KEARNEY – The SALT Quintet will share the multifaceted process of transforming personal narrative into musical drama during an upcoming residency at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
An acronym for share, affirm, lift and tell, the SALT Quintet tells stories through the medium of micro-operas.
The group is comprised of five music professors: mezzo-soprano Sharon Campbell of UNK, soprano Suna Gunther of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, soprano Anne Jennifer Nash of Concordia College and pianist Young Kim and soprano Sylvia Stoner of Skidmore College.
They will be joined by UNK students Sophie Fiedler, Catherine Moritz, Nicole Smith and TruLee Jo White in a concert of micro-operas, staged choral works and a piano solo that all draw from memoirs by women connected to the quintet and the composers.
The concert, “A Mosaic of Mothers,” is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Oct. 10 in the Fine Arts Recital Hall on campus. It will offer a unique perspective of these women’s personal histories and explore the strength and endurance of women through the lens of family experiences.
That performance and a dress rehearsal scheduled for 4 p.m. Oct. 9 in the Fine Arts Recital Hall are both free and open to the public.
The SALT Quintet commissioned three micro-operas for “A Mosaic of Mothers” by composers Rachel DeVore Fogarty, Lisa Neher and Forrest Pierce, as well as a choral work by Emily Feld and piano solo by Jeeyoung Kim.
Five UNK faculty members – Janet Graham (English), Sandra Loughrin (sociology/women’s and gender studies), Suzanne Maughan Spencer (sociology), Linda Van Ingen (history) and Theodora Ziolkowski (English) – are contributing the insights of their research areas via a pre-rehearsal presentation and post-rehearsal discussion on Oct. 9 and program notes offered to the public at the dress rehearsal and Oct. 10 performance.
The SALT Quintet will also present during two English classes as part of the residency, which is funded by Humanities Nebraska and the UNK Departments of English, History, Sociology and Music, Theatre and Dance.
