Soprano Minnita Daniel-Cox will present a free lecture-recital about musical settings of the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar, known in the 19th century as the “African-American poet laureate.” With pianist Gwynne Brown, the program includes music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and H. Leslie Adams.

7:30 p.m. Oct. 6. Free. Schneebeck Hall, University of Puget Sound, 1701 S. Union Ave., Tacoma.

‘America The Beautiful’: Glimpses of an American Songbook

Acclaimed mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves will sing a concert of music by American composers on September 25th at the Phillips Collection modern art museum located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Miss Graves was born in Washington, DC, graduated from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in 1981, and went on to study at Oberlin Conservatory and New England Conservatory before embarking on her professional career at the Wolf Trap Opera Company. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1995 as Carmen – a role she has sung there more than 40 times.

Leslie Adams (b. 1932) is an African-American composer whose works include the opera Blake based on the nineteenth-century novel by Martin Delany

ACA is pleased to announce a concert of chamber music by four exceptional women composers whose music is rarely heard. Hermine Haselböck, Mezzosoprano; Franz Bartolomey, Violoncello; and Clemens Zeilinger, Piano, will present an evening of music by Charlotte Schlesinger, Vítezslava Kaprálová, Henriëtte Bosmans, and one of ACA's founding members, Vally Weigl.  Many thanks to EntArteOpera for their support of this music.

Vally Weigl (1894-1982):
Old-time Burlesque, für Violoncello und Klavier 1938
Toccatina, (Homage to Robert Schumann), für Klavier 1982

On September 6th, Composer-Pianist Steven Christopher Sacco will release a new recording of his Sonata for Trombone and Piano, featuring the composer as pianist with  trombonist Michael Powell.  The track is now available for pre-release on iTunes, Amazon.com, YouTube, and CD Baby.  Short excerpt:

Mezzo-soprano D’Anna Fortunato, an admired favorite on the international concert stage, will celebrate Maine composers in a concert at the UMaine School of Performing Arts, with esteemed colleagues Peter H. Bloom, multiple flutes; Thomas Hill, clarinet; and Mary Jane Rupert, piano and harp. The program, Mostly Maine Composers, will be a tribute to Elliott Schwartz in his 80th year, and will honor other Maine composers Beth Wiemann, Richard Nelson, Elizabeth Vercoe and Michael Viens.