By Dawn-Cwikiel-Kane
Staff Writer of the News & Record
GREENSBORO - The guest soloist is ill. You have been asked to step in with just a few hours to prepare.
You have never sung the part - or in Russian - let alone at a concert with a professional orchestra.
But your voice teachers believe that you have the talent to pull it off.
UNCG graduate student Stephanie Foley unexpectedly found herself in the spotlight Thursday night when the mezzo-soprano filled in on Prokofiev's "Alexander Nevsky" cantata with the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra.
"I was shocked that they would come to me," said Foley, 23. "I was grateful, but scared at the same time."
Orchestra officials and Robert Wells, her UNCG voice teacher, praised Foley's performance in the five-minute solo.
"She sang beautifully, and handled herself really professionally," Wells said.
Up until noon Thursday, Foley planned to attend the performance - not sing.
The scramble began that morning when New York contralto Svetlana Serdar developed a throat problem that left her unable to sing.
Serdar herself had been a replacement for Russian mezzo Evgenia Segenyuk, who could not get a work visa in time to perform.
William Carroll and Welborn Young - who had prepared the UNCG choirs for the performance - as well as Wells thought of Foley. She had sung with the UNCG student orchestra, and had won the School of Music concerto competition.
Wells wrote the phonetic translation into the score, and he and Foley practiced for two hours.
Greensboro Symphony music director Dmitry Sitkovetsky spent another 30 minutes helping polish her Russian because it's his native language.
When her moment on stage came, "I just had to be quiet and calm down and trust that I knew it," Foley said.
As she approached the end feeling confident, "It was absolutely thrilling,"she recalled.
"It's good practice in case something comes up like this again. Maybe it won't be as terrifying next time."
Foley's role apparently won't last long; Serdar has recoverd and expects to perform at 8 tonight.
-printed April 9, 2005