20251019_Porter_Avery_Thomas

THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY College of Music presents

Faculty Recital

Marcía Porter, Soprano Elizabeth Avery, Piano Shannon Thomas, Violin

Sunday, October 19, 2025 4:00 p.m. | Longmire Recital Hall

To Ensure An Enjoyable Concert Experience For All… Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting during performances. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Recording or broadcasting of the concert by any means, including the use of digital cameras, cell phones, or other devices is expressly forbidden. Please deactivate all portable electronic devices including watches, cell phones, pagers, hand-held gaming devices or other electronic equipment that may distract the audience or performers.

Recording Notice: This performance may be recorded. Please note that members of the audience may at times be included in this process. By attending this performance you consent to have your image or likeness appear in any live or recorded video or other transmission or reproduction made in conjunction to the performance.

Florida State University provides accommodations for persons with disabilities. Please notify the College of Music at (850) 644-3424 at least five working days prior to a musical event to request accommodation for disability or alternative program format.

PROGRAM Clairières dans le ciel 2. Elle est gravement gaie 6. Si tout ceci n’est qu’un pauvre rêve 7. Nous nous aimerons tant 8. Vous m’avez regardé avec toute votre âme 9. Les lilas qui avainet fleuri Sonnets of Love, Rosebuds, and Death 1. Had No Thought of Violets of Late 2. Joy 3. Some Things Are Very Dear to Me 4. He Came in Silvern Armour 5. Song for a Dark Girl 6. Idolatry 7. Youth Sings a Song of Rosebuds 8. Invocation

Lili Boulanger (1893–1918)

Dorothy Rudd Moore (1940–2022)

Shannon Thomas, violin INTERMISSION Nocturne

Lili Boulanger Shannon Thomas, violin

Three Moods of the Sea Requies Before the Squall After Sunset

Ethel Smyth (1858–1944)

Menuet La lune paresseuse Viens, mon bien-aimé L’absente

Cécile Chaminade (1854–1944)

TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS from Clairières dans le ciel (1914) Poet: Francis Jammes Elle est gravement gaie

She is gravely cheerful

Elle est gravement gaie. Par moments son regard se levait comme pour surprendre ma pensée.

Elle était douce alors comme quand il est tard le velours jaune et bleu d’une allée de pensées.

She is gravely cheerful. At times her gaze would lift as if to capture my thoughts.

She was soft then, like when it’s late the yellow and blue velvet of an avenue of pansies.

Si tout ceci n’est qu’un pauvre rêve

If all this is only a poor dream

Si tout ceci n’est qu’un pauvre rêve, et s’il faut que j’ajoute dans ma vie, une fois encore, la désillusion aux désillusions; et, si je dois encore, par ma sombre folie, chercher dans la douceur du vent et de la pluie les seules vaines voix qui m’aient en passion; je ne sais si je guérirai, ô mon amie …

If all this is only a poor dream, and if I must add to my life, once again, disillusionment to disillusionment; and if I must still, through my dark madness, seek in the gentleness of the wind and the rain the only futile voices that love me; I do not know if I will recover, oh my friend...

Nous nous aimerons tant

We will love each other so much

Nous nous aimerons tant que nous tairons nos mots, en nous tendant la main, quand nous nous reverrons.

Vous serez ombragée par d’anciens rameaux sur le banc que je sais où nous nous assoierons.

Donc nous nous assoierons sur ce banc tous deux seuls …

D’un long moment, ô mon amie, vous n’oserez …

Que vous me serez douce et que je tremblerai …

We will love each other so much that we will keep silent, holding out our hands, when we meet again.

You will be shaded by ancient branches on the bench where I know we will both sit.

So we will sit on this bench, the two of us alone...

For a long time, oh my friend, you will not dare...

How gentle you will be and how I will tremble...

Vous m’avez regardé avec toute votre âme

You looked at me with all your soul

Vous m’avez regardé avec toute votre âme.

Vous m’avez regardé longtemps comme un ciel bleu.

J’ai mis votre regard à l’ombre de mes yeux …

Que ce regard était passionné et calme …

You looked at me with all your soul.

You looked at me for a long time, like a blue sky.

