We are all American singers and proud of our young, yet rich, musical heritage. Choosing a program to perform for you was no easy task. Some of our composers and lyricists are well known, even outside the U.S. Other, not so….. Most were born on American soil, and a few others (Romberg, Vernon Duke - formerly known as Vladimir Dukelsky, Weill) were so taken with the musical and other freedoms afforded them that they adopted our country as their own, even as they were leaders in changing older European styles into American "popular" music. All were men either out to make their living or to escape fascism in their native lands. All embraced with enthusiasm the music already existing in America and brought it to new levels of sophistication.

We decided to stick to the years of c. 1925 – 1970, with the bulk of our selections written in the late 30’s to late 40’s. The words are sometimes corny, but often right on the mark. George and Ira Gershwins’ great PORGY AND BESS needs no introduction, except to say that Sportin’ Life, who sings the song, would in 1935 warn his audience to take happy days with that "little grain of salt". How right he turned out to be - World War II was right around the corner.

Romberg’s Romance, written less than 10 years earlier, harkens back to a simpler, more naïve view of life. It is imbued with the charming, old-fashioned Viennese musical style the composer had known so well.

Dinah, Sam’s troubled wife in TROUBLE IN TAHITI, has just emerged from the movie theater after seeing a wildly fantastic movie involving the US Navy, natives run amok, island princesses and witch doctors , along with erupting volcanoes and hurricanes. At the same time she makes fun of all this nonsense, she longs for beauty and excitement in her own hum-drum life and, for a time, loses herself in it. This piece was written in 1954 with the back-up vocal trio as "Greek chorus."

BRIGADOON (possibly from the words, "bridge of Doon" in Scotland) is a tuneful bouquet many know and love. We bring you two selections from this show , written in 1947. Another wild plot. A mysterious Scottish village, Brigadoon, appears for only one day in each 100 years, as it is under a magic spell. Two Americans, out hunting in the woods, inadvertently stumble into Brigadoon’s 100 year appearance. They, of course, fall in love with the locals, trouble occurs, and all’s well that ends well.

1933 and ’34 saw Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach collaborating on ROBERTA and CAT AND THE FIDDLE. Silly plots, some memorable songs, and twenty years later an MGM film called Lovely to look at brought ROBERTA’s tunes to a new audience.

CABIN IN THE SKY, 1940 (also, with musical help from Harold Arlen), was an all-black musical that made a huge star out of Lena Horne and paired her with her CABIN "rival", Miss Ethel Waters. CABIN IN THE SKY tells a version of the Faust legend in which Little Joe, a man killed over gambling debts, is given six months to redeem his soul and become worthy of entering Heaven - otherwise his soul will be condemned to Hell. In the midst of all his choosing, a character called "Lucifer, Junior" tries to sway him to sin, in the form of temptress Georgia Brown. A twenty-something John Latouche came in as lyricist at the last minute to help composer Vernon Duke. Latouche gained fame later for writing the lyrics for BALLAD OF BABY DOE, the opera about Colorado silver miners and their wives and girlfriends - music by Douglas Moore. BABY DOE was the opera that put Beverly Sills on the map.

Sam Barber, Leonard Bernstein, and Aaron Copland are, by now, household names. James Agee, who wrote the words to Sure on this Shining Night, also authored the words later set in Barber’s masterpiece, KNOXVILLE, SUMMER OF 1918. Remember "It has become that time of evening, when people sit on their porches, rocking gently and talking gently…" The late, great soprano Eleanor Steber, from Wheeling, West Virginia, made that her musical signature piece.

James Barrie, who wrote the book PETER PAN, could not have foreseen how his charming story developed over the years. Made famous by Mary Martin in a musical rendition, and later in the movies, the "boy who wouldn’t grow up" found a captive audience on the legitimate stage, too. In 1950, the play with music and words supplied by Leonard Bernstein first appeared.

Dominick Argento chose ancient Elizabethan texts for his SIX ELIZABETHAN SONGS. Although he uses some of the conventions of lute song and its ilk ("to-whit, to whoo"), this prolific Midwestern composer writes a crisp, clean, contemporary song. A Pulitzer prize winner, Argento lives in Minnesota, where he recently retired as Professor of Music at the University.

Composer, pianist and teacher, Margaret Bonds was also the first black soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Later in her career, she made arrangements of spirituals for soprano Leontyne Price. Bonds’ THREE SONGS are all set to texts by the great American poet, Langston Hughes. They seem almost "dream-scapes" of mood and a sense of "otherness" that compelled Hughes himself to leave America for France a generation ago. Essayist, dramatist, lyricist, and newspaper columnist as well, Hughes the poet was part of the black expatriate community during the 1920’s in Paris. Although he spent a great deal of his life travelling all over the world, he eventually settled in Harlem, New York City and died there, in 1967, at age 65.

Hale Smith - composer, arranger, mentor to American jazz musicians, professor at CW Post College and later, University of Connecticut, originally arranged This Little Light of Mine for high voice and orchestra. It was recorded by the London Symphony.

John Duke’s Loveliest of Trees is perhaps his most famous song. The text (from A SHROPSHIRE LAD) is by the Englishman, A. E. Housman. The main theme of A SHROPSHIRE LAD is mortality, how life is precious and how death can strike at any time. Trees certainly underscores that idea-"Now, of my three-score year and ten, twenty will not come again!"

ONE TOUCH OF VENUS has a ridiculous and charming plot. It’s set in a department store where a young employee, Eddie Hatch, kisses a statue of Venus, the goddess of love. The statue then comes to life. The plot thickens when the reborn goddess of love falls for the hapless Eddie. Born in Germany in 1900, the composer, Kurt Weill (along with wife, Lotte Lenya), had run from the Nazis and made his home in the U.S. Jumping right into the American musical scene, he composed this show for Broadway in 1943. It starred Mary Martin, (the star of PETER PAN) as the statue goddess herself. Note the delicious words of Ogden Nash, pithy poet of light verse. He was helped, in this case, by S.J. Perelman, master wordsmith and writer for some of the Marx Brothers movies. Why is this song included in the art song section of the concert? Apart from the excellent text, there exist vocal leaps and challenges seldom seen in Broadway. Weill is now considered a "cross-over" legitimate composer of songs.