The springboard diver from Alexandria, Virginia, knew from early on that he wanted to compete in college and quickly fell in love with the team culture at Lawrence.  

“I wanted to take my diving to the next level,” Bertman said, noting how important consistency, weight training, and team dedication is to his college experience. “My initial visit to Lawrence blew me away. Everyone was super welcoming, and all I could think was, ‘They really want me to come here…and I really want to come here, too.’” 

He has been a model of consistent excellence since stepping on campus. In the recent conference championships, Bertman swept the 3-meter and 1-meter diving titles while breaking both Lawrence records.

“I couldn’t stop smiling,” Bertman said. “I was having so much fun that when I got out of the water and I broke the record, I thought, ‘I just want to keep going’.”  

He has been equally driven in the classroom. 

Bertman is coordinating with multiple departments to create a self-designed major in classical civilizations. He credits several professors for making this possible, including Randall McNeill, the Ottilia Buerger Professor of Classical Studies and associate professor of classics, Danielle Joyner, associate professor of art history, and Ingrid Albrecht, the David and Julia Uihlein Professor of Ethics and associate professor of philosophy. The major focuses on classical culture, a passion he has had since he was young. 

Bertman intends to go to graduate school to continue his studies, and he hopes to eventually teach in a Classics Department. In addition, he wants to continue to coach divers at the high school level and above, as he believes that you truly come to appreciate your sport once you see it through a coach’s perspective.  

Bertman said he takes the team approach to everything he does on campus, from the classroom to student organizations. He serves as the social media manager for the Lawrence Rock Climbers Club and competes on an intramural volleyball team. He’s having fun every step of the way.

Bertman advises all college athletes to focus on the enjoyment of their sport first because, “You never know when it will be your last time.” This is the approach he will continue to take into his senior year. 

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As a singer in the choir, I’ve experienced this beautiful tradition first-hand. The university’s three choirs join the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, forming an ensemble that can hardly fit onstage.

I find myself encountering a curious paradox: while it’s harder than ever to hear my own voice amidst hundreds of musicians, I feel louder, empowered by the support of this vast ensemble.

“It teaches us so much about how to be musicians and how to communicate,” said Dupere, associate professor of music and director of orchestral studies. “You have to communicate with Mozart—it’s exposed, and you can hear it immediately if there’s no conversational aspects to the music.”

Pedagogically, it teaches a different set of skills for both ensembles, explained Stephen Sieck, associate professor of music and co-director of choral studies.

“It’s the only time the orchestra really has to think about the text setting and word stress,” Sieck said, “and the only time the choral ensembles have to think about being in tune with woodwinds.”

The tradition stands among the most anticipated Lawrence performances, with a history of multiple decades on its belt. Its repertoire is not confined to canonical standards; the Lawrence faculty regularly alternates between traditional classics and important contemporary works. Last year featured This Love Between Us by Reena Esmail, written in the last decade; the previous year was Brahms’ 1868 German Requiem; before that, two works by the contemporary composer Adolphus Hailstork.

Such opportunities are uncommon among other liberal arts colleges, Sieck remarked.

“When you’re at a school of music big enough to do oratorios,” he said, “it really opens up this entire library of outstanding music that composers throughout the centuries have poured a lot of their best work into.”

For nearly a year, planning commences as Conservatory faculty sift through repertoire. Dupere, Sieck, and their colleagues work together to select the piece that aligns best with the abilities of the current students.

The choice of Mozart’s Great Mass was deliberate; it boasts numerous soprano solos—a perfect fit for the plethora of talented sopranos in the Conservatory.

“It is so exciting to be able to fully let go and enjoy a different kind of freedom that singing with an orchestra brings,” said senior Tanvi Thatai, a soprano soloist from Sterling, Virginia, double majoring in music performance (voice) and linguistics. “I definitely have some more tools under my singing belt, from ensemble coordination to some of the more technical aspects of singing.”

The frequent soprano solos sung by Thatai and others reflect Mozart’s intention to showcase the talents of his wife, Constanze, who probably first sung the part. In this regard, the Great Mass was very much a wedding gift to his spouse, but it also reflects a look back at his predecessors.

“It is simultaneously so, so Mozart.” explained Sieck, “but there are so many spots in which it is clear that he is a student of Bach and Handel.”

Many scholars regard the Great Mass as the culmination of Mozart’s study of earlier contrapuntal music, with nods to Handel’s iconic Hallelujah chorus, an emphasis on counterpoint, and the use of a Bachian double choir.

Like Mozart’s Requiem, the Great Mass was left incomplete. Regardless, the work belongs to the missa solemnis (solemn mass) tradition, where composers wrote monumental works better suited for concert than worship.

“This music is glorious, transcendent, and so needed in our time today,” Dupere said.

