Musical Beginnings
Wahl’s musical aptitude surfaced at a young age. Her parents, Gary and Nadie Wahl, remember when she performed “Advent Candle” for a Christmas service at the age of five. “She sang confidently and beautifully,” they recalled. “The room became so quiet both during and after she sang.” In school, Wahl gradually developed her talents in voice and instruments, studying piano, flute, piccolo, guitar and harp. In sixth grade, she began landing leads in musicals, and at the age of nine, she wrote a waltz while bored in a piano lesson. Wahl played guitar at coffeehouses and recorded several CDs of her own music in her mid-teens. She began taking voice lessons at Rochester University’s Eastman School of Music during her freshman year of high school and performed in an original musical written by a graduate of the same school. She also wrote several pieces for her choir in high school, which the group performed her senior year.
When it came time to choose a college, Amherst immediately attracted Wahl because of its prestigious liberal arts education and open curriculum. “When she toured as a junior,” Nadine Wahl explained, “her little sister went along and as the tour guide spoke, she kept poking Alison saying, ‘Did you hear that? This is your school, I don’t know why you are looking anywhere else.’” Wahl seriously considered attending Cornell, but ultimately decided on Amherst.
Finding Harmony Between German and Music
At Amherst, Wahl’s musical abilities have complimented her proficiency in languages. Her interest in German began when she took Elementary German with Senior Lecturer Sigrit Schutz. Schutz enjoyed having Wahl as a student, and described her as “unbelievably enthusiastic and having an inexhaustible supply of energy.” Schutz also noted that because of Wahl’s talent in music, she was able to pick up foreign languages quickly. Wahl’s parents remember her saying, “All the best music is written in German, so it’s a natural fit for a music major.” In addition to German, Wahl is fluent in French and began studying Russian her senior year.
As a German major, Wahl has impressed other faculty equally as she did Schutz. Professor of German Ute Brandes had Wahl for her Kafka, Brecht and Thomas Mann course as well as German Cultural History. Brandes noticed that Wahl’s musical knowledge “allowed her to make important insight into literature, especially the correlation between literature and music in Thomas Mann’s writing.” This year Wahl won the German department’s Consulate General Prize for German Studies, awarded each year to a student who has shown exceptional proficiency in writing as part of a German course.
Having lived in the German House, Wahl participated in a wide range of activities. She and her good friend, Andrea Kahn ’08, gave several concerts of Lieder, which is German poetry set to music, often in the romantic style. “I’ve been lucky enough to do a lot of performances with her,” said Kahn. “We’ve also had a lot of fun goofing around sight-reading music together at all hours of the day—much to the chagrin of our dorm-mates who are unlucky enough to live next to the common room, I’m sure.”
However, residents remember things a little differently than Kahn. “It was great living in Porter and coming home to hear Alison and Andrea perform—at any time!” said German Language Assistant Helene Dahlke.
In addition to her concerts at Porter, Wahl helped with Kaffeeklatsch, weekly meetings of German students and faculty, and other German department ventures.
Wahl’s current voice teacher, Janna Baty, an opera singer and professor at UMass, immediately noticed Wahl’s enthusiasm and academic vivacity. Baty was taken aback not only by Wahl’s considerable talent (“[she] has this steely, generous voice and a deep, worldliness to her tone that’s got a lot of ‘old soul’ in it,”) but also by her interests and vast intellectual curiosity. “I have found her to be nothing short of a kindred spirit,” said Baty, who seems to feel closer to Wahl than a mere music instructor.
Wahl’s parents certainly approve of Baty’s role in their daughter’s life, noting Baty’s “wonderful influence on Alison, not just for her voice, but as a mentor and friend.” When Wahl launches a professional singing career, Baty expects her to take the world’s stage by storm.
Director of Instrumental Music Mark Swanson is inclined to agree. Wahl “is one of the most upbeat, conscientious and talented musicians with whom it has been my pleasure to collaborate here at Amherst,” according to Swanson. She has performed in the symphony orchestra’s productions of “Hansel and Gretel,” “La Cage aux Folles” and “Candide.” One alumnus even wrote to Swanson that Wahl’s rendition of “Glitter and Be Gay,” an aria from “Candide,” still resonates with him and insisted that Swanson encourage her to pursue a professional career.
One of Wahl’s favorite activities at the College has been singing in the a cappella group DQ, which she joined her freshman year. She had never been in a student-run group before and said that it was a completely new experience this year to be one of the group’s codirectors. According to DQ member Julie Moorman ’11, “[Wahl] is able to transfer her musical expertise between her classical music career and her a cappella endeavors.”
Viva Vienna
After completing four semesters of German with Frau Schutz, Wahl chose to study abroad in Vienna the spring semester of her junior year. According to Wahl, she chose the city because it perfectly incorporates her two majors. She described the city as “beautiful [and] the culture [as] rich and fun. Opera tickets were a euro fifty; we went almost every night. And the food—schnitzel, knoedeln, spaetzle—just makes you happy.” One of her best experiences was studying voice with a woman who sang “Queen of the Night” at the Stadtsoper City Opera for 20 years.
While in Vienna, Wahl studied Austrian literature, post-war history and musical composition and performance. Returning to Amherst with perfected German, the German faculty noticed her Viennese accent, which is unique within the department, as members generally strive to speak High German. “She loves Austria. There is a reason why this girl has a giant Austrian flag over her bed. She’s very proud of her Viennese accent and regards herself as unique within the German department,” said Dahlke.
Wahl’s senior year has been sensational, and she blew away friends and family alike with her senior composition thesis. During her time abroad, she happened upon poems written by Viennese writer H.C. Artmann in a unique Austrian dialect of German. These pieces eventually became the texts for the songs in her thesis. Said her music advisor, Assistant Professor of Music Eric Sawyer, “Wahl brought to musical life the wide-ranging moods and background influences of this poetry. Her cycle in musical terms is an unlikely combination of the expressionism of Schoenberg and the popular touch of Kurt Weill. The songs are entertaining, provocative and lyrical, and it was a delight to be on hand to see them take shape.” Swanson agreed, saying her honors recital was nothing short of “stunning” and “tremendously moving song cycle.”
Nadine Wahl believes that her daughter’s thesis and recital are the two most memorable things about Wahl’s career thus far. Of course her singing was superb,” she praised. “But my mind kept recalling that she also wrote all the music she was singing including the parts for the clarinet and piano, which were very complex.”
Continuing with the Arts
Next year, Wahl plans to move closer to Baty and continue her voice education. She hopes that she will land roles in some performances. She has already auditioned for a part in a production of “Pirates of Penzance.” After a year of independent training, Wahl hopes to study in a conservatory.
In all of her activities, accomplishments and adventures, one trait stands out, common to all those who know Wahl: her modesty. Baty, having worked closely with Wahl in the past year says that “she is staggeringly modest … she constantly has to be reminded that she is, in fact, a rock star, even though she doesn’t seem to believe it.”
Still, it is her vivacity and friendliness that stands out most of all about Wahl. From her debuts on stage to her passion for videogames, Wahl’s peers see her not as a performer, or an academic, but a friend. According to Kahn, “Alison is an incredible singer, composer and performer and an invaluable, caring friend—all at the same time. I really respect her for being so musically talented and yet remarkably down-to-earth. I love her as a friend for her genuine interest in all kinds of music, her willingness to open up to people and to allow them to open up to her, and a playful, creative energy that seems to spill over into all aspects of life.”