Members of the University of Northern Iowa's Panther Marching Band spent part of their winter break in Madrid, Spain, to perform in the Three Kings Parade.
UNI alum and classically trained singer MaKayla McDonald never envisioned a place in the industry for a young, Black queer singer. Now the dynamic, up-and-coming soprano - who performs Friday through Sunday as Ida B. Wells in “The Suffragist” at the Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center - is winning lead roles in opera houses across the country.
It’s not hard to see why Alison Altstatt’s friends call her “the Indiana Jones of medieval manuscripts.”
Though Altstatt may not be fighting Hollywood villains while sporting a fedora, her adventures have taken her around the globe – discovering long lost artifacts of the past.
Her mission: to recover and reassemble the pages of a precious 13th-century musical manuscript – all while balancing a full teaching schedule at the UNI School of Music.
