the voice Opera Graduate Student Benefits from New School of Music Scholarship Soprano Amber Schwarzrock was prepared to take out loans to cover her graduate education in the Maryland Opera Studio. She’d already signed the papers when the opera director told her she’d received a newly established scholarship. “I burst into tears,” she says. “The cost definitely put a strain on our family, because we’re essentially paying for three households.” The Suzanne Beicken Memorial Scholarship, named for a lecturer who taught for 32 years in the School of Music and died in May 2011, covered part of her tuition. Schwarzrock’s husband, Kristofer, is in the Army and stationed in California, and her children, Trysten, 8, and Leila, 3, live with her parents and in-laws in Minnesota, defraying the costs of child care and allowing her to focus on her studies. The scholarship was established by Beicken’s husband, Germanic studies professor Peter Beicken. “He’s been to all of my performances and has been a wonderful supporter,” Schwarzrock says.–KS
photos by John T. Consoli / photo credits
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