By Ryan Vasquez | Reporter
Music filled the Armstrong Browning Library on Thursday for the Browning Day Celebration.
The annual event, themed “This Year’s at the Spring,” celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Armstrong Browning Library and featured poems set to music and performed by students.
The event was organized by Jamie Van Eyck, associate professor of voice and associate dean for faculty affairs. Van Eyck and her students have been working on the project for months, beginning in fall 2025 following Van Eyck’s summer fellowship at the library.
Lecturer in vocal studies Dr. Corinne Penner and assistant professor of vocal studies Kathleen Kelly played piano while students performed nine songs. Each song was a poem written by Robert Browning or Elizabeth Barrett Browning that had been set to music.
Eight students performed solos. Four students performed the final and only choral piece, “The Pied Piper of Hamelin,” conducted by Kelly.
“I’m just so proud of them,” Van Eyck said. “This is extra for them. They’ve got their exams, they’re in the opera coming up this weekend, they’re all doing recitals, they have auditions, and they took the time to learn these pieces and worked with our faculty pianists. I’m just proud of them and grateful that they gave their time for this, and they’re such beautiful singers.”
Snohomish, Wash., senior Carly Wuerch remarked on her favorite piece, a student’s performance of “How Do I Love Thee?”
“I enjoyed it because he was unassuming,” Wuerch said. “I think it’s normal to expect someone to sound a certain way, but once he began to sing, I was immediately impressed by his ability to sing at such a low octave. The piece was so beautiful, and the pianist complemented his voice beautifully.”
Similarly, Van Eyck remarked on the poem becoming her unexpected favorite piece.
“It’s so tender, and I usually like a big, bombastic piece, but it was so intimate and simple,” Van Eyck said. “I think that might be my favorite.”
Van Eyck also discussed the differences in composition between the longer and shorter poems performed.
“You get the more intimate texts like ‘How Do I Love Thee?’ or ‘The Year’s at the Spring,’” Van Eyck said. “It’s set in such a magical scene that composers don’t really set simply. They set it in these wonderful, magical ways, as you heard today. So it’s really cool to see how different composers take different kinds of texts, different-length texts, and what they do with them.”
The museum celebration brought students, faculty and community members together to learn more about the Brownings. Wuerch commented on the impact of the event.
“The importance of this celebration is to bring together the Baylor and greater Waco community to truly appreciate and see how these names and buildings came to be,” Wuerch said. “Its history is a reminder that there were great things before us, great things through us and more great things to come at Baylor once we’re gone.”
