Three graduating University of Alabama at Birmingham music students — one a Cullman native — who helped bring UAB Opera back to the stage after returning from the pandemic closure are set to graduate this fall.

Cullman’s Reagan Martin, Brookwood’s Austin Green and Madison’s Sierra Frazier have played important roles in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Music. After in-person classes and performances resumed in fall 2020, the Opera Workshop was the last of the department’s active ensembles to return to normal rehearsals and performances. The three studied voice with Assistant Professor Lara Wilson, DMA, who oversees the opera program at UAB, with Frazier studying for several years with Associate Professor Won Cho, DMA.

Upon first returning to campus that fall, vocal and instrumental ensembles were deemed some of the most high-risk activities, because of the spread of droplets associated with singing and playing wind instruments. Choirs and bands were socially distanced, with special masks for singing and playing wind instruments. These ensembles rehearsed and performed in outside spaces, or made recordings to post on social media, as public audiences were not yet allowed back on campus. Most of the program’s experienced opera students graduated in April 2020.

Opera Workshop did not function until spring 2023, when six students presented a program of scenes from opera and operetta. Later that fall, two full operas with piano were presented on the stage of Hulsey Recital Hall with Wilson as stage director and Professor Patrick Evans, D.M., as conductor.

In April 2024, for the first time since November 2019, the Department of Music presented two fully staged one-act operas with costumes, lighting, sets and orchestra in the Alys Stephens Center’s Sirote Theatre. All three seniors performed in those productions. Martin and Green have been actively involved since that first scenes program in 2023, with Frazier joining later.

“These students have been integral to helping us revive the opera program at UAB after the pandemic,” Wilson said. “They have given a lot of their time and energy, learned so much, and encouraged others to participate. I could not be prouder of them.”

Martin is earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in music this fall and will also perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” at afternoon commencement. A soprano, she will perform in the Opera Scenes program at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, in Hulsey Recital Hall, portraying the mother in Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors” and “The Countess” in Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.” She will be joined by 13 other music and musical theater majors who have continued to grow the trajectory and reach of UAB Opera since its recent rebirth.

Martin has performed for UAB Opera as Lucy in “The Telephone,” Helga in “Gisela in her Bathtub” and the Defendant in “Trial by Jury.” She won first-place awards in the Classical division at the Alabama National Association of Teachers of Singing competition and was named a finalist at the Southeastern Regional NATS Competition in Classical and Musical Theatre for the past two years. She won first place and a voice scholarship in the Birmingham Music Guild Competition, and has received the Bush Hills Music Club Scholarship, the Stroup Music Education Scholarship and the Paul Mosteller Voice Scholarship.

She was the soprano section leader in the UAB Concert Choir for two years and secretary of the UAB Student Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Martin gave her senior capstone recital Nov. 8 and after graduation plans to pursue a master’s degree in vocal performance and a career in opera.

Green is graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music and Frazier will graduate with a degree in music and will perform the national anthem at the morning commencement.