“Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine …”
So wrote the poet Emily Dickinson, and New Texas Music Works has taken her command to heart. This week, the venerable choral organization is hosting a three-day symposium in which there will be sung many strains divine, all with lyrics by the Belle of Amherst herself. The Emily Dickinson Song Symposium is a conference dedicated to art songs featuring texts by the master American poet, and what a fertile field it is! In the last century, more than 100 composers have been inspired to score Dickinson’s poetry, everyone from old hands such as Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland — whose 12 Songs by Emily Dickinson is perhaps the most celebrated example in the field — to newer folks like Dead Man Walking composer Jake Heggie and Austin’s own Donald Grantham. You could spend a year just hunting down and poring over the hundreds of Dickinson art songs — and that’s exactly what Virginia Dupuy has been doing. The noted mezzo soprano (and longtime friend of New Texas) recently took a sabbatical from her job teaching voice at SMU to delve more deeply into the Dickinson art song repertoire. A conversation on the subject with NTMW Artistic Director Craig Hella Johnson hatched the idea for the symposium, and now here it is, kicking off the ninth annual New Texas Festival, which will run through June 1. In attendance at the Dickinson Song Symposium will be composers Jake Heggie and William Jordan, Dickinson scholars Doris Abramson and Emily Seelbinder, and opera coach/pianist Tara Emerson. They’ll join Dupuy and Johnson at Armstrong Community Music School for daytime sessions that will include informal, round-table discussions of Dickinson, as well as master classes for participating musicians. Each evening will feature a different concert at a different location (see below). The public is welcome — nay, encouraged — to attend. A $40 pass gets you into all three days of seminars and all three concerts, or you can purchase passes just for the seminar ($25 for three days or $10 per day) or for the concerts.
Split the lark and you’ll find the music,
Bulb after bulb, in silver rolled,
Scantily dealt to the summer morning,
Saved for your ear when lutes be old.
Concert Schedule
Emily Dickinson in Song Virginia Dupuy, mezzo-soprano
Tuesday, May 21, 8pm, Riverbend Center Chapel. $15
Art Songs and Poetry Readings
Festival Artists
Wednesday, May 22, 7:30pm, Preece Hall, Armstrong Community Music School, $10
An Evening of Song
Festival Artists
Thursday, May 23, 8pm, Schroeder Performing Arts Center, Concordia University campus, $10
This article appears in May 17 • 2002.