Performed live on March 25th, 2026 as part of Christopher Keach's Faculty Recital, "The Voice of the Trumpet"

Emily! by Barbara Harbach

Christopher Keach, trumpet

Shantelle Przybylo, soprano

Risa Okina, piano

Program Notes:

Dr. Barbara Harbach, Curators’ Distinguished Professor Emerita of Music at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, has a large catalog of works, including; symphonies, operas, string orchestra, musicals, works for chamber ensembles, film scores, modern ballet, pieces for organ, harpsichord and piano; choral anthems; and many arrangements for brass and organ of various Baroque works. She is also involved in the research, editing, publication and recording of manuscripts of eighteenth-century keyboard composers, as well as historical and contemporary women composers.

Barbara Harbach initiated Women in the Arts-St. Louis, a celebration of the achievements of women creators. Over 800 events by various cultural organizations in the St. Louis region provided audiences with new and historical examples of the work of women writers, composers and artists. In 2006 for her work Women in the Arts-St. Louis, she was the recipient of the Arts Education Award from the Missouri Arts Council; the Missouri Citizen for the Arts Award; the Yellow Rose Award from the Zonta International Club of St. Louis; and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, College of Fine Arts and Communication, Faculty Excellence Award. In 2007 she was awarded the Hellenic Spirit Foundation Award, and in 2011 she was awarded the Grand Center Visionary Award for “Successful Working Artist,” the Argus Foundation Award, and the YWCA Leader of Distinction Award in the Arts. In 2014 Harbach was named a University of Missouri Curators’ Professor of Music as well as National Arts Associate Distinguished Member of SAI, Buffalo Chapter. In 2016, she was chosen as one of the 30 Most Innovative Women Professors Alive Today, and the number one Female Organist.

Harbach says the following about the work: “Emily! for soprano, Eb trumpet and piano is in three movements, based on the poetry of the great American poet, Emily Dickinson (1830-1886). The first movement is I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed, portraying a mystical state of experiencing the soul’s awareness, an awareness that is so overwhelmingly uplifting that she feels as if she had become intoxicated by drinking alcohol. The second movement, If You Were Coming in the Fall, is about love, time, and separation, and addressed to someone who is away. The third movement is based on two poems: Wild Nights! Wild Nights! and For Each Ecstatic Instant. Wild Nights! Wild Nights! is a poem of unrestrained passion and rapture. For Each Ecstatic Instant describes a relationship of joy and pain and joy is inevitably paid for by suffering – joy is brief, but the resulting pain lasts. The soprano, trumpet and piano intermingle and weave the melodies, each an integral part of the whole forming a true trio.”