So what exactly do light and shade sound like? Network for New Music would have us know.

Join me for today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network as we listen to pieces by contemporary composers Ingrid Arauco, Anna Weesner, Morton Feldman, Joan Tower, Pierre Jalbert, and Augusta Read Thomas, most of them presented under the unifying theme of “The Sounds of Light and Shade.”

Network for New Music’s mission is to perform a great diversity of new musical works of the highest quality by both established and emerging composers; to strengthen the new music community in the Philadelphia region; and to build support for new music by engaging in artistic and institutional collaborations, as well as educational activities. Now in its 34th year, Network for New Music has commissioned 147 works from leading composers.

The organization’s next program, “Millennial Music,” will be presented twice: this Sunday at 3 p.m. at the University of Pennsylvania’s Rose Hall, 3340 Walnut Street in Philadelphia, and Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Stockton University’s Campus Center Theatre, 101 Vera King Farris Drive, in Galloway, NJ. For more information and a complete schedule, look online at networkfornewmusic.org.

Featured prominently on today’s broadcast, as well as on the upcoming concerts, will be Clipper Erickson, piano. Erickson is arguably the world’s foremost champion of the music of R. Nathaniel Dett.

Dett was born in what is now Niagara Falls, Ontario. The grandson of a former slave who found freedom on the Underground Railroad, he became an important figure in the American music of his time. Yet if he is remembered at all, it is probably for his piano suite, “In the Bottoms,” or perhaps only its concluding dance, “Juba,” which was championed by Percy Grainger and others.

Erickson was the first to record Dett’s complete piano works. We’ll sample some of them following today’s concert, from a 2-CD set, “My Cup Runneth Over,” issued on Navona Records, PARMA Recordings.

Then it’s music in celebration of the Great Emancipator, on this, Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Stick around for Robert Russell Bennett’s “Abraham Lincoln: A Likeness in Symphony Form,” Jennifer Higdon’s “Dooryard Bloom,” Roy Harris’ Symphony No. 6 “Gettysburg,” and of course Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait,” in a live concert recording featuring Marian Anderson as narrator and the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by the composer.

Our 16th president will take precedence, this Tuesday afternoon from 12 to 4 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTOS: Lincoln light and shade