Britain in the Victorian and Edwardian periods was an extraordinarily musical place. The home, the street, the public house and the public park were almost as much musical centers as the concert hall and the music hall. A communal or civic event was a poor affair indeed if not dignified by music. Songs like "Land of Hope and Glory", "Jerusalem", and "On the Road to Mandalay" (a setting of Rudyard Kipling) spoke the diverse interests of the people -- nationalism, a renewed appreciation for the folk music of "simpler" pre-industrialized England, and a fascination with the exotic lands of the Far East, where the Empire still ruled. Soprano Maria Jette, fellow vocalists Emily Lodine, David Gustafson, and Sandy Naishtat and pianist Sonja Thompson will transport us back to this elegant period with partsongs and solos by Charles Stanford, Hubert Parry, Edward Elgar, Arthur Sullivan, George Butterworth and Liza Lehmann. The centerpiece of the evening will be Lehmann’s popular 1896 setting of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, "In a Persian Garden".