Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A song recital providing an interdisciplinary exploration of Emily Dickinson's life and poetry will be featured April 7 at Mississippi State.
Sponsored by the university's music department, the free program begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Bettersworth Auditorium of Giles Hall. A reception will follow.
Nancy D. Hargrove, an MSU Giles Distinguished Professor Emerita of English, will discuss Dickinson's work and reclusive life in Amherst, Mass. (For more on Hargrove, visit www.giles.msstate.edu/professors/.)
Hargrove's presentation will be enhanced with song-settings by American composers Aaron Copland, Arthur Farwell, Ernst Bacon, and Leo Smit, performed by music faculty members Iwao Asakura, Rebecca Wascoe and Greg Wascoe. Departmental colleague Karen Murphy accompanies on piano. (For faculty biographies, visit http://music.msstate.edu/faculty-staff/.)
Dickinson, 1830-86, lived in seclusion from the early 1860s on and permitted few of her creations to be published in her lifetime. The first collection, "Poems of Emily Dickinson," wasn't released until four years after her death.
Now considered a major American poet, she is appreciated widely for experimentations with rhythms, rhymes and forms, as well as language and syntax, among other achievements.
Located north of Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field at the intersection of Collegeview Street and Barr Avenue, Giles Hall is home of the College of Architecture, Art and Design.
For more information on the program, contact Karen Murphy at 662-325-3070.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.