Joyce DiDonato @ Spivey Hall on Performance Today

Joyce DiDonato sang Harold Arlen's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" to close her most recent Spivey Hall recital with pianist David Zobel.  American Public Media's Performance Today lets us enjoy it again.  It aired yesterday (January 16, 2014) in the second hour of the broadcast, available for about a week online.

Click here to listen.  It's at the very end of the hour -- you can move the play bar over to fast-forward if you're short on time (the Copland Clarinet Concerto is an exquisite piece, worth a listen, too). 

In her remarks to the audience, Joyce reminds us of the importance of dreaming -- and how Emilie Spivey's dream created an extraordinary recital hall in Morrow, GA.  Who would have thought?  Thank you, Joyce, for your wise words and gorgeous singing.  The audience was utterly enraptured. 

I generally hear PT when I'm at home, but yesterday I was in New York to attend a Carnegie Hall performance celebrating Marilyn Horne's 80th birthday, featuring a plethora of superb singers, many of whom (Frederica von Stade, Samuel Ramey, Renee Fleming, Isabel Leonard, David Daniels, and Jamie Barton) have also performed in recital at Spivey Hall -- as well as pianists Marty Katz and Warren Jones.  More on this in a bit.  So many good things happening at Spivey Hall at the moment -- much to blog about!