Program presents sounds and sights of the seasons

Wake Forest pianist Katharine Boyes has put together an evening of music, art, literature and dance titled, “A Celebration of Women Artists: Works Portraying the Seasons.”

The program will begin at 8 p.m. on March 22 in Brendle Recital Hall.

Boyes will open the program with “Songs of the Seasons,” by Marcia Preston, a Connecticut composer who will attend the performance. California poet Monza Naff will read from her own collection of poems, “Exultations,” during the performance of Preston’s music by Boyes.

Poetry by Emily Dickinson and Elinor Wylie and selections from Toni Morrison’s novel, “Sula,” and Alice Walker’s “The Flowers” will be read by Wake Forest Professor of English Mary DeShazer and Wake Forest Associate Dean Jeryl Prescott.

Paintings by women representing each season will be projected on large screens as a backdrop to the performances and readings. Art by Lilly Martin Spencer, Helen Frankenthaler and Georgia O’Keefe will be shown. Margaret Supplee Smith, chair of Wake Forest’s art department, selected the paintings to feature, and Wake Forest faculty, staff, and students will read short biographies of the women artists and their works.

Boyes will also perform “Cantos for the End of Summer” by Gwyneth Walker, “Autumn” by Cecile Chaminade, and “The Call of Winter” by Florence Newell Barbour.

Wake Forest Director of Dance Nina Lucas choreographed dances to the “Spring” and “Autumn” movements of the concluding musical piece, “Four Seasonal Sketches,” by Betty Jackson King. Lucas and two dancers from the Wake Forest Dance Company will perform.

Boyes has a grant from the Archie Fund at Wake Forest and a Regional Artists Project Grant from the Winston-Salem Arts Council to record the piano music included in the program. The CD is scheduled to be released in the summer. A native of England, Boyes has given solo and chamber music performances throughout Great Britain and the United States and has recorded for BBC Radio and American Public Radio.

The event is sponsored by the music department and the women’s studies program in honor of Women’s History Month. Admission is free. For information, call 336-758-5026.

Categories: Arts & Culture, Events