I placed your gaze in the shadow of my eyes...

How passionate and calm that gaze was...

Les lilas qui avaient fleuri

The lilacs that bloomed

Les lilas qui avaient fleuri l’année dernière vont fleurir de nouveau dans les tristes parterres.

Déjà le pêcher grêle a jonché le ciel bleu de ses roses, comme un enfant la Fête-Dieu.

Mon cœur devrait mourir au milieu de ces choses car c’était au milieu des vergers blancs et roses que j’avais espéré je ne sais quoi de vous.

Mon âme rêve sourdement sur vos genoux.

Ne la repoussez point. Ne la relevez pas de peur qu’en s’éloignant de vous elle ne voie combien vous êtes faible et troublée dans ses bras.

The lilacs that bloomed last year will bloom again in the sad flowerbeds.

Already the slender peach tree has strewn the blue sky with its pinks, like a child at Corpus Christi.

My heart should die amidst these things for it was amidst the white and pink orchards that I do not know what had hoped I from you.

My soul dreams idly on your lap.

Do not push it away. Do not lift it up for fear that, by moving away from you, it might see how weak and troubled you are in its arms.

Sonnets of Love, Rosebuds, and Death 1. I had no thoughts of violets of late Alice Ruth Moore (1875-1935), as Alice Nelson Dunbar

4. He came in silvern armour Poet: Gwendolyn Bennett

I had no thoughts of violets of late, The wild, shy kind that spring beneath your feet In wistful April days, when lovers mate And wander through the fields in raptures sweet.

The thought of violets meant florists’ shops, And bows and pins, and perfumed papers fine; And garnish lights, and mincing little fops And cabarets and songs, and deadening wine.

So far from sweet real things my thoughts had strayed, I had forgot wide fields, and clear brown streams; The perfect loveliness that God has made, -Wild violets shy and Heaven-mounting dreams.

And now -- unwittingly, you’ve made me dream Of violets, and my soul’s forgotten gleam.

He came in silvern armour, trimmed with black— A lover come from legends long ago— With silver spurs and silken plumes a-blow, And flashing sword caught fast and buckled back In a carven sheath of Tamarack.

He came with footsteps beautifully slow, And spoke in voice meticulously low.

He came and Romance followed in his track…

I did not ask his name—I thought him Love; I did not care to see his hidden face.

All life seemed born in my intaken breath; All thought seemed flown like some forgotten dove.

He bent to kiss and raised his visor’s lace…

All eager-lipped I kissed the mouth of Death.

2. Joy Clarissa M. Scott Delany (1901-1927)

5. Song For a Dark Girl Poet: Langston Hughes (1901-1967)

Joy shakes me like the wind that lifts a sail, Like the roistering wind That laughs through stalwart pines.

It floods me like the sun On rain-drenched trees That flash with silver and green, I abandon myself to joy I laugh -- I sing.

Too long have I walked a desolate way, Too long stumbled down a maze Bewildered.

Way Down South in Dixie (Break the heart of me) They hung my black young lover To a cross roads tree.

Way Down South in Dixie (Bruised body high in air) I asked the white Lord Jesus What was the use of prayer.

Way Down South in Dixie (Break the heart of me) Love is a naked shadow On a gnarled and naked tree.

3. Some things are very dear to me Poet: Gwendolyn Bennett (1902–1981) Some things are very dear to me— Such things as flowers bathed by rain Or patterns traced upon the sea Or crocuses where snow has lain … the iridescence of a gem, The moon’s cool opalescent light, Azaleas and the scent of them, And honeysuckles in the night.

And many sounds are also dear— Like winds that sing among the trees Or crickets calling from the weir Or Negroes humming melodies.

But dearer far than all surmise Are sudden tear-drops in your eyes.

6. Idolatry Poet: Arna Wendell Bontemps (1902-1973) You have been good to me, I give you this

7. Youth Sings a Song of Rosebuds Poet: Countee Cullen (1903–1946) Since men grow diffident at last, And care no whit at all, If spring be come, or the fall be past, Or how the cool rains fall, I come to no flower but I pluck, I raise no cup but I sip, For a mouth is the best of sweets to suck; The oldest wine’s on the lip.

