This year's SmithArtsFest is a festival of festivals in which remarkable connections abound. The collaboration between the Smith College Museum of Art's Debussy's Paris: Art, Music and Sounds of the City and the Music Department's two-day exploration, The Music of Debussy is a festival in itself. Explorations of Irish culture are present in both the music of Donna Hébert's Mist Covered Mountains and in playwright Deirdre Kinahan's Moment. Gregory W. Brown's electro-acoustic music features several works that are based on poetry and language, including texts by Yeats and Beckett. The poetry and life of William Matthews were both deeply linked to music. In our composer-curator concert, Melinda Wagner presents her own music along with the Ravel Piano Trio, another connection to Paris. We connect the past to the present and the future — from Debussy's Paris to Ravel to Ms. Wagner and on to our presentation of Kivie Cahn-Lipman's cello recital of young composer's works.

• Joel Pitchon, Festival Coordinator
  Associate Professor of Violin and Chamber Music, Smith College Music Dept.
• Gregory Brown, Assistant Coordinator, Online Publicity Materials
  Assistant Director of Choral Activities and Lecturer, Smith College Music Dept.
• Heather Kuhn, Festival Administrator, Printed Publicity Materials
  Events Coordinator, Smith College Music Dept.