Lenora Green will bring “Hope, Love and Grace” to Mercer

This February, the Townsend School of Music will bring talented Maconite Lenora Green back to its stage.

“We are delighted to have Green on campus again,” Martha Malone, the director of Mercer University Opera, said in an email.

Malone said that Green, who has given one past performance at Mercer, is a local person making her way as a young professional opera singer.

“She has an exciting voice and is a terrific performer,” Malone said.

Green — known nationally for her full, warm, lyrical voice — will be performing with pianist Carol Goff, Mercer’s chair of keyboard studies, in a recital called “Hope, Love and Grace.”

“I am very excited that Lenora is coming back to perform. She is an outstanding soprano whose career is beginning to really take hold,” Goff said, a coordinator of collaborative piano at Mercer.

According to her website, Green now resides in Memphis, Tennessee. She is the Artist in Residence at the Stax Music Academy and LeMoyne Owen College. Green is currently working on a new program with the Stax Music Academy called “StaxClassics” with the goal of bridging the gap within the inner city areas of Memphis.

Green has already performed all over the country, including shows with the Michigan Opera Theater, the New Orleans Opera Association and the Kaye Playhouse in New York City.

She also performed at the highly acclaimed Glimmerglass Festival, which Goff described as “a summer program that only takes the brightest in the operatic world of young singers.”

Green is hailed by Opera News as an impressive vocalist and the New York Times calls her a most expressive singer.  The NOLA Defender said that “when Lenora sings, it is apparent that she is an indulgence the audience can wholeheartedly support.”

Goff was intentional about reaching out to Green for this installment of the Joan Stockstill Godsey Concert series.

“I wanted to bring the African-American community to our campus and celebrate not only their heritage this month, but also the friendships that we are forging musically in our community,” Goff said.

Goff said that the recital will feature operatic arias and American art songs. It will conclude with a set of spirituals.

This event is free and will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Neva Langley Fickling Hall in the McCorkle Music Building.

This concert will complement the upcoming Robert McDuffie Center for Strings performance of “What Color is Your Brother? An Exploration of Race Through Words and Music” on Saturday, Feb. 27.