If I grow old in a year or two, And come to the querulous song Of ‘Alack and aday’ and ‘This was true, And that, when I was young,’ I must have sweets to remember by, Some blossom saved from the mire, Some death-rebellious ember I Can fan into a fire.

8. Invocation Helene Johnson (1906-1995) Let me be buried in the rain In a deep, dripping wood, Under the warm wet breast of Earth Where once a gnarled tree stood.

And paint a picture on my tomb With dirt and a piece of bough Of a girl and a boy beneath a round, ripe moon Eating of love with an eager spoon And vowing an eager vow.

And do not keep my plot mowed smooth And clean as a spinster’s bed, But let the weed, the flower, the tree, Riotous, rampant, wild and free, Grow high above my head.

Three Moods of the Sea (1913) Poet: Arthur Symons (1865–1945) Requies O is it death or life that sounds Like something strangely known In this subsiding out of strife, This low sea monotone?

A sound scarce heard through sleep Murmurs as the August bees That fill the forest hollows deep About the roots of trees.

O is it death or life, or is it Hope or memory That quiets all things with this breath Of the eternal sea?

Before the squall The wind is rising on the sea, The windy white foam dancers leap; And the sea moans uneasily, And turns to sleep, and cannot sleep.

Ridge after rocky ridge uplifts wild hands, And hammers at the land, Scatters in liquid dust, and drifts To death among the dusty sand.

On the horizon’s nearing line, Where the sky rests a visible wall, Grey in the offing I divine The sails that fly before a squall.

After sunset The sea lies quieted beneath The after sunset flush That leaves upon the heap’d grey clouds The grapes faint purple blush.

Pale, from a little space in heaven Of delicate ivory.

The sickle moon and one gold star Look down upon the sea.

Menuet

Minuet

Dans votre robe à grands paniers Je vous vois encor si jolie Que j’en avais de la folie Lorsque vers moi vous vous tourniez, Votre révérence accomplie.

In your dress with its large petticoats I still see you, so pretty I was so smitten when you turned towards me, after completing your curtsey.

Avec vos blonds cheveux poudrés Et votre grâce langoureuse Vous me rappeliez, charmeuse, Les marquises des tableaux frais Nés de la main fine de Greuze.

With your powdered blond hair And your delicate grace You reminded me, charming one, Of the marquises in the fresh paintings Born from the fine hand of Greuze.*

Quand finit le menuet doux, À la dernière figure, Je ne mentis pas, je vous jure, En me jetant à vos genoux, Et déjà vous en étiez sûre.

When the sweet minuet ended, at the last gesture, I do not lie, I swear to you throwing myself at your knees, and you were already sure of it. * Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) was a French painter.

La lune paresseuse Poet: Charles De Bussy (1975–1938)

The idle moon

Dans un rayon de crepuscule S’endort la libellule; Le rossignol s’est endormi Sur la branche d’un chêne ami,

In a ray of twilight The dragonfly falls asleep; The nightingale has fallen asleep On the branch of a friendly oak,

L’herbage est plein de lucioles, Le ciel d’étoiles folles, Et pourtant la lune qui luit Laisse ses ombres a la nuit.

The grass is full of fireflies, The sky of wild stars, And yet the shining moon Leaves its shadows to the night.

Mollement, Lune, tu reposes Sous des nuages roses...

Oh! la paresseuse, pourquoi Te jouer de mon tendre émoi ?

Softly, Moon, you rest Under pink clouds...

Oh! Idle one, why Do you toy with my tender emotions?

Toujours voilée à l’heure douce Où, glissant sur la mousse, Les cigales chantent moins fort, Tu ne te montres pas encor!

Always veiled at the gentle hour When, gliding over the moss, The cicadas sing less loudly, Yet you do not show yourself !

Lève-toi! brillante et sereine, Viens éclairer la plaine!

Lune d’argent, Lune au front blanc, Illumine mon bras tremblant!

Arise! bright and serene, Come and light up the plain!

Silver moon, white-faced moon, Illuminate my trembling arm!

Frôle de ta lumière pure L’or de ma chevelure: Car c’est bientôt que va passer Sur la route mon fiancé!...

