Sarah Richardson & Michel Shestak

Sarah Richardson, soprano with long-time collaborator and sister, Michel Shestak will be premiering a new song cycle by Milwaukee composer Paula Foley Tillen, inspired by the work of Nellie Kedzie Jones.

Richardson successfully funded this commission using Kickstarter and will be recording the work this fall. The new song cycle uses texts from a particularly entertaining magazine column which Jones wrote for the popular agricultural magazine, The Country Gentleman while living on Smoky Hill Farm near Auburndale, WI from 1911 to 1918. Jones was an advocate for women's education and science-based homemaking and served as leader of UW-Extension from 1918 to 1933.

The premiere performance of Nellie’s Letters: Songs for The Homestead will be held on Sunday, September 25th at 12:30 p.m. in the dining room of the Lowell Center, located at 610 Langdon St. Madison, WI 53703. Sarah Richardson will give a lecture on Nellie Kedzie Jones and the songs she inspired at noon.

This event is free, open to the public, and given in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree.

Sarah Richardson holds a master of music degree from UW-Milwaukee and a bachelor of music degree from Viterbo University. A native of Wisconsin, Sarah is a doctoral student studying with Paul Rowe at UW-Madison. Recent performance highlights include Barbarina (Le Nozze di Figaro), Königin der Nacht (Die Zauberflöte), Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herring) and soprano soloist in Carmina Burana.