Connections to our state’s beautiful red clay have inspired some of the music on this program, “Of River and Field,” performed by the Durham-based Mallarmé Chamber Players: Andrea Edith Moore, soprano; Grace Anderson, cello; and David Heid, piano. North Carolina composer and UNCSA alumnus Kenneth Frazelle’s celebration of his mother, “Through the Window,” is a song cycle set on his own lyrics. It was premiered in 2020 by Moore, whose voice was praised as “hauntingly ethereal” by the Raleigh News and Observer.

With the addition of his own watercolor paintings projected during the performance, Frazelle pays homage to the selflessness of his mother in sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic vignettes. As we peer through the window, we hear stories of her generosity, her struggles growing up in the rural South and her persistence in the face of hard times. The program also includes Amy Beach’s “Chanson d’amour” and North Carolina newcomer Jennifer Higdon’s “Little River Songs.”