University of Kentucky singer Angelique Clay is performing on back-to-back weekends because she got a couple offers she couldn’t refuse.
First came the Lexington Philharmonic, which engaged the UK associate professor in music for its Nov. 23 concert . She was asked to sing Dolores White ’s “Give Birth to the Dream,” a work that includes passages from Maya Angelou’s “On the Pulse of Morning,” which the iconic poet read at President Bill Clinton’s first inauguration in 1993. One of Clay’s favorite things to sing is music by African-American women composers, so she was thrilled with the opportunity.
Then the Lexington Chamber Orchestra asked if Clay could sing Manuel de Falla’s “Siete Canciones Populares Españolas (Seven Spanish Folksongs) ,” a piece she has taught numerous times but has never sung herself, on its Nov. 16 concert .
“It just so happened that they are very close together,” Clay said. “It would have been my preference, of course, for them not to be very close together. But I also didn’t want to turn down either opportunity. So, it’s great.”