FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music has awarded its prestigious Georgina Joshi Graduate Fellowship, given to a graduate student to assist with full-time study at the school, to soprano Mary Catherine Wright-Beath.Beath is pursuing a Master of Music in Voice Performance degree as a student of Heidi Grant Murphy.
“I am blessed and honored to be able to represent Georgina Joshi and IU throughout the rest of my life and career,” said Beath. “Thank you to everyone who has supported me and mentored me along this journey. The faculty I have worked with and the experiences I’ve had at the Jacobs School of Music have been wonderful, and I am so grateful to be able to complete my studies next year with the help of this fellowship.”
From Lexington, Beath earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Kentucky, where she graduated summa cum laude. Last season, she was seen with IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater as Sorella Cercatrice in “Suor Angelica” and First Flower Maiden in “Parsifal.”
Beath enjoys performing a wide array of music, from early oratorio, baroque and classical eras to modern twenty-first-century compositions, as well as spirituals and musical theater. She was a Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Mid-South Region finalist and the first-place winner of the 2012 Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition.
The Georgina Joshi Graduate Fellowship provides for tuition, fees, books, supplies, living and local travel expenses and other costs related to studying and living in Bloomington. This includes participating in cultural experiences, private coaching, travel and related expenses of auditioning and other activities that would lead to the successful beginning of a professional singing career.
Both the Georgina Joshi Graduate Fellowship and the Georgina Joshi International Fellowship, given to a graduating Jacobs School of Music student for two years of study in the Artist Diploma Program at the Royal College of Music International Opera School in London, are the result of a $1 million gift from The Georgina Joshi Foundation, Inc. to the Jacobs School.
The gift established these two major fellowships as a tribute to the memory of Joshi, who was a graduate student at Jacobs and an alumna of the Royal College of Music. The fellowships celebrate her life as a singer and her affiliation with both institutions.