The second of this year’s member programs will commemorate the 1937 concert by Marian Anderson at the Bushnell Memorial Hall that was sponsored by the Musical Club of Hartford. At that concert, Ms. Anderson performed Schubert’s Der Tod und das Mädchen, which will be sung at this October program by Patrice Fitzgerald, mezzo-soprano.

The program will also include an exciting variety of piano and vocal music, beginning with Mo Tian playing the first movement, Ondine, from Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit. He will also accompany Patrice and her husband, baritone Richard Leslie, on duets from Brahms and Schubert, as well as Schubert’s Der Atlas. Linda MacGougan will play Sonata No. 1 for Flute and Piano by Eric Ewazen, with Bridget Gilchrist on flute.

And then there will be jazz! Walter Gwardyak will accompany Patrice and Richard on pieces ranging from Blues in the Night (with Richard on trumpet) and Orange-Colored Sky to All the Things You Are.

Walter will finish with solo jazz piano renditions of Body and Soul and There Is No Greater Love. At the end of the program there will be an opportunity for audience members to join in as we all sing My Country ’Tis of Thee, in honor of Marian Anderson’s famed Lincoln Memorial concert of 1939. Connie Hegarty will accompany the entire group on the organ.

This program begins at 10:00 AM. You will not want to miss it!

10:00 am on Oct 28, 2015 at Conard High School in West Hartford, along with performances by the Hall and Conard High School Concert Jazz Bands.

Richard Leslie, baritone and trumpet, began playing in the fifth grade, well before he discovered his love of singing. He has been a soloist and section leader with numerous churches, including the Unitarian Society of Hartford, the Universalist Church of West Hartford, and the Unitarian Church in Westport. Past affiliations include the Cantabile Chorale and Musica Plenti as well as CONCORA. Richard toured Paris, along with his wife Patrice, with the Hartford Chorale in the summer of 2014, and will be part of this fall's production of "Carousel" with the West Hartford Community Theater. By day he works in IT as a programmer/analyst.

Linda MacGougan, piano, received her B.A. in Music at Yale and a M.M. in Piano Performance at UConn. Her teachers have included William Westney, Ian Hobson, and Joseph Villa, and she's participated in master classes with Walter Hautzig, Ward Davenny, and Claude Frank. Linda teaches piano in West Hartford, maintaining a studio of about 20 students, and is an active member of the Connecticut State Music Teachers Association. She performs solo piano at area nursing homes and accompanies several West Hartford elementary school choirs. Currently, she serves as President of The Musical Club of Hartford.

Mo Tian, piano, has a B.A. from Brown University, an M.M. in piano performance from Indiana University and currently studies with Irma Vallecillo at the University of Connecticut in the Doctoral of Music Arts program in piano performance where he was awarded a graduate teaching assistantship. He is also piano faculty at the Community School of the Arts. Prior to his undergraduate studies at Brown University, Mo studied at the Music School of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra in solo piano and chamber music, both of which he finds equally exciting and challenging. Mo is an active member of the Music Club of Hartford, which has generously supported him through scholarships for his higher music education.