Soprano Janis-Rozena Peri, a member of the West Virginia University music faculty, will present a recital Tuesday, Aug. 29, at the WVU Creative Arts Center.

She will be joined by pianist Catherine Crotty and flutist Dorothy Skidmore for a special birthday concert dubbed63 Minutes of Music for a 63rd Birthday.The recital, which is free and open to the public, begins at 8:15 p.m. in the Bloch Learning and Performance Hall.

The program will include works by Johannes Brahms, Albert Roussel, Robert Schumann, Clara Wieck Schumann, Gustav Mahler, Alma Schindler Mahler, Gabriel Faurand Hector Berlioz.

A specialist in the works of women composers, Peris debut at Carnegie Recital Hall featured the first New York performance in 50 years of early songs by Alma Mahler. Her interest in the works of black women composers is manifest in her frequent performances of works by Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Jeraldine Herbison, Julia Perry and Zenobia Powell Perry. Her CD of works by Zenobia Powell Perry was released on Cambria Records in 2003.

Peri received a bachelors degree in piano from Otterbein College and a masters degree in voice from Miami University of Ohio. Following special studies with Richard Miller at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, she was awarded the Kate Neal Kinley Award, which allowed her to begin studying and performing in New York City, where she was a freelance singer for 12 years. She was appointed to the WVU music faculty in 1985.

Crotty has performed extensively as an accompanist and chamber music player. She is a member of the artist faculty of the WVU Community Music Program. For more than 20 years, she was the principal pianist with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra and has degrees from WVU and the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.

Skidmore teaches flute at Fairmont State University in addition to maintaining a large studio class in her home. She has performed widely in West Virginia and the surrounding region with the Monongahela Trio and as a soloist. In addition to degrees from the University of Illinois, she studied in Freiburg, Germany, on a Fulbright Scholarship. She taught at the Catholic University of America and Montgomery College before coming to West Virginia.

For more information about the recital, contact the WVU College of Creative Arts at 304-293-4841 ext. 3108.