Pacific Index

Dylan Heimbuch performs his long-awaited Junior Recital

   The overhead lights lower in the Taylor-Meade Performing arts center and the audience of students hush to a reverent silence. It is the junior recital for Dylan Heimbuch, an ardently involved vocal performer and music education major. As soon as Heimbuch and his accompanying pianist, Jennifer Creek Hughes take the stage, the program begins. The program includes three different languages and a mounting nine songs, all of which requires an impressive amount of vocal gravitas. Heimbuch is the person for such a challenge.

   “If you can memorize the end first, that’s helpful because then you know where you’re going,” Heimbuch notes in regards to the initial process of studying pieces. The first half of the program consists of five songs, all of which are not sung in English. From the German song “Der Doppelganger” composed by Franz Schubert to the Italian piece, “La Separazione” by Gioachino Rossini, Heimbuch has his work cut out for him. “We have something called IPA Source. So we print it out, and all singers learn the phonetic alphabet… and it tells you how to pronounce it in singing because sometimes speaking is different than singing it,” remarks Heimbuch. 

With such weighty compositions and difficult lyrics to memorize, a lot of practice was put into the performance. “…because it’s singing, I just found myself sometimes just singing through it… sometimes in the music building, I’m think, you know what? It’s stuck in my head. I’m gonna go on stage,” he explains. After finalizing the set-list in late November, Heimbuch began practicing around two hours a day in Jan-term.

   “I had this idea of a theme in my head where I want to tell a story between both my junior and my senior recital,” Heimbuch states. For the junior half of the performance, the songs handle the struggle of growth in the early stages of college. “I really wanted to say something I’ve always had is— I always struggle, but I struggle in silence…but I feel like I’ve also made a lot of growth, especially in my time here,” he says. “Like, in high school, you would not have gotten a performance like that out of me.”  

   “In the first half, I really want to explore the idea of like, we’re working through it, and we’re finding some solutions, but we’re not there yet,” Heimbuch says, though for his hour long senior recital he plans something different. “The second half, I really want to have pieces that are like, ‘I found myself.’ Like I can move forward and I feel like I can have that growth.”

Performance arts have always been a deeply ingrained aspect of Heimbuch’s life, from musical theater to vocal performances. “My dream, ever since I was a child, was to be like a musician and actor… things like Broadway…” he says. With such a strong voice, there’s no doubt there is a future in performance for Heimbuch. “Eventually…I want to teach in university. That’s the biggest thing I’ve always wanted to do,” he explains, though noting not until after he explores the world of performance.

   As the lights flooded the auditorium once again and the audience rounded in applause, the collective cheers and awe from the crowd created an outstanding ending to the performance. Heimbuch’s senior recital has nothing but promise in store.