W&L’s Department of Music Presents ‘Nymphs and Shepherds’ The May 7 recital will feature W&L faculty, students and alumni in a showcase of Claudio Monteverdi’s compositions.

By Emily Innes
May 6, 2024

The Washington and Lee University Department of Music presents a faculty and student recital titled “Nymphs and Shepherds” at 7 p.m. on May 7 in Wilson Concert Hall in the Lenfest Center for the Performing Arts.

The performance is free and open to the public, and no tickets are required.

The recital will feature music by the early master composer Claudio Monteverdi and his contemporaries, showcasing Monteverdi’s seminal role in the evolution of the musical style that has come to be known as “baroque.” Monteverdi is considered one of the giants in the history of European music and was the leading musician of Venice in the first half of the 17th century.

“Nymphs and Shepherds” will be performed by W&L students, alumni and faculty members, including William McCorkle, lecturer in music, on the harpsichord; tenor Scott Williamson, visiting assistant professor of music; soprano Sarah Gabrielle Lynch ’24; baritone Michael McLaughlin ’23; and bass Kailish Amilcar ’26.

The program’s featured work will be the ensemble’s performance of “Lamento della Ninfa (Lament of the Nymph)” from Monteverdi’s eighth book of madrigals (1638). “Lamento” sets to music a poem by Ottavio Rinuccini, with the lament of an abandoned woman sung for solo soprano and three male voices providing commentary in the role of a Greek chorus. Williamson will also perform “Vi ricorda, o boschi ombrosi (I remember you, dark forest),” an aria from the celebrated opera “Orfeo” (1607) and Lynch will present the solo “Quel sguardo sdegnosetto (That Haughty Little Glance)” from the collection “Scherzi Musicali” (1632). To complement the vocal works, McCorkle will present a harpsichord composition by Monteverid’s Venetian contemporaries, Giovanni Picchi and Giovanni Battista Grillo.

For a full list of this season’s performances, visit the Lenfest Center’s website.

The Lenfest Center for the Arts, home of the Department of Theater, Dance, and Film Studies and the Department of Music and Department of Art and Art History is a multi-use facility designed and equipped to accommodate a broad spectrum of the performing arts, including theater, musical theater, opera and operetta, choral and band music, dance and performance art in one energizing complex.