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PERFORMANCE DEJA VU -- Southeastern Louisiana University voice professor Joy Ratliff is no stranger to the Pottle Music Building Auditorium stage. As a Southeastern music major in the 1966, she was in the cast of  “The Tales of Hoffmann.” Today, as vocal coach for the Southeastern Opera-Music Theatre Program, Ratliff is preparing students to sing on the same stage. Ratliff  is pictured second from right. 

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POINTERS FROM “THE COACH” -- Southeastern Louisiana University voice professor and opera vocal coach Joy Ratliff works with the cast of “The Medium,” one of two Gian Carlo Menotti operas that will be presented by Southeastern’s Opera-Music Theatre Program Oct. 24-26 at Pottle Music Building Auditorium. From left, are Thomas Cannon of Killona, Davida Karanas of Mandeville, Wendy Kinchen of Ponchatoula, Jacquie Brecheen of Ponchatoula and Ratliff.

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IN REHEARSAL -- Rehearsal pianist Hristo Birbochukov accompanies Ratliff as she works with the cast of “The Medium,” the Southeastern Louisiana University Opera-Music Theatre Program’s contribution of Fanfare, Southeastern’s annual arts festival. The opera will be performed Oct. 24-26 at Pottle Music Building Auditorium.

NEW MUSIC PROFESSOR IS HOME AGAIN IN HAMMOND AND ON CAMPUS
      HAMMOND -- When back-to-back bouts of bad weather headed Hammond’s way earlier this month, colleagues and students popped their heads into Joy Ratliff’s office in Southeastern Louisiana University’s Music Annex to make sure the new voice professor was prepared to weather the threatening storms. 
      They didn’t need to worry. She may be a newcomer to the music faculty, but Ratliff is no stranger to either hurricanes or Hammond. By way of Germany, Maryland and West Virginia, she’s come back to the city where she was born and raised and to the campus where she began her musical career. 
      Southeastern is as much “home” to Ratliff as is Hammond, since she literally grew up on campus as a student for nine years at the Southeastern Lab School. Back in the 50s and 60s, the school was located in today’s McClimans Hall, not far from the Pottle Music Building where Ratliff now teaches 11 voice students and is vocal coach for the Opera-Music Theatre Program. 
      She has just finished working with the young singers cast in the Gian Carlo Menotti operas, “The Telephone” and “The Medium,” which will open for a three-day run at the Pottle Music Building Auditorium on Oct. 24 during Southeastern’s annual Fanfare celebration of the arts.
      Ratliff has enjoyed preparing students to perform on the same stage where she once had roles in productions such as  “La Bohème,” “The Tales of Hoffmann” and “Hansel and Gretel.” 
      Ratliff said she entered Southeastern after graduating from Ponchatoula High School, where her mother taught music, with no idea of majoring in music.
      “I took piano lessons all my life,” she said. “My mother insisted I take piano lessons until I graduated from high school. I did it sort of kicking and screaming. I regret not having practiced more, because I need my piano skills for accompanying my students and I wish now that I could play better than I do!”
      At Southeastern, Ratliff did join the Concert Choir and also sang with her church choir at the Woodland Park Baptist Church. Southeastern voice professor Ralph Roberts directed both groups.
      “In April of my freshman year, the Woodland Park Baptist Church and the First Baptist Church did a combined concert for Easter. There was a little short alto solo and someone in my choir suggested that I do it,” Ratliff recalled.
      “I didn’t have a very spectacular voice,” she said. “I had just sung alto in chorus all through high school.”
      Roberts, however, gave her a shot at the solo and an impromptu voice lesson in his Southeastern office. “He said, ‘You know, I think there’s some voice there. You probably ought to have lessons.’ I decided I would change my major to music on the spot.”
      Within a year, Ratliff was soloing with the Concert Choir and performing in operas and musicals. “My mother always thought I should major in music, so she was overjoyed,” Ratliff said.
      “I would say that Ralph Roberts changed my life,” she said. “He believed in my ability as a singer. He introduced the idea that I might go to Germany and sing and that’s what I did.”
      After graduating from Southeastern in 1968, then earning her master’s degree from Northwestern University in Illinois, Ratliff began an operatic career in Germany, where she performed leading mezzo-soprano roles such as “Carmen,” “Cherubino,” “Hansel,” and “Orlofsky.” She married a German baritone and had a son and daughter, Bart and Vanessa, who are now in their early 20s. Although her career was mainly on stage, she also taught for several years and discovered that she like teaching as much as performing.
      But, after 15 years, home beckoned.
      “I was homesick for the States,” she said. “Suddenly, it became clear to me that I would be a foreigner the rest of my life. I really missed being in America and being around Americans.”
      Ratliff moved with her family to Maryland, where she earned her doctoral degree at the University of Maryland. She obtained a job at Marshall University in West Virginia and, following a divorce, settled into the dual jobs of single mother and teacher. 
      “I just started thinking about Hammond a lot,” she said. “I would come here on vacations. I have dear friends here, including a cousin, Virginia Adelmann. I thought it would be really neat (to come back to teach at Southeastern).”
      “I’m surprised that I would have ever wanted to come back to Hammond, because I wanted so 
badly to leave when I was in my 20s,” Ratliff said, smiling. 
      When Ratliff saw the advertisement for a voice professor at Southeastern, “I just knew my name was written all over it,” she said. “That’s not to say that I was sure that I’d be offered the position, but I was sure I wanted it!”
      Now, she is both thrilled to be back on home ground and to be involved in the university’s acclaimed opera program. 
      “When I saw that my teaching load would include vocal opera coaching, I was delighted,” Ratliff said. 
      For “The Telephone” and “The Medium,” Ratliff’s job was to see that the casts were musically prepared when they went into stage rehearsals. She’s enthusiastic about the young singers, the “wonderful” Menotti operas, and Southeastern’s opera program itself. She also makes it clear that she feels privileged to be taking over the vocal coaching reins from her colleague, Scharmal Schrock, who headed the Opera-Music Theatre Program from 1981-2002.
      “Southeastern is incredibly lucky to have Scharmal Schrock. She built up this opera program,” Ratliff said. “For a school this size, Southeastern has an amazing program. Super!” 
      Ratliff also thinks “The Telephone” and “The Medium” will be another Southeastern Opera-Music Theatre crowd-pleaser. 
      “The Telephone,” a comedy, is performed by two singers and has “just wonderful music,” Ratliff said. “The Medium,”she added, “is very creatively done. I think the audience will enjoy it.”
      Curtain time for  “The Telephone” and “The Medium” is 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 for 
adults, $5 for senior citizens, non-SLU students, and Southeastern faculty, staff and alumni. Admission is free for Southeastern students with university I.D. 
      Tickets are available at the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts box office, 220 E. Thomas Street, 985-543-4371. Box office hours are noon to 5 p.m., weekdays. Tickets also are available online through TicketWeb at www.ticketweb.com.