Alice Barnett; photo courtesy of San Diego History Center
Mondays, June 16, 23 & 30, 2025
6:30 PM
In an enlightening and entertaining concert and lecture series, vocalist Dr. Katina Mitchell introduces audiences to a long overlooked local music luminary, composer Alice Barnett. Over three evenings, Monday, June 16, 23, and 30, Mitchell will discuss this valued representative of the art song while also performing Barnett’s works in Mitchell’s lovely soprano voice with piano accompaniment by Dr. Yewon Lee.
Within the classical tradition, even the most sophisticated female musicians receive less enduring celebration than their male contemporaries, and Alice Barnett (1886–1975), later known as Alice Barnett Stevenson, a renowned female art song composer who spent her life in San Diego, deserves rediscovery. Despite national praise during her lifetime—when her works were performed from local schools to New York stages—her name has faded into obscurity.
Barnett’s life was marked by artistic determination, early divorce, single motherhood, and musical entrepreneurship. Trained in Chicago and Berlin, she built her career in San Diego, composing, performing, and producing concerts. A co-founder of the San Diego Symphony Association, she was also a passionate music educator and arts advocate. Her Impressionist-inspired art songs were hailed as both beautiful and adventurous, earning her the description of “one of the greatest song writers in the country.” Her story reveals a dynamic cultural legacy hidden in plain sight—a woman who shaped her city’s musical life and deserves recognition today.
June 16: Becoming Alice: The Early Life and Education of Alice Barnett
Born in 1886 in Illinois, Alice Barnett pursued advanced musical training in both Chicago and Berlin. Her diaries, correspondence, and surviving manuscripts from this formative period reveal a spirited and determined young musician whose talent was evident from an early stage. This lecture explores Barnett’s educational experiences, her travels throughout Europe, and the broader musical and cultural contexts that shaped her development. Selected performances of her early compositions—many unpublished and indicative of her evolving voice as a composer—offer insight into the foundations of her later, more mature work.
June 23: A Voice in the West: Alice Barnett in San Diego
When Alice Barnett returned from Europe and settled in early-20th-century San Diego, the city was a modestly sized but rapidly growing community of approximately 40,000 residents. Amid this evolving cultural landscape, she quickly emerged as a prominent composer, performer, and advocate for the arts. During this time, she divorced and became a single mother and sustained herself and her family through her musical endeavors before remarrying. Her influence was far-reaching: in addition to co-founding the San Diego Symphony Association, she taught at San Diego High School, delivered public lectures, authored program notes, and actively collaborated with fellow musicians and civic leaders. This lecture features performances of Alice Barnett’s compositions from this chapter of her life (some published by G. Schirmer, others preserved only in manuscript), offering a glimpse into the musical and professional world she helped to shape.
June 30: In a Gondola: Alice Barnett's Song Cycle
Alice Barnett’s most mature and substantial work is her song cycle In a Gondola, published by G. Schirmer. This lecture explores the artistic and historical contexts that shaped the composition, examining both its poetic inspiration and its musical innovations. Drawing on contemporary sources, including letters, newspaper reviews, and journal accounts, the lecture also traces the early reception of and critical response to her song cycle. The program concludes with a complete performance of In a Gondola, offering audiences the opportunity to experience Alice Barnett’s distinctive compositional voice in its fullest expression.
About Dr. Katina Mitchell
Dr. Katina Mitchell is a native of San Diego. She has sung with the San Diego Symphony; lautten compagney BERLIN; MicroFest, Los Angeles; Monday Evening Concerts, Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, Volti, San Francisco; Bach Collegium San Diego, The Da Camera Society, Los Angeles; and more. A favorite engagement was performing with Ensemble Vocatrix in fully staged productions of Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum in Los Angeles and Berkeley. Recently Mitchell has sung as both soloist and chorister with San Diego Master Chorale, Sacra/Profana, and the Schola Cantorum of St. James-by-the-Sea. Her work has been featured at the Velaslavasay Panorama, Los Angeles and the Medieval History Center in Azincourt, France, and in media outlets including the BBC, NPR’s Life in Berlin, and the Los Angeles Times.
In 2023, Mitchell began presenting her extensive original research on composer Alice Barnett, giving lectures with the San Diego History Center; the Western History Association, Los Angeles; National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), San Diego chapter, at San Diego State University; Palomar College; and Society for American Music, Tacoma, Washington. Katina holds degrees in music from Rice University and the University of Southern California (USC). She is a member of the music faculty at Palomar College, teaches voice at Grossmont College, and maintains a private studio.
About Dr. Yewon Lee
Dr. Yewon Lee is a frequently sought-after conductor and collaborative pianist on the operatic and concert stage. Prior to relocating to San Diego, Lee was Assistant Music Director of Opera at Baldwin Wallace University and Adjunct Professor at Kent State University. In the operatic world, she coached at Baldwin Wallace Opera Theater, National Opera Center, Aspen Opera Theater Center, and International Vocal Arts Institute in Israel, France, Italy, and Japan.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, Lee received a Bachelor of Music in piano performance from Seoul National University, completed her Master of Music in vocal accompanying at Manhattan School of Music, and earned an artist diploma in collaborative piano from The Juilliard School. She earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in choral music at USC.
Currently, she is a music director of the San Diego Festival Chorus and the San Dieguito United Methodist Church. She also serves as the Far South Representative for the California Choral Directors Association.
Tickets: $35/45/12
The lectures will be in person at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library. There are no physical tickets for these events. Your name will be on an attendee list at the front door. Doors open at 6 p.m. Seating is first-come; first-served. Priority seating will be given to Donor level members and above.
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