Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 14, 1994                   TAG: 9401130084
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MARA LEE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

WOMEN TAKE CENTER STAGE IN CLARITY JAMES' SHOW

Just ask Clarity James, a Radford University associate professor of music who sang opera on two continents as a mezzo soprano, a range known for lung power and brassy roles. She said, "Mezzos do witches, bitches, mothers and clowns."

Did she resent never getting to be the heroine or love interest? Not at all.

"All my soprano friends envied me because [mezzo-soprano parts] are much more interesting people. There are, of course, some great soprano parts, but in general, everyday sopranoing, that is a stereotype of women or women's role in society."

James, at 50, laughs off one stereotype she ran into as a female performer - at 30, she was told by her manager to start shaving three years off her age. Now she lets her natural silvery-gray hair show and said, "That's their thing, not mine."

James' upcoming recital overturns another stereotype of women's roles in music - always singers, never composers. "I didn't even try, but I have a whole recital of nothing but women," she said, laughing.

She, accompanied by Caryl Conger at the piano, Jill Coggiola on clarinet and Joseph Scartelli on double bass, will present works from five 20th-century women composers.

"I had to tell Joe he was the token man," James joked.

"I think it's important, because of the huge volume of wonderful music that's been created by women and has not been heard," said Conger, an assistant professor of music at Radford. "It's really too bad that women composers have been overlooked for so many years. There are thousands of them alive today."

James agreed. "If you heard the recital, you would not know they are women's pieces. It's beyond gender issues. Nobody thinks of saying, `How dare you do all men's music?' "

In the program, the first composer, Amy Beach, has an impressive list of accomplishments: 110 songs, including chamber music, a symphony, a one act opera, choral music and piano concerto. What it doesn't say is that Beach trashed her career as a concert pianist when she married.

"Which of course, is what a good soprano - no, a good woman - would do. But because she had to stay at home, she had plenty of time for composing."

James settled at home in the New River Valley in 1990 after a career that included nights on stage in Vienna, Amsterdam, New York, San Francisco and Chicago, as well as smaller regional operas.

The mountains and trees remind James of Sunrise, Wyo., her hometown of barely more than 100 residents. She's content to hang out with her dog and two cats at the end of a day teaching voice to students at Radford, maybe listen to Barbra Streisand, k.d. lang, Dolly Parton or Anne Murray - or more likely, just listen to a little peace and quiet.

"I don't hum around the house," she said. "I'm around music and teaching singers to sing all day. I really appreciate silence."

Clarity James will perform Tuesday 8 p.m. at Preston Hall on the Radford campus. Admission is free for Radford students, $3 for the general public, $1 for children.