A warm, powerful mezzo-soprano opera voice suddenly fills the performance hall. “Darum lasst uns hier eine Stadt grunden,” meaning “so we might as well build a city here,” Campbell belts out in German.
Campbell, Albuquerque, N.M. graduate student and another KU student won the regional level of the annual Lotte Lenya Competition for Singers and will perform at the finals April 21 in Rochester N.Y. The two were selected as finalists out of 26 entrants in their region, which was one of five regions including Chicago, Rochester, Boston and New York City.
“This is the first time that KU has placed in the national competition,” Joyce Castle, KU voice professor said.
Campbell was excited when she first heard about the results of the contest’s regional level.
“I really want to give credit to myself there as a singer, do a great performance,” she said.
She has been practicing for the voice competition since last October, but has been singing since kindergarten.
“Music has always been in her life, from the first time she sang in public during her Kindergarten Christmas show,” said Libbie O’Connell, Sharon’s mother.
She remembers singing in class and everyone looking at her as if they could not believe what they were hearing. It was not until high school that Campbell began looking for a professional voice teacher and honing her talent.
As a freshmen in at the University of New Mexico Campbell was an undecided major, but after taking some music classes she choose to study what she loved.
“I started studying music in college, I never thought it would be my degree,” Campbell said. “But once I sang in my first opera I was hooked. The music was luxurious.”
Campbell graduated from with a Bachelor of Music in voice performance. Unsure of exactly what to do next, she began working on her master’s degree and performing in the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. It was during the Opera’s performance of “Macbeth” that music again took her life in the direction it needed to go.
Campbell first met her husband during the “Macbeth” performance when they both sang in the chorus.
“We were both in the show’s chorus. Everyone was a professional singer, but she just stood out to me,” Joseph Campbell said. “Her singing drew her to me and I just knew that she was the one.”
After the couple wed and Campbell finished her masters degree at KU, she decided that she wanted to be a voice teacher and began working on her doctorate while teaching classes university and performing in her spare time.
“She is such an effective teacher,” said James Levy, Shawnee sophomore and student of Campbell. “She has taught me a lot about technique and becoming a better vocalist.”
Campbell recently gave birth to her first child. She said that taking care of her son Amon, takes a lot of time, but that does not stop her determination in music. The four-day Lotte Leyna competition will take Campbell away from her son for the first time, but she is grateful for her family’s constant help and support.
“What impresses me most about her is that she is such a dedicated singer, mother and wife, she does and amazing job at all of them,” Joseph Campbell said. “Being a singer myself I understand the work and the process she must go through.”
Aside from monetary prizes and professional feedback, the Lotte Leyna competition finalists often attract opera companies and musical theater producers.
Campbell will finish her Doctorate in Music next year and will then go on to teaching and continuing her own vocal performances.
“I know that she will do amazing,” friend and singer Julie Trujillo said. “There is really no error to her talent. She has worked and studied so hard. Listening to her, you feel at ease and comfortable. It’s magical.”