13 WTHR - Indianapolis News |IU's Herbert: Students' deaths are 'devastating loss'

IU's Herbert: Students' deaths are 'devastating loss'

Bloomington, April 21, 2006 - Indiana University held a press conference Friday evening to confirm that the five people killed in a small plane crash Thursday night were IU students from the Jacobs School of Music.

The university said the five students were returning from a community concert rehearsal.

IU President Adam Herbert called it a "devastating loss deeply felt on the Bloomington campus. The entire Indiana University campus is very saddened by this tragedy." Herbert said it was all the more tragic because each student had a rare and unique talent.

Three of the students were voice majors, while two were in the chorale conducting program at the IU Jacobs School of Music.

"We lament the fact that lives of such great promise have been cut short by this terrible tragedy. Our hearts go out to the families and friends of these very special young people," Herbert said.

The victims are identified as Robert Samels, Zachary Novack, Garth Eppley, Georgina Joshi and Chris  Carducci.

The following information was provided by Indiana University:

Chris Carducci had recently appeared at Carnegie Hall, where he presented selections from Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch for The Marilyn Horne Foundation's The Song Continues...2005. Acclaimed as a recitalist, Carducci was equally at home on the opera stage and performed with IU Opera Theater as Prosdocimo in The Turk in Italy, Mozart's Count Almaviva and Guglielmo, as well as the title role, in Gianni Schicchi, Malatesta in Don Pasquale, and Sid in Albert Herring. Last year, he created the role of Pontius Pilate in Pilatus, a new opera by Robert Samels. A two-time winner of the Dr. Marjorie Conrad Peatee Art Song Competition, he had worked with the Toledo Opera as a resident artist, Carmel Bach Festival, Michigan Opera Works, and the Perrysburg Symphony. The Monroe, MI, native began his vocal studies with Virginia Starr and Andreas Poulimenos at Bowling Green State University, where he earned the degree of Bachelor of Music in Education with a Choral emphasis. Carducci was a student of Timothy Noble in the master's program at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.

Bass-baritone Robert Samels had recently appeared as Marco in the collegiate premiere of William Bolcom's A View from the Bridge. As a member of the Wolf Trap Opera Company for 2006, Samels would have added three roles this summer, including Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, Friar Laurence in Roméo et Juliette, and Pluto in Telemann's Orpheus. Other opera credits included the title roles of Don Pasquale and Il Turco in Italia, as well as Leporello in Don Giovanni, Falstaff in Merry Wives of Windsor, and Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In the summer of 2004, Samels performed Creon in the New York premiere of John Eaton's Antigone. He also frequently performed in the oratorio repertoire. In the spring of 2005, he was selected as a semi-finalist in the annual competition of the Oratorio Society of New York. Samels began his vocal studies with Alfred Anderson at the University of Akron and Andreas Poulimenos at Bowling Green State University. He was in the doctoral program at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and had studied with Giorgio Tozzi and Costanza Cuccaro.

Garth Eppley, tenor, was a native of Wabash, IN. He held a bachelor's degree in Voice Performance with Honors in Performance from Anderson University, where he studied with Fritz Robertson. His IU Opera Theater roles included Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Second Man in Armor in The Magic Flute, and the Lawyer in Peter Grimes. He was a frequent soloist with the Indiana University Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, with which he recently sang the role of Pilatus in Arvo Pärt's Passio. Eppley was also a frequent soloist with the Lafayette Bach Chorale, where he had sung on such programs as Handel's Solomon, Rachmaninoff's Vespers, and the Festival of Sacred Choral Music under the baton of guest conductor Craig Jessup of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Last summer, Eppley was a participant, along with other singers from the United States and Canada, in the Charley Creek Vocal Workshop, an intense program of aria and song study. He was a master's student studying with Timothy Noble at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

A native of Indiana, Georgina Joshi had received her Bachelor of Music from the Royal College of Music, London, where she studied with Eiddwen Harrhy. Notably, Joshi had sung for the gala opera night at the Beamaris Festival with the Welsh Chamber Orchestra conducted by Anthony Hose. She had also performed the role of the first Harlot in Handel's Solomon conducted by William Jon Gray for the Bloomington Early Music Festival. Joshi was pursuing her Master of Music in Voice at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, where she studied with Alan Bennett. Her first role at IU was Clorinda in La Cenerentola.

Zachary Novack graduated from Anderson University in 2004. Among other venues, he performed with the Anderson Symphony Orchestra, Lafayette Bach Chorale, and the Carmel (CA) Bach Festival. In Bloomington, Novack served as the Wesley Choir Director, Children's Choir Director, and Worship Coordinator at First United Methodist Church. He was pursuing his Master of Music at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, with a major in Choral Conducting and a minor in Voice, where he studied with Brian Horne.