Division of Music - Faculty
Professor Secrest serves Ouachita Baptist in a number of different capacities including Chair of the Applied Music Department, Coordinator of Vocal Studies, co-director of the OBU Opera Theatre and musical director for Ouachita Musical Theatre productions. He teaches vocal pedagogy, applied voice, and music/fine arts classes. Prior to his appointment at Ouachita, Secrest held positions at Cameron University, Lawton, Oklahoma; Phoenix College, Phoenix, Arizona; Manhattan Christian College, Manhattan, Kansas; and Grand Canyon University, Phoenix, Arizona. Dr. Secrest holds degrees in voice performance from Friends University, where he studied with Leslie Meadow; Kansas State University, where he studied with Jerry Langenkamp; and Arizona State Univeristy, where he studied with Jerry Doan and Darleen Kliewer-Britton. He also studied singing with tenor Rico Serbo. Secrest has coached with the renowned artists Martial Singher, Gwendolyn Koldovsky, and Natalie Limonick at the Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara, California; Lois McCleod, long time director of the coach accompanying program at Arizona State University; and internationally known voice pedagogue Richard Miller, as part of the Institute of Voice Performance Pedagogy. His opera credits include tenor leads in Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Bizet's Carmen, La Traviata by Verdi, Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni, Puccini's La Bohème, Verdi's Falstaff, and Les contes d'Hoffmann by Jaques Offenbach. He has also sung Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw, Albert in Albert Herring, again as Fenton in Niccolai's Merry Wives, and Ferrando in Così fan tutte by Mozart. From the world of oratorio and other works with orchestra, Secrest has performed the Messa di Gloria by Puccini, Schubert's Mass in G Major, Christ on the Mount of Olives by Beethoven, Messiah by Handel, Mozart's Requiem Mass, Psalmus Hungaricus by Kodaly, and tenor solos in The Serenade to Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Other works from this genre include the Mozart Coronation Mass, Chandos Anthem: Psalm 42 by Handel, the Bach Magnificat, the Bruckner Te Deum, Orff's Carmina Burana, Bach's cantata 182, Welcome King of Heaven, The Bells by Rachmaninoff, In Memoriam Dylan Thomas by Igor Stravinsky, scenes from Wilbur by Randall Shinn, and the Mass of the Children by John Rutter. Dr. Secrest has appeared with orchestras in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Kansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. These include the Phoenix Symphony, Mesa Symphony, Scottsdale Symphony, Nouveau West Orchestra, Lawton Philharmonic, Music Academy of the West, Shreveport Symphony, Lyric Opera of Arizona State University and the Arkansas Chamber Singers/Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. His directing credits include productions of Alice in Wonderland, H.M.S. Pinafore, Amahl and the Night Visitors, Cosi fan tutte, Hansel and Gretel, Marriage of Figaro, The Mikado, The Ballad of Baby Doe, and the Magic Flute. He has served as music director for performances of Children of Eden, The Sound of Music, Anything Goes, She Loves Me, South Pacific, My Fair Lady, Into the Woods, Godspell, Carousel, The Fantasticks and Fiddler on the Roof. An active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, Secrest is the immediate past Arkansas Governor and current Treasurer for the Arkansas Chapter. His students have been NATS semi-finalists and finalists at both the state and regional level. Baritone Stephen A. Ray, one of Dr. Secrest's current students, was a national semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of 2005, and soprano Valerie Woodburn was an Arkansas district winner in 2006. He is a member of the music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha, and the music honor society Pi Kappa Lambda. His doctoral dissertation is "An Annotated Bibliography of Thirty Twentieth-Century Works for Tenor Voice and Instruments." In the years 2000, 2004, and 2006, Dr. Secrest was selected by his students for inclusion in Who's Who in America's Teachers. He has been the recipient of numerous OBU Faculty Development and Enrichment awards for study at the Vocal Pedagogy Institute and workshops sponsor by NATS. Additional citations have come in the from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival for "Excellence in Musical Direction" and "Excellence in Musical Performance" for OBU's presentation of Godspell. While teaching at Cameron, he was nominated by State Senator Butch Hooper for both the Oklahoma Governor's Arts Award and the Oklahoma Medal for Excellence in Teaching. He resides in Arkadelphia, AR, with his lovely wife of twenty-seven years, Glenda, and their children Evan and Caitlin. E-mail: secrestj@obu.edu
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Dr. Jon Secrest