Applause filled the Robert F. and Gertrude L. Shuck Music Recital Hall on Tuesday night at the conclusion of Dr. Timothy Schmidt's and Matt Yount's collaborated faculty voice and piano concert.

Schmidt, an assistant professor of music at Southeast Missouri State University, sang bass-baritone while Yount, the Department of Music's collaborative pianist, accompanied on a Steinway. The recital consisted of four parts in four different languages with a 10 minute intermission to break up the set. Almost every seat in the hall was filled, excluding the balcony, with Southeast students, faculty and residents from the surrounding area.

"As I'm watching, they [the audience] stayed really, very focused all the way through," Schmidt said. "Through some literature that I can guarantee most of them had never heard before, which is rewarding because that means I'm presenting it in a way that's keeping their attention."

Schmidt performed in English, German, Russian and French with scores by composers Purcell, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Fauré and Duparc respectively. Though he didn't plan the set according to theme, Schmidt explained that, through his months of work, he found a unique message in each selection.

Tchaikovsky's compositions, in themselves, had multiple themes. Schmidt spoke of an existentialist mindset while of another that the listener could pick up on a feeling of "unrequited love." The French was presented on an entirely different intention; nostalgia and a reminiscence of one's youth were ideas commonly taken away from the three arrangements.

"I didn't originally set out to choose songs based on that, but as it came together the music that I was drawn to just seemed to fit really well," Schmidt said.

According to Schmidt, he has performed the Beethoven set in the past as well as one song from Purcell's group. Beethoven's composition, a song cycle organized into six parts, is entitled "An die ferne Geliebte" or can be translated to "To the distant beloved." Still credited to Purcell, Schmidt chose arrangements for the recital that had been realized, or enriched, by English composer, Benjamin Britten. Though Schmidt had history singing these pieces, he wanted to redo them with matured vocal technique, life experience, and interpretation.

Many student audience members came for Recitals and Concerts credit, a university course focused on the attendance of music majors and minors to a certain number of performances per semester. Despite the requirement, students didn't mind sitting in on the hour-long performance.

"It was wonderful," vocal performance and music education major, Vikki Siddell said. "They're collaboration together was phenomenal. It was especially amazing because Schmidt has been working so hard the past few weeks directing the opera that he was able to pull off a recital that was over an hour long. He portrayed the emotions so well."

The audience rose for a standing ovation on Schmidt and Yount's final bow. A line formed after the show of students, friends and family to offer the two men their congratulations.

"Musically, this was a really gratifying performance," said Yount. "It was music that we both really enjoyed preparing, and I think we were really pleased with the way things came off."