Champaign–Urbana.

For information, contact Wine at 978-3103, or the College of Fine Arts Box Office at 978-3233.