Each movement expresses a distinct character, varying between devastating chromaticism and optimistic jubilance. With orchestral and choral forces of such magnitude, the music becomes emotionally charged and genuinely moving.

“It’s something to be celebrated when we all come together,” Dupere said.

Indeed, these moments of such immense artistic unity hold a special place in my Lawrence experience. Each one stands as a yearly highlight, and together they form timeless memories.

“This has been my dream for so many years,” Richter said as she traveled Monday from New York back to Pittsburgh, where she is a second-year resident artist with the Pittsburgh Opera. “To say I’m humbled, honored, and grateful to be here would be an understatement. I had the most exciting week of my life, and singing with that orchestra was nothing short of joyous.”

Richter studied music performance (voice) and performed in the Opera Theatre program at Lawrence before going on to earn her master’s degree from McGill University’s Schulich School of Music.

“I’m so grateful for my time at Lawrence that didn’t just teach me how to sing but taught me how to feel and think deeply about the world,” Richter said. 

Beginning in May, Richter will join Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Center Ensemble.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled,” she said.

Richter was named a winner in the Met competition along with tenor Daniel Espinal, soprano Lydia Grindatto, baritone Navasard Hakobyan, and mezzo-soprano Meridian Prall. In addition to a $20,000 cash prize, the win comes with great prestige and opportunities to network.

The competition is operated at the district and region levels across the United States, Canada, and Mexico before finalists are named for the Grand Finals Concert. Richter came through the Great Lakes Region. The competition, now in its 70th year, was formerly known as the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

While at Lawrence, Richter performed in numerous ensembles and operas, including taking on the role of Countess in The Marriage of Figaro during her senior year in 2020. Her performance would helpearn Lawrence a national honor in the 2021 American Prize Awards.

Copeland Woodruff, director of opera studies and associate professor of music at Lawrence, said Richter was a “rock star” in the making during her time in the Conservatory.

“She always brings a curiosity, a humanity, and an infectious, warm spirit into any space she enters,” Woodruff said. “I could not be happier for her, for her successes so far, and the myriad ahead of her. I am lucky to have learned alongside her.” Richter’s time at the Pittsburgh Opera has included performances as the title character of Iphigénie en Tauride and Ginevra in Ariodante. She has sung Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and the Governess in The Turn of the Screw at McGill, covered Micaëla in Carmen at the Santa Fe Opera, and made her debut with the Seattle Symphony as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah.

After more than a dozen years playing cello, Smith said he found the perfect balance at Lawrence. Drawn to the theoretical, math-heavy side of physics, switching focus from music to math was the right choice, he said. But that yearning to stay connected to his music didn’t go away.

“That is why I like Lawrence; I can participate in everything without having to be in the Conservatory,” Smith said. “I’m taking lessons, I’m going to studio, I’m in a bunch of chamber groups—I’m in the Con and I’m not.”

More about Concerto Competition co-winner Annika Schmidt: cello and linguistics

For the past year, Smith has focused his music on a single work: Ernest Bloch’s Cello Concerto. He will perform it in the March 8 LSO concert. It is fully titled Schelomo: Rhapsodie Hébraïque for Violoncello and Orchestra; the immense title is matched by music of similar complexity.

“It’s unlike any other cello concerto that’s been written,” Smith said. “At least to me it is different than a lot of the standard repertoire that cellists play. … It’s kind of melismatic and, I wouldn’t say atonal, but uses a lot of dissonance and tension and release.”

Instead of a melody focus, the cellist works with the orchestra to evoke various moods. Despite Bloch’s original plan for a vocal soloist, Smith finds the work highly idiomatic for the cello.

“It was really written with cello in mind,” he said. “It’s just satisfying to play; there are a lot of very expressive sections where you can take as much time as you want and play with every aspect of it. There is a lot of creative freedom you can have.”

Among the concerto’s standout features is its emphasis on despair and pain. Oftentimes these emotions are alternated rapidly, which takes careful musicality to pull off.

“I’ve never really played a piece that was written like this—with more melismatic and chromatic themes in it—so I think the hardest part was memorizing it,” Smith said. “It was a nightmare to memorize.”

Among Bloch’s most famous works, the Swiss composer wrote it in 1915 and 1916, just before leaving for America. It was the culmination of his “Jewish Cycle,” where he sought to understand his personal and religious identity by composing with his own conception of Jewish music.

It is a personal piece for Smith, too, having been well-known to him since childhood.

“I loved this piece as a kid,” he said. “I listened to it on an iPod—one of those ancient Apple iPods—to go to sleep.”

The piece has been on his repertoire wish list for many years.

Smith has plans to study physics in graduate school but will not abandon the cello along the way, he said.

“I don’t see myself ever putting the cello down,” he said.