The Lee University School of Music will host JoAnne Stephenson, mezzo soprano, in the second Performing Arts Series concert this fall on Thursday, Oct. 10, at 7:30 p.m. in the Squires Recital Hall.
Ms. Stephenson is an active performer, lecturer, adjudicator, and choral conductor. She teaches private voice, German diction, English diction and song literature at the University of Central Florida.
Ms. Stephenson has performed and lectured abroad in Beijing, China; Leipzig, Germany; Prague, Czech Republic; Vienna, Austria; Melk, Austria; Cambridge, England; London, England; Paris, France; Ragusa, Italy; and Vevey, Switzerland.
Works composed for and performed by Stephenson include “The Heavens Declare” by Dr. Adolphus Hailstork, performed at the 2011 African-American Art Song Alliance Conference, and “The Umokoro Songs” by Dr. Wallace Cheatham at the Beijing Conservatory. Her solo Masterworks performances include Bach’s “Magnificat,” Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony,” and Mozart’s “Mass in C Minor.” Stephenson also performed the role of the narrator in a staging of “Les Choéphores,” a part of Darius Milhaud’s Oresteian Trilogy, with UCF’s choir and percussion ensemble.
Ms. Stephenson developed “An Introduction to Music by African-Americans,” a course at UCF examining music from Africa and its evolution in the United States from Negro spirituals to present-day hip hop. She also directed the African-American Studies Program at UCF from 2001 to 2010.
During her tenure as director, Ms. Stephenson established the James Weldon Johnson Lecture Series and founded the Carol Mundy Diasporic Research Center to archive and research artifacts and papers related to the history of African-Americans.
This event is free of charge and open to the public, but tickets are required. Tickets will be available beginning Thursday, Oct. 3. To reserve a ticket, contact the Lee University Box Office, open from 3-6 p.m. daily, at 614-8343.
For more information about the Performing Arts Series or other music events, please call the School of Music at 614-8240.