Songs of Love and the Sea: Concert with Peter W. Shea
Local tenor and UMass Amherst librarian Peter W. Shea will be presenting a free concert of vocal chamber music, "Songs of Love and the Sea". Shea will be joined by the distinguished pianists Monica Jakuc, Gretchen Saathoff and Susan Dedell, as well as a string quartet from southern Vermont. A music cataloguer at the DuBois Library, Shea presents this program as one of the culminations of his sabbatical project on musical settings of the German/Jewish poet Heinrich Heine.
Songs will be performed for various combinations of voice, piano, and strings, each based on one of the twelve poems in Heine's Die Nordsee, Erster Zyklus (The North Sea, First Cycle). The concert will include several world-premiere performances of works by area composers, including Willis Bridegam, David Kidwell, Kaeza Fearn and Zeke Hecker. Several selections will be sung in English translation. Full texts and translations will be provided.
The concert will be followed by a reception in celebration of Heine's 208th birthday, which occurs on the same day.