The Poet's Calendar is based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's set of 12 poems of the same name, in which each song describes a month of the calendar year. Longfellow invokes vivid imagery from
O Mistress Mine follows a narrative arc illuminating the ever-changing nature of love, from the time we first encounter it as youths to our awareness as we age of its many varying qualities.
Letters from Edna presents eight letters sent by the great American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay to members of her family, friends, and business associates. The letters describe the people Millay
Winter Windows is a cycle of songs that each offer a "window" into a different wintry scene. There is, of course, a snow-man, and there are snowflakes and fields piled high in snow drifts, but the
The title of the song cycle A World Turned Upside Down comes from an entry in "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank, reflecting the sense she felt of her world being upturned when suddenly the
Lovestars is a set of five love songs on the poetry of E. E. Cummings, which is at once celebratory of both the spiritual and physical realms that are part of our common human experience of
Fables for a Prince evokes images of aristocratic life in days past, when a young prince would be taught his lessons always with an appreciation of him one day becoming the king. Both animals and
The title Propriety comes from an archaic use of that word, meaning the "peculiarity" or "essential quality" of a person or thing, and in the case of this song cycle that subject is classical music itself.
Bells and Grass portrays five intimate scenes, in which small things come into focus and the world recedes: a nightingale’s song echoing from a nearby wall, the bright sun and the waves of
A short song cycle using an unaccompanied solo soprano to vocalize the fanciful and magical poems of E.E. Cummings with glissandi, whistling, ghostly whispered notes and long melismas drawing out the sounds
Renowned pianist, opera coach, conductor, teacher, and writer Kathleen Kelly commissioned composer Juliana Hall to set her poem "Tornado" as an art song, which was premiered by soprano Caitlin Lynch with
Written for Jun Mo Yang, a young tenor studying in the graduate Vocal Arts Program at the Bard Conservatory, this piece fulfilled his class assignment to seek out repertoire from a living composer whose
Based on six poems by American poet Billy Collins, these songs offer gentle, colorful, and playful glimpses into a narrator's past experiences taking piano lessons. This lighthearted song cycle possesses
This canticle based on texts taken from the Gospel of Luke is designed like a triptych painting. Fashioned like a visual art triptych, the "left panel" or Prologue of the piece proclaims
The text of Juliana Hall's musical setting for baritone and piano is the famous sonnet The New Colossus by American poet Emma Lazarus, written in 1883 and now inscribed on a plaque on the
On the surface, this 1941 Elizabeth Bishop poem is about roosters. More specifically, roosters in Key West, where the poet spent a decade. But the subtexts could not be any more appropriate in terms of