Dear Friends,

I hope you've gotten your tickets for The Saunter into Autumn: New Songs for Fall, taking place THIS Friday the 13th at Area 405 at 7pm in Baltimore, MD! It's going to be a fantastic and phantasmagoric concert of strange and beautiful music that will fit perfectly with the sudden drop in temperature and major autumn vibes that are upon us!

I am very excited to present this concert to you, which will include world premieres of art songs that I composed in this past year for soprano and piano and for baritone and piano. These are challenging works to perform and Arianna Arnold, Aaron Thacker, and Valerie Hsu are doing a wonderful job with them! Not only this, but we will be presenting works by Tania León, and a song cycle by local Baltimore composer Michael Rickelton that I have admired for many years and dreamed of programming! The concert will finish with a song by one of my teachers from my days at Vanderbilt, composer Carl Smith, which I think will make for a beautiful ending to a contemplative evening. Just as autumn stirs up memory and nostalgia, this concert is also a mix of the past and the present and I think will flow very nicely and be a wonderful presentation in the old factory space of Area 405.

Since I've been bombarding people with the gorgeous poster for this event, you've probably gotten used to seeing this amazing watercolor painting by my husband, Douglas Johnson: Evensong (2023). Well, if you want to continue to enjoy this painting, you can always pick up a 12-month 2024 calendar of original watercolor prints at the event as well, since Doug will be displaying artwork and selling calendars and packs of 12 notes in the front gallery of Area 405. If you're not local to Baltimore, reach out to me about ordering a calendar, we do ship them!

Aren't these gorgeous? Don't you want one? Come to the event to purchase these lovely items, reach out to me personally, or go to Doug's website to order the Calendar or Notecards!

See you at the end of this week!

-Peter