Dr. Lydia Bechtel

Dr. Lydia Bechtel is an Assistant Professor of Voice at Friends University. She previously served as an Assistant Professor of Voice and Music History at Pittsburg State University, and an Adjunct Professor of Voice at Northwest Missouri State University and Rockhurst University. Her performances include appearances with the Southeast Kansas Symphony, PSU Wind Ensemble, Wichita Grand Opera, AIMS in Graz, Varna International Opera, Boulder Opera, Opera on Tap Colorado, and UMKC Opera. As a soloist Bechtel has performed Beethoven’s Mass in C, Bach’s Coffee Cantata, BWV 159 Sehet, wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem, and Handel’s Messiah. Dr. Bechtel has presented her research at the International Congress of Voice Teachers, the College Music Society National Conference, the Music by Women Festival, and the ATMI National Conference. Her research on Pauline Viardot has been published in The Journal of Singing and The Opera Journal. In 2019 she earned the prestigious P.E.O. Scholar Award, and her musicology thesis research on Viardot earned her the Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award for UMKC and the Midwest Association of Graduate Schools in the Humanities Division. Her research was also recognized by the National Opera Association as the winner of their Scholarly Paper Competition in 2020.