UNK music professor Sharon Campbell co-founded the SALT quintet, a group of professor-musicians who share under-told stories of women’s history, resilience and legacy through micro-operas. (Photo by Erika Pritchard, UNK Communications)
KEARNEY – The SALT quintet will present “Mosaic of Mothers” on March 6, offering an intimate concert that blends music, storytelling and women’s history through a series of commissioned micro-operas.
The free performance begins at 5:15 p.m. in the Fine Arts Recital Hall and serves as the keynote presentation for the No Limits Conference hosted at the University of Nebraska at Kearney that day.
SALT – an artist collective whose name stands for share, affirm, lift and tell – focuses on sharing under-told stories of women’s history, resilience and legacy, particularly those rooted in the Midwest. Rather than sweeping operas, the ensemble works in concise, 15-minute micro-operas that distill personal narratives into powerful musical moments.
“Mosaic of Mothers” features three commissioned micro-operas by composers Rachel DeVore Fogarty, Lisa Neher and Forrest Pierce, along with a choral work by Emily Feld and a piano solo by Jeeyoung Kim. Together, the pieces reflect on motherhood, resilience and the generational stories passed down through women’s lives.
The SALT quintet includes five professor-musicians: mezzo-soprano Sharon Campbell of UNK, soprano Suna Gunther of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, soprano Jennifer Townsley of the University of Nebraska at Omaha and soprano Sylvia Stoner-Hawkins and pianist Young Kim of Skidmore College.
They will be joined by a student “Greek Chorus” representing multiple University of Nebraska campuses, including UNK students Adrienne Parker of Ewing and Zoey Smallwood of Fremont. The quartet helps connect the individual works and adds another generational voice to the performance.
