When Thomas and Vicki King met at IU 48 years ago, their professors in the Jacobs School of Music were members of the Friday Musicale, the Bloomington affiliate of the National Federation of Music Clubs.
After coming to Bloomington to retire, both Thomas and Vicki joined the Musicale, and Vicki is now the president of the club.
Thomas and Vicki will be performing “An Evening at the Opera: 400 Years of Opera in 40 Minutes” on Friday.
“Some people like opera already, and some people are scared of it,” Thomas said. “I thought if I could come up with a way to draw them in and let them listen to a few sections of various things, they would start to understand it better, and if you understand it then you start to like it.”
Thomas, who is currently substituting for a voice performance professor at Jacobs, will be singing eight pieces, accompanied by Vicki on piano. Vicki teaches piano pedagogy at Jacobs.
Thomas said he wants to show the audience opera is not just one thing, but it encompasses various styles and themes. Opera can be funny, sad, traditional or modern and everything in between.
The oldest piece the duo will perform is from about 1600, and the latest was written specifically for Thomas in 2005. The 2005 piece is about Frederic Chopin’s life with George Sand, a woman who took a male pen name. She would go out in public in the 1840s wearing men’s pants, smoking cigars and causing a scene, Thomas said.
“Chopin loved her, but he was stuck with her,” Thomas said. “The song is about watching people see her and how crazy they go. It’s a bunch of funny vignettes of people noticing a woman who was ahead of her time.”
The Friday Musicale was founded in 1898 and has since been a sponsor of local music through scholarships and festivals, Vicki said.
The scholarship fund created by contributions from all local club members goes toward three annual scholarships for music students, as well as the annual Junior Festival in the spring that is host to over 100,000 participants nationwide.
The scholarship winners from Jacobs perform for Musicale members at its first meeting every October.
“We get to hear the students that we’ve helped financially,” Vicki said. “It’s a joy for us to be able to pass this forward and give a little encouragement to students here.”
