Wylie Merritt & CJ Purdy

A Senior Recital

May 21, 2023 | SCU Recital Hall

Accompanied by Leroy Kromm

7 Years in the Making...

CJ Purdy and I can’t get away from eachother. We met our freshman year of high school and soon bonded over our shared love of music and our mothers’ employment at SCU. Our sophomore year, I joined him in concert choir and we would go on to perform together in countless concerts and three musicals on the Kinkade stage. In our senior year, I was thrilled when CJ picked SCU. Independently, we declared Communication majors, we both joined a cappella and, after years of pestering, I convinced him to join me in the Chamber Singers. It seemed serendipidous when we both ended up studying voice with Nancy Wait-Kromm at SCU. In December of 2022, Nancy approached us and suggested we put together a joint voice recital. We enthusiastically agreed and have been working on this concert ever since. We hope you enjoy our work!

Dear friends and family,

When I was four, I listened to The Beatles for the first time, and I was surprised to learn that not every song was written for a Broadway show. I performed in my first musical a year later, alongside my mother, who instilled in me a love of singing by belting out only the loudest showtunes every night to sing me to sleep. At the age of 10, I began private voice lessons and I was exposed to technique for the first time. After we moved to California, I was cast as a nun in The Sound of Music, and fell in love with choral harmonies. Once in high school, I joined choir and, without fail, auditioned for every solo I could, though I never got any. I enjoyed performing in musicals but was disappointed to be continuously cast in the ensemble. Needless to say, my confidence in my musical abilities was quite low for a large part of my life. I didn’t have the roles to prove my talent. But my genuine passion and love of singing sustained me, even when all signs told me to give up. It wasn’t until I got to Santa Clara that things started to change. My freshman year, I joined Concert Choir and shortly after, auditioned for the Chamber Singers. I was never officially offered a spot, but I showed up on the first day of class the next quarter and the rest is history.

You may see me up here and assume that my musical career has been all smooth sailing. On the contrary, it has been tumultuous, laborus, at times, disappointing, yet incredibly joyful. I’m learning that this is what it means to be truly called to something. There’s almost nothing that could keep me from making music. Its not just something I do, its who I am. And I’m up here today because, when I doubted myself, you were always there to remind me of why I bother with any of this. It’s for myself, it’s for you, its something we share that’s completely unique performance after performance. Thank you.

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