The Hamilton College Performing Arts Series opens with soprano Julianne Baird’s Jane Austen Songbook on Saturday, Sept. 17, at 8 p.m., in Wellin Hall. A recital for voice and pianoforte, the Jane Austen Songbook weaves pertinent literary passages narrated around a series of arias and late 18th-century songs selected from Jane Austen’s own musical collection.
Researched, created, and performed by Baird, who is a distinguished professor of music at Rutgers University, Camden, the Jane Austen Songbook is a look into the life and times of Jane Austen. Baird writes about the project: “Music and the social status it expressed was an integral part of Jane Austen's life. Her novels are replete with details of domestic musical activities. Accounts of public concerts and private balls as well as music programs with hired musicians fill her letters. A dedicated amateur herself, Austen ordinarily played at the pianoforte at least an hour a day before breakfast from the 8-book music collection now preserved in her home at Chawton, England."
Baird, a soprano, maintains a busy concert schedule of solo recitals and performances of baroque opera and oratorio.
Tickets for this event are $15 for adults/$10 for senior citizens and $5 for students. All seating is general admission. Discounts for groups and subscription packages are available. For tickets or information, call the box office at 859-4331 or visit us at www. hamiltonpa.org or on Facebook at Wellin Hall/Schambach Center for Music and the Performing Arts.
