A Concert on Women’s Mental Health

Department of Music performance to feature poetry of Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath April 12

Washington University’s Department of Music in Arts & Sciences will present A Concert on Women’s Mental Health at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

The concert, which will feature compositions based on texts by Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson, is free and open to the public and is held in conjunction with the exhibition Inside Out Loud: Visualizing Women’s Health in Contemporary Art (through April 24).

CALENDAR SUMMARY

WHO: Washington University Department of Music in Arts & Sciences

WHAT: A Concert on Women’s Mental Health, featuring texts by Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath

WHEN: 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 12

WHERE: Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Steinberg Hall

COST: Free

INFORMATION: (314) 935-4841

The Kemper Art Museum — part of the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Art — is located in Steinberg Hall, near the intersection of Forsyth and Skinker boulevards. For more information, call (314) 935-4841.

Mezzo soprano Deborah Stinson, a master’s graduate in vocal performance who also has taught in the music department, will perform three songs by Aaron Copland — “Heart, We Will Forget Him,” “The World Feels Dusty” and “I’ve heard an Organ Talk Sometimes” — drawn from a set of 12 songs Copland based on works by Dickinson. Pianist is Scott Schoonover, musical director and conductor of Union Avenue Opera Theatre.

Soprano Tamara Miller-Campbell and clarinetist Paul Garritson, both instructors in applied music, will perform Ariel, a suite of five songs — “Words,” “Poppies in July,” “The Hanging Man,” “Poppies in October” and “Lady Lazarus”— by Ned Rorem, based on poems from Plath’s posthumous 1965 collection of the same title. Pianist is Henry Palkes, staff accompanist in the Department of Music.

Palkes also will join mezzo soprano Noël Prince, instructor in applied music, and Tod Bowermaster, a hornist with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, for a setting of Plath’s Lorelei by Juliana Hall.

Finally, the Saint Louis Women’s Chorale, directed by Schoonover, will present a set of five songs: Pablo Casals’ Nigra Sum, based on texts from the Bible’s “The Song of Solomon”; Daniel Gawthrop’s Mary Speaks; Morten Lauridsen’s Dirait-on; Joan Szymko’s Variations on a Theme by Rilke; and the Polish folk song Dwa Serduszka.

Inside Out Loud is the first major survey of contemporary American art to explore critical issues relating to women’s health. More than 30 campus and community partners have joined with the Kemper Art Museum to present close to 70 events relating to women’s health throughout the spring. For a complete schedule, contact Stephanie Parrish at (314) 935-7918 or Stephanie_Parrish@wustl.edu.