Tall Tales & Short Stories from a Singer's Life and Imagination (2021) by Janis-Rozena Peri. Foreword by Jeannie Gayle Pool. According to the educator Faith Holsaert, “[Peri] takes readers on a tour from the land of her birth, to the heights of New York City’s music world, to academe in Virginia and West Virginia. . . . Like the songs in a concert, Peri’s stories paint a panorama of what it is to be a musical artist, at the same time that they are small portals into an individual life.”

Soprano and educator Janis-Rozena Peri (b.1943) is the daughter of the composer Zenobia Powell Perry (1908–2004), of African American and Creek Indian heritage. She spent her early childhood in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and Wilberforce, Ohio. After receiving a B.M. in piano from Otterbein College, she became a voice student of Richard Miller at Miami University of Ohio, earning a M.M. and winning a scholarship that enabled her to move to New York City.

There, she sang at Carnegie Hall and Town Hall and on CBS-TV. A role in the opera Carmen Jones took her on tour to Germany, Holland, and Swtizerland. After years as a free-lance artist, Ms. Peri joined the faculty of Old Dominion University and later West Virginia University. There she taught, performed, and advocated for social justice issues, retiring in 2008. In recognition of her outstanding service, WVU has inducted her into the esteemed Order of Vandalia.

Format:  6 " x 9" ; 123 pages, with illustrations. ISBN: 979-8-505-36439-0. Cover Art: Ramon Ramirez. Book Design: Beverly Simmons.