In
order to bridge the gap between the footlights and the audience,
Dr. Baird has developed a series of recital programs which involve
dialogue and action. For example, Dr. Baird researched the subject
of "The Treatment of Insanity in the Seventeenth-century
and the Resultant Musical Inspirations," to develop a concert
demonstration on Bedlam and Henry Purcell's "Mad
Songs."
She premiered this program on the Rutgers-Camden campus with Dr.
Wilbert Jerome, and at Rutgers University in New Brunswick with
the Dean of the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Marilyn Somville.
Since then, the program has been presented over a dozen times in
tours throughout North America.
Dr.
Baird's latest research project is the Jane
Austen Songbook. This research has led her to develop
a concert demonstration which weaves pertinent literary passages
around a series of arias and late Eighteenth-century songs selected
from Jane Austen's own musical collection. Again, Dr. Baird premiered
at Rutgers-Camden, this time in collaboration with Dr. Cornelia,
[then] Chair of the Graduate Liberal Studies Program. In addition
to the performances themselves, Dr. Baird composed program notes
for the purpose of enriching audience understanding.
The
program Mr. Handel and His Singers explores
the world of G.F. Handel's tumultuous relationship with his sopranos.
"Musica
Dolce," sings Dafne "sweet music, thou
art the true likeness of Heaven." The same thought,
a commonplace of music appologetics, is a fascinating record
of the singer Caccini's career. This singer introduced his
new affective singing style in 1602 and it remains true for
us, three and a half centuries later, the sound of a solo
voice, artuflly managed and lightly accompanied does much
to prepare us for the anticipated pleasures of a single angel
with harp.
Crazy
for Love & Music: also
gin, money, food, politics & laundry
featuring Mad Songs by Henry Purcell with diary accounts
from Bedlam
Program
Dialogue
Program
Notes
Video
segments
from Crazy for Love &
Music (5:31
min)
Julianne Baird, Karen Flint, Ed Mauger
& Jessica Peyton
The
Jane Austen Songbook