Brush with your pure light The gold of my hair: For soon my fiancé will pass Along the road!...

Viens, mon bien-aimé!

Poet: Armand Lafrique (1858–1911)

Come, my beloved!

Les beaux jours vont enfin renaître, Le voici, l’avril embaumé!

Un frisson d’amour me pénètre, Viens! mon bien-aimé!

The beautiful days will finally be reborn, Here it is, the fragrant April!

A thrill of love fills me, Come! my beloved!

Ils ont fui, les longs soirs moroses, Déjà le jardin parfumé Se remplit d’oiseaux et de roses: Viens! mon bien-aimé!

They have fled, the long, gloomy evenings, Already the fragrant garden fills with birds and roses: Come! my beloved!

Soleil, de ta brûlante ivresse, J’ai senti mon coeur enflammé, Plus enivrante est ta caresse, Viens! mon bien-aimé!

Sun, with your burning intoxication, I feel my heart ablaze, your caress is more intoxicating, Come! my beloved!

Tout se tait, de millions d’étoiles Le ciel profond est parsemé, Quand sur nous la nuit met ses voiles: Viens! mon bien-aimé!

All is silent, with millions of stars the deep sky is sprinkled, When night sets its veils over us: Come! my beloved!

L’absente Poet: Édouard Guinand (1838 – 1909)

The absent one

Vois le vent chassant la nue; Vois l’oiseau traversant l’air; Vois l’étoile chevelue Hâtant sa course inconnue; Vois au ciel passer l’éclair.

See the wind chasing the clouds; See the bird crossing the air; See the comet Hastening its unknown course; See the lightning flash across the sky.

Et cependant si pressée Que l’aile ou la foudre soit, Quand mes yeux, ma fiancée, Ne te voient plus, ma pensée Vole plus vite vers toi!

And yet as hurried as the wing or thunderbolt are, when my eyes, my betrothed, no longer see you, my thoughts fly faster towards you!

Vois l’enfant qui de sa mère À tout instant suit les pas; Vois là-bas le mur de pierre Qu’à jamais ce beau lierre Entoure de mille bras.

See the child who follows his mother’s steps at every moment; See over there the stone wall which forever this beautiful ivy encircles with a thousand arms.

Et cependant si fixée Qu’à tout objet l’ombre soit, Quand mes yeux, ma fiancée, Ne te voient plus, ma pensée S’attache encor plus à toi!

And yet so fixed as shadows are on every object, when my eyes, my betrothed, no longer see you, my thoughts close even more to you!

Translations by Marcía Porter

ABOUT THE ARTISTS Award-winning soprano Marcía Porter made her New York solo recital debut in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2005. An active recitalist, the soprano has performed in numerous venues throughout the United States, Italy, Brazil, and the Czech Republic. Porter has sung at such prestigious international festivals as the Prague Proms, Piccolo Spoleto Festival, the Ravinia Festival, and the Ameropa International Chamber Music Festival. She has performed with such national and international organizations as the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, Beijing International Symphony Orchestra (Beijing, China) and the Camerata Filarmonica Bohemia (Prague, Czech Republic). Porter has also performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Chautauqua Opera, Dayton Opera, and Chicago Opera Theatre. Porter’s discography includes the 2011 world premier recording of Requiem für Mozart, works for soprano and orchestra

by Antonio Rosetti, which was released by the German record label Ars Produktion, and the 2013 recording, Open Thine Heart, a recording of contemporary American vocal works, which was released by Albany Records.

A Fulbright Scholar and Rotary International Cultural Ambassadorial Scholar, Porter has won several other awards and honors including the 2004 National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Artist Award Competition, the NATS Intern program, finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Central Regional Competition, Jessye Norman Graduate Fellowship in Voice, Opera Carolina Young Artist Recital Program Award, and the Farwell Award. In 2011-2012 Porter was a Fulbright Scholar to Brazil. Her research was entitled “Bridging boundaries through musical collaboration and cultural exchange: a lecture and recital series of contemporary classical Brazilian and African American vocal literature.” During her residency at the Universidade de São Paulo, she presented numerous recitals, lectures and masterclasses in cities throughout Brazil including São Paulo, Campinas, Alphaville, Ribeirão Preto and Brasilia.

