Classical concert at Bates, then to Carnegie Hall

Scott Murphree, baritone, and Alvin Novak, pianist, will perform commissioned works by contemporary composers Virgil Thomson, Paul Bowles, Ned Rorem, John Gruen and Francis Poulenc for this year’s Alice S. Esty concert at 8 p.m. Friday, March 2, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St. The performance is free and open to the public. This presentation of songs commissioned by Alice Swanson Esty, Bates class of ’25, will also be performed at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 4, at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

A distinguished concert singer, Scott Murphree recently appeared at the Alice Tully Hall singing songs by Ned Rorem with the composer at the piano. He has sung in London, Paris, Stockholm, Chicago and New York with the Eos Orchestra, the Newberry Consort, Bachworks and the Mirror Vision Ensemble.

Esty was a patron of the arts who befriended many important French and American composers and artists, and was herself an accomplished vocalist who often performed the works she commissioned.

William Matthews, professor of music, is the first Alice Swanson Esty Professor of Music, a professorship endowed at Bates College through a $1 million dollar gift by Esty. For more information, contact the Olin Arts Center at 207-786-6135.