UK singer couldn’t pass up back-to-back shows, even in two different languages

University of Kentucky singer Angelique Clay is performing on back-to-back weekends because she got a couple offers she couldn’t refuse.

First came the Lexington Philharmonic, which engaged the UK associate professor in music for its Nov. 23 concert. She was asked to sing Dolores White’s “Give Birth to the Dream,” a work that includes passages from Maya Angelou’s “On the Pulse of Morning,” which the iconic poet read at President Bill Clinton’s first inauguration in 1993. One of Clay’s favorite things to sing is music by African-American women composers, so she was thrilled with the opportunity.

Then the Lexington Chamber Orchestra asked if Clay could sing Manuel de Falla’s “Siete Canciones Populares Españolas (Seven Spanish Folksongs),” a piece she has taught numerous times but has never sung herself, on its Nov. 16 concert.

“It just so happened that they are very close together,” Clay said. “It would have been my preference, of course, for them not to be very close together. But I also didn’t want to turn down either opportunity. So, it’s great.”

It’s also great for fans of the Louisville native who became one of the stars of the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre program in the 1990s and early this century singing leading roles in operas such as “Cosi fan tutte,” “Susannah,” and “Porgy and Bess,” while earning master of music and doctor of musical arts degrees from UK.

Now, as a teacher, Clay says it can be a challenge to make time for performances.

“I have a lecture course that I teach, which is anatomy for singers, and I probably spend about 30 hours a week on that course,” Clay said. “It’s just trying to balance that plus teaching a full studio and then finding time to practice and learn new things and having the brain space for it. But I needed to. I needed that challenge.”

Lexington Chamber Orchestra piece will be a challenge

The COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to performing for a year or more for most performers, and since live performance has returned, it has been hard to get back into the routine of performing, said Clay, who has had an international performance career. That has included performing in de Falla’s native Spain with the American Spiritual Ensemble, though Clay says singing in Spanish is one of the challenges of this weekend’s performance.

Spanish is the second most common language in the U.S., but Opera singers are generally more oriented to languages like Italian and German. And Clay notes the Spanish of de Falla’s piece is different from Spanish often heard in the Americas.

“The most challenging aspect of it was just trying to get that Castilian Spanish back underneath my tongue, and, you know, trying to be authentic with it, authentic with the style, authentic with the language, understanding the influences there within the piece,” Clay said. “It’s a piece I’ve heard forever. I was resistant to doing it because it’s so popular. Everyone sings them. But there’s a reason why everyone sings them. They are well written, they are exciting, they are tender; any emotion that you want is found in those seven pieces.”

Lexington Philharmonic show first with music director

The next weekend will reunite Clay with a familiar collaborator, the Lexington Philharmonic, which she first sang with when George Zack was the conductor. This will be her first concert with Music Director Mélisse Brunet, who is in her third season leading the orchestra.

“She is just phenomenal,” Clay said of Brunet. “I mean, the energy, the positivity, the programming that’s varied, and exciting, and well thought out, and they sound fantastic.”

Her Philharmonic performance is a bit of a preview of the next thing up her sleeve: a Feb. 9 recital at the Singletary Center launching a recording project featuring the music of African-American women composers. A performance project that is educational exemplifies Clay’s UK career.

“I really felt well taken care of here,” Clay said. “I felt cared for. I felt invested in, and the fact that I get to repay the people who meant so much to me and to my career and to how I have developed as a person, to repay that to the next generation I consider to be a great honor and a great responsibility.”

Lexington Chamber Orchestra

What: First concert of the 2024-25 season; With soprano Angelique Clay

When: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 16

Where: Centenary Church, 2800 Tates Creek Road

Tickets: Suggested donation of $20

Online: chambermusiclex.org/lco

Lexington Philharmonic

What: Give Birth to the Dream concert with soprano Angelique Clay and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 2” with soloist Michelle Cann.

When: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 23

Where: Singletary Center for the Arts Concert Hall, 401 Rose St.

Tickets: $11-$78

Online: lexphil.org