Summer Nights

Saturday, November 14, 2026, 3:00 pm 
Pre-concert introduction to the music at 2:40 pm by Soprano Susan McBerry
Michelle's Pianos | 600 SE Stark Street | Portland, OR
$30 General Admission
$15 Seniors, Students, Artists, Veterans
$5 Arts for All - For holders of Oregon Trail Card, Washington State Quest Card, or receivers of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Performers:
Dr. Lisa Neher, Mezzo-Soprano
​Hannah Early, Piano
Pacific Art Song's inaugural concert, Summer Nights, revels in French mélodie (art song). The concert is headlined by the first major song cycle written by a French composer: Hector Berlioz's Les Nuits d'éte (Summer Nights). Complimenting Berlioz's cycle are masterworks by protégé Lili Boulanger, Pauline Viardot, and the world premiere of Chanson d’automne (Autumn Song) by composer Lisa Neher, setting a text of Paul Verlaine. 

Program

Hector Berlioz: Les Nuits d'éte (Summer Nights)
Poetry by Théophile Gautier​
     I. Villanelle (Villanelle, a poetry form)
     II. Le Spectre de la Rose (The Spectre of the Rose)
     III. Sur les Lagunes: Lamento (On the Lagoons: Lament)
     IV. Absence (Absence)
     V. Au Cimetière: Clair de Lune (In the Cemetery: Moonlight)
     VI. L’île inconnue (The unknowable isle)

Lili Boulanger: Quatre chants (Four Songs)
     1. Dans l'immense tristesse (In the immense sadness) - Poetry by Bertha Galéron de Calonne
     2. Attente (Expectation) - Poetry by Maurice Maeterlinck
     3. Reflets (Reflects) - Poetry by Maurice Maeterlinck
     4. Le Retour (The Return) - Poetry by Georges Delaquys

Pauline Viardot-Garcia: Selections
    Aimez-moi (Love Me) from Six Chansons du XVI Siécle (Six Songs of the 16th Century) - by an anonymous poet, adapted by Louis Pomey
    Haï luli! (Alas) - Poetry by Xavier de Maistre
    Les Filles de Cadix (The Girls of Cadix) - Poetry by Jeppe Aakjær​
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​Lisa Neher: 
    Chanson d’automne (Autumn Song) - WORLD PREMIERE  - Poetry by Paul Verlaine
    L'heure du berger (The Hour of the Shepherd) - WORLD PREMIERE - Poetry by Paul Verlaine

Performers

Lisa Neher, Mezzo-Soprano

Multi-talented mezzo-soprano, composer, and actor Lisa Neher delivers “intensity, power, and vocal prowess” (Oregon ArtsWatch), captivating audiences with richly attuned musical fluency and heartfelt performance. “A supremely talented artist,” (Willamette Week), Neher channels a signature combination of high intelligence, deep passion, fierce tenacity, and an ever-youthful spirit, offering a rare degree of excellence and versatility alongside the ability to “sincerely convey… joy and wonder” (Oregon ArtsWatch). 
Her wide-ranging experience across genres informs gutsy character portrayals integrated with vivid storytelling through musical performance, making her a magnetic presence onstage known for a voice that is “especially alive… full and rich” (Oregon ArtsWatch). Alongside her flourishing vocal career, Neher is an award-winning composer whose music has earned recognition from the Oregon Music Teachers Association (Composer of the Year 2025), the Flute New Music Consortium, ICDA/ICF, Mirror Visions Ensemble, and the Celebris Ensemble. Commissioning ensembles and organizations include the National Association of Teachers of Singing, American Harp Society, Cincinnati Song Initiative, and Opera Santa Barbara. Her interdisciplinary training and Doctor of Musical Arts degree inform not only her compositional craft but also her interpretive depth as a performer, giving her singing an uncommon level of clarity, intention, and emotional resonance. A visionary creator and leader, Neher is the Founder and President of New Wave Opera, a company that shares fresh, relatable stories by living composers through the medium of opera. Through all facets of her work, Neher champions contemporary storytelling that embraces both the wildness of the natural world and the intimate complexities of human experience.​

--Biography by Aligned Artistry

Hannah Early, Pianist

Hannah Early's collaborative work provides a delicate touch with power when called upon. Her intuitive phrasing and heartfelt interpretation bring life to any composition, while her careful attunement to vocal needs contributes to a truly unified and completely collaborative performance. She displays comfort in classical, baroque, modern, new compositions, operas, musicals, and more, in settings ranging from solo and small ensembles to large choirs and full length staged productions. 

Hannah's affinity toward working with vocalists took root during her undergraduate studies at Pacific University, Forest Grove. Under the guidance of piano professor Kelli Stephens, and the wing and baton of choral conductor Scott Tuomi, Hannah's skill as a collaborative artist flourished. She worked with solo vocalists and choirs, and coached and accompanied opera works, and full and semi-staged musical theatre productions on and off campus. She remained on staff at Pacific University until 2020. 
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Since, she has engaged in recital and audition work with solo artists throughout the greater Portland area and accompanied for companies such as New Wave Opera, Renegade Opera, and Lark Opera. She is thrilled to reengage with the choral world this year as she serves as senior collaborative pianist for Pacific Youth Choir.

Susan McBerry, Art Song Specialist

​Soprano Susan McBerry, lyric soprano and teacher of voice, has been the coordinator of vocal studies at Lewis & Clark College since 1987. She teaches Art and Science of the Voice and Vocal Literature in addition to private voice lessons. She also directs the Opera Workshop and Musical Theater Workshop. ​

Ms. McBerry is an experienced and popular recitalist whose specialty is French art song of the 19th and 20th Centuries, which she studied extensively with Pierre Bernac, the famous French baritone. Other coaches include Gerard Souzay, Elly Ameling, Dalton Baldwin.
 She has performed recitals, lecture-recitals, and sacred concerts throughout the United States and Canada and is in demand as a clinician and adjudicator for music conferences and contests sponsored by Music Educators National Conference, American Choral Directors Association and National Association of Teachers of Singing of which she is former Northwest Regional Governor and national board member. (Some of you may also have seen her perform as the infamous diva in the comic vocal recital, The BoZoArtZ Duo.)

As a vocal coach and conductor, McBerry has provided vocal and music direction for plays and musicals at Lewis and Clark, student compositions, operas and opera scenes.   In her tenure at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Portland where she is now Director of Music Emerita, she produced and directed sacred opera and oratorio for twenty years.
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She is available as a consultant to Oregon Health Science University Voice Clinic for rehabilitation of singers with vocal problems. Ms. McBerry also maintains a private studio where her students include many award-winning professionals from classical singers to jazz and musical theater performers. 

Composers

Poets

Bertha Galéron de Calonne (no photo available)
Georges Delaquys (no photo available)