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EDMOND–Music and songs celebrating the pioneer spirit and the American West delighted audiences in the John Amos Field House as internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe took center stage April 2 at the Armstrong International Cultural Foundation’s final concert of the 2008-2009 season. Joining Ms. Blythe were members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, one of 12 constituents of the largest performing arts complex in the world, Lincoln Center in New York.

Though classical music may conjure up ideas of archaic composers from across the Atlantic, this evening put a fresh American face on the genre. The program titled “American Voices” featured the music of George Gershwin and America’s foremost female composer, Amy Beach. The highlight of the evening was the Oklahoma premiere of a piece written especially for Ms. Blythe, whose glorious voice has won her critical acclaim as a shining star of New York's Metropolitan Opera.

Performing American composer Alan Louis Smith's Vignettes: Covered Wagon Woman, Ms. Blythe took the audience on a sublime musical journey. The 2006 composition celebrates the pioneer women who traversed the American West, by featuring the journey of Margaret Ann Alsip Frink. Mrs. Frink documented her 1850 journey in a diary that now supplies the text for Smith’s epic composition.

Smith's new composition had particular appeal to the Oklahoma audience, according to Ryan Malone, concert manager for the Armstrong International Cultural Foundation, which presented the program. "Oklahoma was founded on the strength of these kinds of people," he said, "and we felt honored to host the premiere which was nothing short of historic."