Ms. Frances McGill will give a vocal recital, “An American Trilogy” on Sunday, January 10, 2016 at seven o’clock pm at First United Methodist Church in Salisbury. Her program repertoire will span the 20th century of American song. The program will begin with Carlyle Floyd’s Susannah aria,”Ain’t it a Pretty Night.” accompanied by a string quartet from the Winston-Salem Symphony. Floyd’s youth was spent as a Methodist minister’s son in much of North and South Carolina. He attended many tent revivals where he observed the manipulation of religion on a community. The story of Susannah takes place in the Appalachian region and is devoted to conveying the life of a young woman whose life’s dream is to live outside her present environment. The opera is a universal favorite and one of America’s proudest works for the operatic stage.

The songs following represent earlier composer Charles Griffes, a neo-romanticist. He works in a harmonic scheme of later romanticism with changing keys and meters and tonal shifts. The music is very difficult. These songs have most recently been recorded by Deborah Voigt, the Metropolitan Opera’s dramatic soprano. A lighter section of music will be heard next in the songs of Lee Hoiby. Their subjects about a zest for life are refreshing and new.

The German master of composition, Wolfgang Korngold will be heard in his most beautiful aria, “Marietta’s Lied”, from the opera Die Tote Stadt. Although German by birth, Korngold came to America to write for the movie theatre in Hollywood. This is an exciting example from his opera repertoire. Also accompanied by string quartet, it will lend an orchestral element to the program.

Finally, the amazing songs of George Gershwin will be heard as they were intended with accompanist Matthew Brown and jazz saxophonist John Alexander. Alexander is one of the southeast’s foremost instrumentalists in the genre of jazz. His graduate degree is from Miami University. His biography of jamming with some of the jazz greats is quite impressive.

The public is invited.