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A world premiere and centuries-spanning celebration of women composers will take center stage during a Northwest Missouri State University faculty recital.
Dr. Rachel Day
Dr. Jiwon Choi
Dr. Paul Hindemith
Assistant Professor of Music Dr. Rachel Day and staff accompanist Dr. Jiwon Choi will be joined by Assistant Professor of Music Dr. Paul Hindemith for a “Women of the ’90s”-themed program.
The recital, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 23, in the Charles Johnson Theater at the Olive DeLuce Fine Arts Building.
“Take this opportunity to hear a wide variety of music from composers you may not now know but will want to know more of in the future,” Day said.
The performance will follow a chronological format and highlight compositions by women born in the 1790s, 1890s and 1990s, drawing connections across generations through art song. The recital will feature the world premiere of “Mitos,” a song cycle written for Day by Vera Lugo.
After hearing Aria Gittelson’s duet, “Letters to Pieces,” at the 2025 New Explorative Oratorio (N.E.O.) Voice Festival in Los Angeles, Day was inspired to highlight more voices from the N.E.O. community. She then commissioned Lugo to create “Mitos,” and both selections will close the recital.
Day also submitted both pieces to the 2026 SHE Festival of Women in Music, where they will be performed in March. While preparing composer biographies for the festival, Day noticed Gittelson and Lugo were born in the 1990s, which inspired the upcoming recital’s theme.
Additionally, the recital program will include compositions by northwest Missouri native Katherine K. Davis, a prolific composer born in St. Joseph who is best known for writing a popular Christmas song, “The Little Drummer Boy.”
Day joined the Northwest faculty in 2022 after more than a decade of teaching at Grand Canyon University. She earned her doctoral degree in vocal performance with a pedagogy emphasis and master’s degrees in vocal performance and vocal pedagogy from Arizona State University; she has a bachelor’s degree in music from Smith College in Massachusetts.
Choi is the staff accompanist in Northwest’s School of Fine and Performing Arts and is the Dennis C. Dau Professor of Instrumental Music. Choi consistently garners high marks in international competitions, and her performances as a soloist and a collaborative pianist have spanned venues throughout the world, including Carnegie Hall. She joined the Northwest faculty in 2016 and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance and pedagogy from the University of Kansas, a Master of Music in piano performance from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and a Bachelor of Music in piano performance from Dong-Ah University in South Korea.
Hindemith joined the Northwest faculty in 2022 after teaching experiences at Missouri Western State University, Georgia College and State University, Concordia College in Minnesota, University of South Dakota, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and Omaha North High School. He has a doctorate in voice performance from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, a master’s degree in voice and opera performance from the University of Maryland-College Park, and a bachelor’s degree in voice performance from Southern Methodist University.