Porter is a Professor of Voice at the Florida State University College of Music. She is a much sought after clinician and has presented masterclasses throughout the mid-western and southeastern US. She has served on the faculty of Ameropa International Chamber Music Festival in Prague, Czech Republic and as a visiting Professor of Voice at Universidade de São Paulo. Porter, a graduate of the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in voice performance from Northwestern University and earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in performance from The University of Michigan, where she studied with world-renowned Metropolitan Opera singer Shirley Verrett. Previous teachers include Margaret Harshaw, Carmen Mehta, and Kathleen Kaun.

Elizabeth Avery serves as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Director of Graduate Studies. Avery joined the FSU College of Music faculty in 2023, after twelve years on the faculty of the University of Oklahoma, where she served as Associate Director/Coordinator of Graduate Studies and held the Edith Kinney Gaylord Presidential Professorship. She has also taught at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, Austin Peay State University, Castleton State University, and the Crane School of Music. She earned the DMA in Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music from the Eastman School of Music, MM in Collaborative Piano from the University of Michigan, and BME from the Crane School of Music. She also completed the Special Studies program at the Prague Conservatory, performing Czech solo and chamber music while honing her expertise in Czech lyric diction.

A Tennessee native, violinist Shannon Thomas has garnered a reputation for exciting, thoughtful performances as a chamber musician, soloist, and in recital throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Recent performing engagements have taken her to the Kennedy Center, Spoleto Festival USA, Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium, Bolivia’s Centro Sinfonico in La Paz, and the Banff Centre where she has collaborated with distinguished artists such as the St. Lawrence String Quartet, David Halen, Richard King, Wendy Chen, Anita Pontremoli, and Midori.

As a chamber musician, Thomas has performed at the Innsbrook Summer Music Festival, Garth Newel Music Center, Sarasota Music Festival, Kneisel Hall, ENCORE School for Strings, Aspen Music Festival, the International Clarinet Association National Conference (Belgium), Northwestern University, and Brancaleoni International Music Festival (Italy). She is violinist of the Benzaiten Trio and performs regularly with the Bryant Park Chamber Players in New York City, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, and IRIS Collective under the direction of Michael Stern. Thomas has recorded for Blue Griffin Records, most recently releasing a CD celebrating the music of Lera Auerbach, Ellen Zwilich, and Jennifer Higdon.

Interested in sharing her enthusiasm for the arts through teaching, Thomas is in demand as a pedagogue. She currently serves as Associate Professor of Violin at Florida State University and directs the Gabriel Del Orbe Violin Program in the Dominican Republic. In the summers, she teaches at Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival and Hilton Head Chamber Music Institute. Previously on the faculties of University of Southern Mississippi, the Cleveland Institute of Music Preparatory Division, and Interlochen Arts Camp, her students have been prizewinners and finalists at national competitions, including MTNA and the Sphinx Competition. She has also taught at the Kinhaven Music School, Stony Brook University Chamber Music Camp, and Innsbrook Institute Summer Music Academy and Festival, where she served as Education Director. Thomas has presented educational sessions and masterclasses at the National ASTA conference, Florida Music Educators Association annual conference, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Luby Violin Symposium. In addition, she has served as an adjudicator and clinician for the Seattle Young Artists Music Festival Association and to MTNA and regional All-State orchestral auditions. She is coartistic director of MusicBridges Tallahassee, a non-profit that provides opportunities for youth to succeed through the power of music and diversity.

Thomas earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she was Paul Kantor’s teaching assistant. She received the Master of Music degree from Yale University and the Bachelor of Music degree from Vanderbilt University. She also pursued graduate work at Arizona State University, where she was the first student to be accepted into the Artist Diploma program. She studied chamber music with Peter Salaff, Merry Peckham, George Sopkin, Christopher von Baeyer, Laurie Smukler and members of the Juilliard, Blair, Tokyo, and Cavani String Quartets. Her principal teachers have included Paul Kantor, Cornelia Heard, Jonathan Swartz, Robert Lipsett, and Ani Kavafian.