The international women’s music fraternity, Eta Pi, and the Volusia County Alumnae Chapter (VCAC) of Sigma Alpha Iota, will present a benefit concert at Stetson University on Sunday, Feb. 12, at 3 p.m. in Lee Chapel inside Elizabeth Hall, 421 N. Woodland Blvd., DeLand. This event is open to the public with a suggested $10 donation.

The concert features works by women composers, including Clara Schumann, Henriette Renie and eminent American composers Amy Beach and Emma Lou Diemer. Performers include Stetson alumnae Sharla Mitchell Mercado, piano; Cameron Huster, harp; as well as current students in Stetson’s School of Music.

The VCAC commissioned a composition that will be performed by the Women’s Choir in the world premiere of this original piece. “City Trees” features text from a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay and music composed by recent Stetson graduate, Katie Harrell. Harrell’s recently debuted works include Bent Over Backwards (2011) for gamelan ensemble and Ever Since This Story (2011) for clarinets and strings. A 2011 graduate of Stetson University, Harrell is currently a master of arts candidate at Mills College in Oakland, Calif. She described the inspiration for her composition: “This piece was born out of a huge transition. I moved from my hometown in Central Florida to the San Francisco Bay Area. I was in a completely new environment—a vast, bustling city juxtaposed by dense redwood forest. In this piece,” she explained, “I attempt to draw energy from Millay’s text and project my own idea of how trees may sound.”

For further information, contact Stetson University’s School of  Music at (386) 822-8950; Concert Line (386) 822-8947; www2.stetson.edu/music.