Humanities
Lydia Bechtel-Edmonson
Musicology and Vocal Performance
University of Missouri-Kansas City
“Beyond Prima Donna: Pauline Viardot’s Collaboration on Meyerbeer’s Le prophète, Gounod’s Sapho, and Berlioz’s Arrangement of Orphée”
Dr. Lydia Bechtel-Edmonson currently serves as Assistant Instructional Professor of Voice and Music History at Pittsburg State University. She earned her DMA in Vocal Performance and MM in Musicology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City while serving as a graduate teaching assistant in voice. As a performer, Bechtel has performed a number of operatic roles with companies in the U.S. and abroad. Equally committed to scholarly endeavors, Dr. Bechtel presented her research at the 2018 CMS National Conference in Vancouver, “Pauline Viardot’s Transcriptions of Chopin’s Mazurkas: A Study in Artistry,” and presented a poster at the 2019 ATMI National Conference in Louisville, “Projects for the Digital Age: Using Public Musicology and the Digital Humanities to Develop Student Research.” In 2019 she earned the prestigious P.E.O. Scholar Award, which allowed her to complete research on Pauline Viardot at the Harvard Houghton Library, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and Mediathèque Hector Berlioz. Her musicology thesis research on Viardot was recognized by the National Opera Association as the winner of their Scholarly Paper Competition in 2020. Dr. Bechtel received her MM in Vocal Performance from Colorado State University, where she served as a graduate teaching assistant, teaching both Applied Voice and Music Theory Fundamentals. She earned her BM in vocal performance summa cum laude from Oklahoma State University.