Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Internationally acclaimed soprano Indra Thomas is joining students in Mississippi State’s Department of Music for a Friday [Jan. 17] recital as part of the fifth annual Mississippi Voice Symposium and Institute.

Free to all, the 7:30 p.m. concert takes place at First Baptist Church, 106 E. Lampkin St. in Starkville.

Thomas is among guests visiting the Starkville campus this week for the MVSI, a two-day program that connects youth and adult musicians with respected instructors in vocal science, pedagogy, literature and performance from the U.S. and abroad.

As a professional singer, Thomas has performed internationally with such companies as the Hamburg State Opera, the Teatro Real in Madrid, and Opera Africa in Johannesburg. In the U.S., she has performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Diego Opera, Atlanta Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Minnesota Opera, and the world-famous Metropolitan Opera. In addition to performing, she currently serves as director of opera at Shorter University in Rome, Georgia.

For more on the MVSI, contact Jeanette Fontaine, voice area coordinator and assistant professor of voice in MSU’s Department of Music, at 662-325-3070 or jfontaine@colled.msstate.edu.

Learn more about MSU’s College of Education and its nationally accredited Department of Music at www.educ.msstate.edu and www.music.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.