Island Arts: Shelter Islanders bring Schubert to Greenport’s library

Mel Mendelssohn and Linda Betjeman will present an ambitious program, “Celebrating Schubert — A Winter Journey,” at the Floyd Memorial Library in Greenport on Sunday, January 29 at 3 p.m.

The one-hour program — a selection of songs, with English translations, from Franz Schubert’s great song cycle, “Winterreise,” and several of his solo piano pieces — will help tell the story of Schubert’s life.

This month marks the 215th anniversary of Schubert’s birth, and Ms. Betjeman on piano and Mr. Mendelssohn, baritone, will demonstrate Schubert’s genius for integrating the piano and voice as equal partners.

Ms. Betjeman is the Minister of Music at the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church and Union Chapel. She also directs the Community Chorus and the Chapel’s summer choir. She teaches voice, organ and piano and performs with the Early Music Consort. She has performed as a soloist with the Broadway Bach Ensemble, the Chappaqua Chamber Orchestra and the Mimosa Chamber Ensemble. She has also performed as a recitalist in England and Italy as well as in the northeastern U.S.

Mr. Mendelssohn has written, directed and performed in several programs at libraries on the East End, including Rilke on Rilke, In Search of Marcel Proust, Yeats in Love, Letters to the World: Emily Dickinson in Song and Walt Whitman: Songs of the People. He has sung with the Perlman Music Program Chorus, Island Madrigal Chorus, the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute Chorus, the Berkshire Choral Festival, among others. Closer to home, he currently sings with the Choral Society of the Hamptons, the Community Chorus and the Early Music Consort.

Admission to “Celebrating Schubert” is free. The library is located at 539 First Street.