Westminster "Artist in Residence" Will Give Final Peformance

Contralto Susan Toth Shafer will give her final performance as "artist in resident' at Westminster College Sunday, Sept. 28, at 3 p.m. in Wallace Memorial Chapel.

The program, "A Recital of Songs About Love and Loss," will feature a group of early Italian songs transcribed by Pietro Floridia, a group of American folk songs adapted and arranged by Luigi Zaninelli, and a group of German folk songs transformed by Gustav Mahler into a collection, Das Knaben Wunderhorn or The Youth's Magic Horn.

As in past performances at Westminster, Shafer will be accompanied by Dr. Russell Miller on the piano, who is a friend and classmate from The Julliard School and currently a professor at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. Dr. Fritz Horn, professor of English Emeritus and longtime supporter of Shafer's musical endeavors, will narrate.

Shafer's recital at Westminster comes between engagements with Opera Pacific and Pittsburgh Opera, where she will sing the role of Mary in The Flying Dutchman in November. This season holds other new challengers for the singer as she prepares for her first Herodias in Salome, and Gertrude in Romeo and Julliette. This will add to her repertoire of over 50 operatic roles. Shafer also appears regularly as a concert artist, and can be heard this year in Vivaldi's Gloria, Handel's Messiah, and the Requiems of both Durufle and Mozart.

For more information, contact the Westminster College Department of Music at (724) 946-7270.