Famous musical show tunes and opera arias will echo across an Ames household as the Scholarship Musicales program continues.

“With a Song in Our Hearts,” the second performance in the Scholarship Musicales program, will feature Simon Estes, the F. Wendell Miller Distinguished Artist in Residence who has performed at world-famous opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. ISU voice faculty and students will join him in the performance.

Estes, a bass-baritone vocalist from Centerville, is an internationally renowned singer who has performed around the world, but most recently under the direction of Placido Domingo for the Washington Opera Company.

Mary Creswell, assistant professor of music, says Estes has been using his performance knowledge and experience to help students in the music department at Iowa State enrolled in an opera studio class.

Creswell says this helps students hone their performing skills not only vocally, but dramatically.

“We all learn from Simon,” Creswell says. “His experience is nothing we can find in a book.”

The Scholarship Musicales program is a series of performances held in people’s homes in front of crowds. The ticket prices raise money for scholarships.

“Saying thank you is important for our program and important for our students [who] we wouldn’t get without these scholarships,” Creswell says.

At Thursday’s performance, there will be a performance by Estes, an ensemble performance by the entire class and some individual performances. The song list ranges from “Tonight” from the musical “West Side Story” to “Monica’s Waltz” from the opera “The Medium.”

Sarah Thompson, junior in music, will be performing one of the arias.

Although the students give an introduction to their piece, Thompson says the difficulty comes not just from singing, but from trying to be in character and making sure the audience is aware of what is going on.

“You don’t just get up and sing a song,” Thompson says. “Telling the whole story with one piece and making sure the audience understands it is difficult.”

What: Scholarship Musicales, “With a Song in Our Hearts”

Where: Home of Dennis Wendell, 917 Adams St.

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday

Cost: Sold Out