Summer is coming in, there's joy in the land, birds on the trees, vultures in the District of Columbia, and all is right with the world, so that it would appear a perfect time for Joe Pearce to present an all-song program. Now, Joe has played plenty of song recordings during his forty years of giving VRCS programs, but he has never devoted an entire evening to the art of singing a song. He is just in the right mood to do one in June, and he hopes you are in the right mood to receive it.

Mostly, his program will consist of relatively serious fare (in other words, nothing far out), perhaps ranging from Jerome Kern to Hugo Wolf, but a good slice of it will be devoted to "light" songs that used to be staples of many an operatic artist's concert or radio repertoire, but which have fallen into a kind of limbo as musical tastes changed, critics decried such material as not worthy of serious consideration, and the world simply ran out of classically-trained vocalists with the style and/or inclination to do them justice. As usual, he will provide no hints here of who will be heard, but you can bet the farm on the fact that June's program will have a great many tenors on it. Indeed, when finalized, it might conceivably consist only of tenors, but that may be too much to hope for (or dread, according to your prejudices).

Anyhow, many truly great singers will be heard, and it should be a lively outing, with everyone attending receiving a free cassette copy of the selections played (but only at the conclusion of the program), which will serve two purposes: 1) Insure an audience for the entire evening, and 2) Placate that audience in view of the one-more-month's-unavailability of our 2007 CD (see below).

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HISTORIC MASTERS PRESENTED BY A HISTORIC MASTER!

Well, our programs really don't get any better or more important than the one presented in May by Professor Stanley Henig on the subject of the Historic Masters project (HM). The good professor, who is nothing if not affable, outgoing and humorous, proved a delightful guide as he took us through the entire history of the HM enterprise, leaving us feeling sorely disappointed there wasn't more to come when the clock dictated a close to his presentation. Of particular interest to many was surely his description of Lord Harewood's continued influence on some of the initially recalcitrant figures involved in setting up HM (rather like the 800-pound gorilla in the room!), but all the areas he covered were of great interest so that we really must not try to pick and choose.

Of course, he demonstrated the product, so to speak, with over a dozen judiciously-chosen recordings (beginning and ending with Conchita Supervia, which means our excellent host understood our VRCS tastes even in advance of an in-person experience with us). Professor Henig has been made an Honorary Member of the VRCS, which seems a pretty terrible thing to do to anyone who has afforded us so much pleasure, and we do hope that when he is back in the U.S.A. again, he will consider doing a Part Two on HM for us. A thousand thanks to Professor Stanley Henig for a most memorable VRCS outing!