Sunday, May 26, 2024

Madison Smith to Return with Benefit Concert

About a month ago I learned that soprano Madison Smith would be returning to give a performance after almost ten years. I have to confess that I took this news very personally. Unless I am mistaken, Smith’s Graduate Recital at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music was the topic of the very first article I wrote for Examiner.com. I was delighted to discover that this was one of the few Examiner.com articles to benefit from an online archive, and I have to confess that it was with a bit of relief that I found I could reread the article without blushing!

Poster for the concert being discussed (from the Web page for ticket purchases)

After that recital the two of us went our separate ways (or, more accurately, Smith moved on while I remained at my desk). Now, in about a month’s time, she will be performing again in San Francisco. She has prepared a program entitled Echoes of Innocence, which is structured around the performance of Gustav Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder (songs on the death of children) song cycle. As of this writing, the other works to be performed have not yet been finalized. Smith will be accompanied at the piano by Margaret Halbig.

This will be a two-hour program beginning at 5 p.m. on Sunday, June 23. The venue will be the Noe Valley Ministry, which is located at 1021 Sanchez Street, just south of 23rd Street. (This makes it convenient to public transportation lines that stop at the corner of Church Street and 24th Street.) All tickets are being sold for $50, and a Web page has been created for online purchase. A portion of all sales will be donated to UNICEF, and the percentage of the donation will increase with the number of tickets sold.

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