Upcoming Performances

• Interpreting the Negro Spiritual in Classical Vocal Performance
  
  With Marlys Grimm, piano
  Wednesday, April 8, 2015, 4:00 p.m.
  Bucksbaum Center for the Arts, Lawson Lecture Hall (Rm. 152)
  Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa
  Free and open to the public
  
  
• "Dat Promised Land," The Art of the Negro Spiritual
  includes works by Roland Hayes, Hall Johnson, John Carter, H. T. Burleigh, Julia Perry, Uzee Brown, Jr., Moses Hogan, Hale Smith, and R. Nathaniel Dett
  With Marlys Grimm, piano
  Sunday, April 19, 2015, 4:00 p.m.
  Herrick Chapel, Grinnell College
  1128 Park Street, Grinnell, Iowa (Map)
  Free and open to the public
  
  
• Opera Talk - Metropolitan Opera "Live in HD"
  Saturday, April 25, 2015, 11:30 a.m.
  Harris Center Cinema, Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa
  Short talk about scheduled productions, "CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA (Mascagni)/PAGLIACCI (Leoncavallo)
  Talk is free to the public, and production is free to college committee
  
  
• Lecture-discussion, "Secret Signals in the Negro Spiritual"
  Sunday, May 3, 2015, 10:00 a.m. Unitarian Fellowship of Marshalltown
  Community YMCA, 108 Washington St., Marshalltown, Iowa
  

Other upcoming performances and/or lectures will be announced on this site. Please check regularly for more information.

Background

I am a lyric soprano. Although I have performed art songs and operatic arias in recitals around the United States, my interest has turned towards the concert performance of Negro Spirituals. I have begun presenting recitals and lecture recitals on spirituals. Most of this activity is part of my research project called The Art of the Negro Spiritual (ANS). (More about this below.)

Some past ANS programs include:

A February 2011 concert, "Telling the Story through the Spiritual," with pianist Casey Rafn and featuring songs by Roland Hayes, Hall Johnson, John Carter, Margaret Bonds, Roland Carter Wendell Whalum and Betty Jackson King.

Pianist Michelle Crouch and I presented an ANS recital, organized under the theme, "Standin' in de Need." The 2010 program included settings of familiar spirituals by Margaret Bonds, H. T. Burleigh, Edward Boatner, John Carter, Hall Johnson, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Maria Thompson Corley, Hale Smith, Florence Price, Cedric Dent, William Grant Still, Moses Hogan, and Lena McLin.

These recitals serve as an opportunity to share the music created by pioneers, such Burleigh's "Deep River". I also explore works by contemporary composers of spiritual art songs, including a solo vocal setting of "I Want Jesus to Walk with Me," which was composed especially for me by Maria Thompson Corley. I invite you to look at one of the Recital Programs.

I have also enjoyed opportunities to present recitals featuring both American and European composers. Click to view program or click to listen to Rachmaninoff's "Vocalise" recorded during one of those programs. If you would like to have a program presented in your locale, call me at 641-821-0188 or email me at soprano@randyejones.com.

I have shared a number of my performances on video on the YouTube site. Please visit the direct link at www.youtube.com/vulcanlyre.

I released my debut recording, Come Down Angels, in August 2003. The CD includes spiritual art songs by composers Edward Boatner, Margaret Bonds, H. T. Burleigh, John Carter, Maria Corley, R. Nathaniel Dett, Roland Hayes, Hall Johnson, Betty Jackson King, Robert Mac Gimsey, Undine Smith Moore, Julia Perry, and Hale Smith. The recording comes from live performances I presented accompanied by pianist Francis Conlon. To order copies of the compact disc, visit AhhJay Music at www.ahhjayrecords.com.

Musical Selections Performed by Randye Jones:
This Little Light of Mine by Hale Smith (with Francis Conlon, piano)
I Want Jesus to Walk with Me by Maria Thompson Corley (with Gregory Thompson, piano)
Vocalise, op. 34, no. 14, by Sergei Rachmaninoff (with Timothy Newton, piano)
Deep River by Harry T. Burleigh (with Timothy Newton, piano)