For musical theatre star-in-the-making Samantha Pauly ’12, there were some major disappointments in 2018, enough to make someone without her persistence quit. True to her form, though, Pauly stuck with it and had a banner career year in 2019, with 2020 promising to be even better.

As a singer, Ann Schoenecker has applied her supple soprano voice to everything from opera to oratorio to musical theatre throughout the United States and Europe. Before coming to Viterbo, where she chairs the music department, Schoenecker taught at the Performing Arts Studios in Vienna, Austria, Luther College, the University of Minnesota, the University of Missouri.

“Everyone here has big dreams,” says Alexandra Burch, a vocal performance and music education double major at Viterbo University.