LCC’s new vocal instructor set to direct first concert

By Tom Paulu

LONGVIEW, WA — Three years ago, Lower Columbia College raised
the curtain on a new music performance hall with terrific
acoustics.

Now, the college has taken a step towards improving the mix of
concerts that might fill the Wollenberg Auditorium with terrific
voices. LCC has hired Gina Osborn as its first full-time vocal
instructor in decades.

She’ll direct her first concert in the Wollenberg hall at 7:30
p.m. Thursday night.

Osborn is familiar with the space after singing a solo there
during faculty orientation. “It felt amazing,” she said. “It was
the best acoustics from any college I’ve been to. There is so much
potential in this space.”

Osborn, 34, grew up in New Mexico and specialized in opera while
getting a bachelor’s degree in music from Western New Mexico
University.

After college, she said, “I went to New York to make it.” She
played Gretel in a Manhattan Opera Troupe production of “Hansel and
Gretel” and got a role in a musical.

“I just really couldn’t take the lifestyle” in New York, she
said, so she returned to her home state and got a master’s degree
in vocal performance from New Mexico State University.

Five years ago, Osborn said, she sought yet another change of
pace. “I just decided to take a road trip. I wound up in Portland
and knew pretty instantly that I wanted to be there.”