Mention the word “opera” around the campus of Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, and you will probably hear the name “Secrest” right after it.
For the past 20-plus years, Glenda and Jon Secrest have co-directed the school’s opera program, which has featured a full-fledged opera for many of those years. They have stepped down as directors. Their final production was The Mikado, which was presented in November.
When the Secrests came to teach music at Ouachita in 1994, there was an opera program “in various forms,” said Jon, 59.
“They did mostly opera scenes,” said Glenda, 58.
“It had hit a lull by the time we came here in 1994,” Jon said. “After we arrived, we began increasing our involvement in the opera program.”
“We are very proud of the progress that has been made,” Glenda said. “We now have full productions with costumes and an orchestra in the pit. We’ve even done two pieces in Italian, and that’s unheard of for an undergraduate program.
“Most of our operas, however, are in English — with a Southern accent,” she said with a laugh.
“We have had good community support” over the years, Glenda said.
“That first year, we might have had 125 people come to it,” Jon said. “A few years ago, when we did Hansel and Gretel, we had over 1,000 people attend.
“It’s changed a lot. The other thing that is impressive is the student attendance. That has really taken off since they receive complimentary tickets to the performances.”
Glenda said a lot of people come to the productions from out of town.
“We’ve had people from Hot Springs and from the Dallas area who have told us that our performances are better than what you can see in a metropolitan area and that it was well worth the money to drive here,” she said.
Although the Secrests will no longer direct the opera program, they will continue to teach at OBU.
“We’re not retiring; we’re not old enough yet,” Glenda said.
“We have been doing opera for a long time,” Jon said. “It is very intense — physically — to teach a full day of classes and still find time to do the opera at nights and on weekends. It’s time to pass it on to someone a little younger.”
Jon was born in Kansas and graduated from high school in Casa Grande, Arizona. After high school graduation, he returned to Kansas, where he graduated from Friends University in Wichita with a bachelor’s degree in music.
“I had no earthly idea what I wanted to be,” he said. “My dad was a music educator, so I chose that by default. I entered college as a music education major.
“I began running with a crew [of guys] that listened to opera all the time,” he said. “I became an avid opera fan, and within six months, I changed my major to opera.”
He holds a master’s degree in music and a doctorate of musical arts from Arizona State University.
“I have been teaching since 1983,” Jon said.
“I teach applied voice and vocal pedagogy and coordinate the vocal studies program here at Ouachita. I’m chairman of the applied music department, too.
“My most recent appointment is the endowment of a chair — I am the Addie Mae Maddox professor of music,” he said. “I wear so many hats I can’t figure out which one to put on.”
Jon is also the governor of the Southern Region of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
“We just attended the regional conference at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg,” he said.
Jon has also taught at Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma; Phoenix College in Phoenix, Arizona; Manhattan Christian College in Manhattan, Kansas; and Grand Canyon University in Phoenix.
Glenda was born in Phoenix and graduated from Paradise Valley High School.
She holds a doctorate of musical arts in vocal performance from the University of Memphis. Her bachelor’s and Master of Music degrees in vocal performance are from Arizona State University.
Glenda teaches applied voice and vocal diction at OBU.
She has also taught at Cameron University, Chandler/Gilbert Community College in Gilbert, Arizona, and Manhattan Christian College.
The Secrests have two children.
Their son, Evan, 28, is a compound pharmacist in Little Rock. He and his wife, Carly, live in Benton with their daughter, Hayes Avery Secrest, who will be 4 months old on Dec. 22.
Glenda and Jon’s daughter, Caitlin, 22, is a recent graduate of Ouachita with a degree in music.
“She is a vocal performer and having a blast in Branson, Missouri,” Glenda said.
Caitlin is performing in the Frontier Fa-La-La Follies at Silver Dollar City.
Glenda said Caitlin was accepted to the Boston Conservatory, but she turned the offer down to perform on stage.
“I can go to school anytime,” Caitlin said. “I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to perform and get paid for what I do.”
Both Jon and Glenda were Caitlin’s voice teachers at OBU.
“They are absolutely amazing,” Caitlin said. “They have given me so many tools to take into the performance world. … They are phenomenal teachers.”
Glenda said it was easy to teach Caitlin.
“She always came prepared to class and did what she was supposed to do,” Glenda said.
“We used the tag-team approach of teaching her,” Jon said.
Glenda and Jon have been married 34 years.
“Both Jon and I were trained in classical and musical theater,” Glenda said. “We sang professionally prior to [having] kids.”
“I guess I have performed about 20 roles in my life,” Jon said.
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 as Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw, Albert in Albert Herring, Fenton in Niccolai’s Merry Wives and Ferrando in Così fan tutte by Mozart.
Glenda, who sings soprano, has performed in two operas that were nationally televised — Die Zauberflöte and Le Nozze di Figaro. Her other opera credits include leading roles such as Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, Mimi in Puccini’s La Bohème, Olympia in Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann, Gretel in Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel, the governess in The Turn of Screw by Benjamin Britten, the mother in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, Pamina and the second lady in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro by Mozart.
Glenda is also an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. She is a past Arkansas president and has served as co-auditions chairwoman. She has performed many times as part of the members’ recitals held during alternating years at the South Regional conference and auditions.
Both Jon and Glenda said they are happy to be at Ouachita Baptist University.
“I think to be here — and I really do feel this way — is my ministry,” she said. “I feel it’s God’s plan for me. … I just know it’s what God wants me to do. Jon and I both feel this way.
“We have been here for 21 years. I just know this is what God wants us to do.”
Jon said that after he received his doctorate, he applied for various teaching jobs.
“I got two interviews,” he said. “The first one was at Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma, and the other one was here, at Ouachita Baptist University.
“I went to Cameron first, and they offered me a job on the spot. I thought, ‘bird in the hand …’ and took the job.
“Four years later, a friend from here called me and said, ‘There’s a job opening here that you ought to take a look at.’”
Glenda turned and said to Jon, “That was the second time you had a call about a school that you’d never heard of. God had to hit you over the head with a frying pan to make it really obvious that he wanted us here.”