'Songs of Alice Barnett: A San Diego Composer’s Unsung Legacy' | Concert-Lecture Series presented by Katina Mitchell & Yewon Lee | Athenaeum Music & Arts Library | La Jolla | Library Concert
Monday: 6:30 PM
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"Songs of Alice Barnett: A San Diego Composer’s Unsung Legacy"
Concert-Lecture Series presented by Dr. Katina Mitchell and Dr. Yewon Lee
Mondays, June 16, 23 & 30, 2025
In an enlightening and entertaining concert and lecture series, vocalist Dr. Katina Mitchell introduces audiences to a long overlooked local music luminary, composer Alice Barnett. Over three evenings, Monday, June 16, 23, and 30, Mitchell will discuss this valued representative of the art song while also performing Barnett’s works in Mitchell’s lovely soprano voice with piano accompaniment by Dr. Yewon Lee.
Within the classical tradition, even the most sophisticated female musicians receive less enduring celebration than their male contemporaries, and Alice Barnett (1886–1975), later known as Alice Barnett Stevenson, a renowned female art song composer who spent her life in San Diego, deserves rediscovery. Despite national praise during her lifetime—when her works were performed from local schools to New York stages—her name has faded into obscurity.
Barnett’s life was marked by artistic determination, early divorce, single motherhood, and musical entrepreneurship. Trained in Chicago and Berlin, she built her career in San Diego, composing, performing, and producing concerts. A co-founder of the San Diego Symphony Association, she was also a passionate music educator and arts advocate. Her Impressionist-inspired art songs were hailed as both beautiful and adventurous, earning her the description of “one of the greatest song writers in the country.” Her story reveals a dynamic cultural legacy hidden in plain sight—a woman who shaped her city’s musical life and deserves recognition today.
Individual Lectures: $35 member / $45 nonmember / $12 student; Series of 3 Lectures: $99 member / $129 nonmember / $30 student
Event Supported By
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
The Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, located in the heart of La Jolla, Calif., in San Diego County, is one of only 16 nonprofit membership libraries in the United States. This rare cultural institution, an important one to the greater San Diego area, offers a depth and accessibility of resources and programs found nowhere else in the region. The library, devoted exclusively to music and art, has an outstanding and ever-expanding collection of books, periodicals, reference material, compact discs, videocassettes, DVDs, sheet music and librettos, as well as one of the most significant collections of artists' books in Southern California. The library is open to the public five days a week and members can check out materials for a modest annual fee. The Athenaeum also presents an eclectic, year-round schedule of art exhibitions, concerts (classical, jazz and new music), lectures, studio art classes through its School of the Arts, tours and special events. To quote the San Diego Union-Tribune, "There are few libraries in America as unusual as the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library." Admission: Admission to the library is free. Gallery exhibits are free and open to the general public. Materials may be used in the library or checked out by members. Borrowing privileges are limited to members only. Books may be checked out for four weeks and all CDs, videos and DVDs for two weeks. Materials may be reserved in advance. Guided Tours: Free guided tours take place the third Saturday of every month at 11 a.m.
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