In 1967, University of Iowa music Professor Stephen Swanson was a senior at North Park College in Chicago, working toward fulfilling a bachelor of music degree with a recital program.

Now, 45 years later, Swanson will perform the same recital at 4 p.m. Jan. 29 in the Congregational United Church of Christ, 30 N. Clinton St.

The recital will include arias from Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s "Cantata No. 130," German and French art songs by famous composers, and selections from Vaughan Williams’ "Songs of Travel."

Swanson has been a professor of voice at the UI since 1994. His life is filled with music, being a concert and opera singer, a teacher of singing, and an opera stage director.

The baritone’s accomplishments include singing in opera houses in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. Over the course of his career, the roles in operas, operettas, and musicals he has performed has grown to 91.

Casey Rafn, a pianist and the winner of the 2010 Iowa Music Teachers Association Young Artist competition, will join Swanson as he returns to the program he performed nearly half a century ago.

— by Julia Jessen