Arts & Culture

UK School of Music to Premiere Recital Inspired by African-American Poetry

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LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 12, 2016) — The University of Kentucky School of Music will celebrate Black History Month with a special recital inspired by African-American poetry performed and composed by two accomplished alumni. The world premiere of “What Dreams We Have,” featuring Reginald Smith Jr. and Daniel Arnold, will begin 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 15, at the Singletary Center for the Arts Recital Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

This new composition by Arnold incorporates the themes of night and dreams that are prevalent in poetry from such notable writers as Paul Laurence Dunbar, Georgia Douglas Johnson, James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes and more. Works featured will also include Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday,” Morgan Collins’ “Creole Girl” and Clarissa Scott Delany’s “Night Song,” just to name a few.

In addition to Smith and Arnold, the recital will feature School of Music faculty Nan McSwain, lecturer in opera and vocal coach, and Margaret Karp, lecturer in violin and viola.

The day after the recital, Smith and Arnold will participate in a public panel discussion from 12:45 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16, in the Gail Robinson Memorial Library in the Schmidt Vocal Arts Center. This discussion will explore new musical compositions, what it is like working with composers and performers, and finding inspiration from poetry, along with other topics.

The recital is presented with support from the Friends of the UK School of Music and OperaLex.

Baritone Reginald Smith Jr. was a grand finals winner of the 2015 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a recent graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio. He has been praised by the New York Times as a "passionate performer" and by Opera News for his "powerful and attractive voice." In the 2015-2016 season, he had his company debut with Toledo Opera, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and the Nashville Symphony. He is an alumnus of the Seagle Music Colony, the Janiec Opera Company at the Brevard Music Center, the Lyric Opera Studio of Weimar, the Gerdine Young Artist Program at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and of the Filene Young Artist Program at Wolf Trap Opera. He is a 2013 graduate of UK where he earned bachelor's degrees in in vocal performance and choral music education. Smith studied with Everett McCorvey, director of UK Opera Theatre.

Daniel Arnold’s music has been performed in Germany, England, Portugal and Romania, in addition to cities across the United States. Primarily a composer of solo piano music and chamber music, Arnold received his master's degree in composition in 2012 from UK, where he studied with Joseph Baber. Arnold currently works as a freelance composer, arranger and engraver.

The UK School of Music at UK College of Fine Arts has garnered a national reputation for high-caliber education in opera, choral and instrumental music performance, as well as music education, composition, and theory and music history.

MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu