Texas and Italy:

This recital program marks the 20th anniversary of Beth Ray earning a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin and some of the music is associated with her study there. The featured work is Casa Guidi, a cycle of five songs by Dominick Argento. Casa Guidi is the name of a Florence, Italy house in which Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning lived. The text of Argento's composition comes from letters Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote to her sisters and a family friend back in England. Other works on the program are by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, Stefano Sacher, and Richard Strauss.