ANN ARBOR—A collaboration between playwright Sandra Seaton and composer William Bolcom explores what imagined letters written by Sally Hemings would reveal about her role as slave and mistress to Thomas Jefferson.

With text by Seaton, professor of English at Central Michigan University, and music by Bolcom, professor of music at the University of Michigan, Hemings is portrayed in a song cycle (18) that will be premiered by mezzo soprano Florence Quivar on March 16 at 8 p.m. in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Quivar, who has performed with the Met and recently the Philadelphia Philharmonic, approached Bolcom with the idea of creating a musical piece based on Hemings. “Bill,” says Seaton, “knowing my background and having seen some of my plays, asked me to write the text.”

Seaton devoted a year to researching the Hemings-Jefferson relationship and various aspects of life during the Jeffersonian era before beginning her work. She and Bolcom worked together for about 18 months, presenting the final work to Quivar last November.

“The Sally Hemings I sought to portray was a woman who seized the opportunity to enjoy French fashion and culture, a woman whose intellect and taste were not bounded by her legal status as a slave,” Seaton says. “I suspect that Sally Hemings influenced Thomas Jefferson as much as he influenced her.”

William Bolcom, recipient of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for music, has received commissions from numerous orchestras around the world. His opera “A View from the Bridge” premiered in 1999 at Chicago’s Lyric Opera. It was the second of four commissions for that institution. Bolcom serves U-M as the Ross Lee Finney Distinguished University Professor of Music and as chair of the Composition Department of U-M’s School of Music.

Sandra SeatonmusicMet1988 Pulitzer Prize for music