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Opera Grad Student Helps Blind Performers

Becoming a professional opera performer requires extraordinary dedication, precision and practice, practice, practice. Vocal excellence, stage presence, acting and the mastery of singing in Italian and German are par for the course. Decorated opera student Beth Allred (23), a masters' candidate in vocal performance at the University of Colorado, Boulder, however, has had challenges most singers have not faced. A 2008 University of Madison graduate, Beth was born with Leber Congenital Amaurosis. She has been blind all her life. Nonetheless, the soprano, gifted at expressing text, makes time to volunteer for the nonprofit Performing Arts Division of the National Federation of the Blind (PAD,NFB), which assists blind performers through scholarships, subsidies, mentoring and peer support. She was recently elected as PAD’s secretary. Visit: http://www.padnfb.org

"I began my work with Pad two years ago and right away I was excited that we had an organization to promote blind performers," says the Madison native, who received a 2006-07, University of Wisconsin Opera Props award and the 2007-08 Lois and Bob Dick Scholarship.

Beth, an avid reader and people person, loves to organize events. She was asked by PAD’s president Dennis Holston to donate her recording of the spiritual "On the Other Shore" to PAD’s "Sound in Sight" project. Hear clips from the CD, a multi-genre compilation of eighteen original tracks and covers, donated by blind recording artists, at: http://cdbaby.com/cd/padotnfotb

CD sales support the Mary Anne Parks Performing Arts Scholarship, named for Beth’s predecessor, who died in an auto accident in 2007. Beth, a 2008 NFB Scholarship recipient, sang "On the Other Shore" in memory of Mary Anne at PAD’s 2008 talent show in Dallas.

"Often, people do not take us seriously because there is a stigma about the blind and performing," Beth continues, "It is easy for us and something we are meant to do. We must work together and promote one another to make our dreams come true. With the new scholarship program, I am confident that we can help those who are pursuing careers in the Performing Arts reach their full potential."

As a child, Beth was always singing, at school, at home, and everywhere. She started piano lessons at age six. She began choir at eleven and voice lessons at twelve. During high school, she was often in the choir room, helping with the schools music activities, spending time with other students, and of course singing. At the end of her junior year, Beth received a full-tuition music scholarship to the University of Wisconsin Madison. She also received an Honorable Mention from the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts for participating in their Arts recognition and Talent Search program. In addition to recitals, Beth played The Sandman and the Dew Fairy in the U. of Wisconsin production of Hansel and Gretel, and was in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, and Ravels L'enfant et les Sortilèges.

As well as being a professional singer, Beth hopes to open her own private studio and teach voice. E mail Beth from PAD's Contact page.

*About the National Federation of the Blind: With more than 50,000 members, the National Federation of the Blind is the largest and most influential membership organization of blind people in the United States. The NFB improves blind people’s lives through advocacy, education, research, technology, and programs encouraging independence and self-confidence. It is the leading force in the blindness field today and the voice of the nation's blind. In January 2004 the NFB opened the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and training center in the United States for the blind led by the blind.

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D'ya think the Salvation Army should trash stuff? (Boulder)

They used to have "sales" during which all items with a tag before a certain date would be 25% or 50%- or even 75% off. Now they don't. They throw the stuff away. In other words, we're all trying to keep stuff out of landfills and they're taking our donations from Boulder to Denver, and then all around Colorado. In Boulder, if it doesn't sell- and sometimes that means, if it doesn't sell the first day they put it out, they harvest it, throw most of it away, and the rest they truck back to Denver and then all around Colorado. Why do they think this is a tenable proposition? Why are they wasting all that fuel hauling stuff hither and yon? Why are they then filling the landfills with stuff that was donated to them in an effort to recycle? I would wager that most of us don't care a whole lot about their business of Salvation- but rather, care about recycling and reusing.

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