Everyone who values the Classical music tradition agrees that we must cultivate audiences if the tradition is to survive. The Lyric Fest song series supports that noble cause with an annual children’s concert, which has become one of the gems of its schedule.

The review gets better from this already great start. We have one more performance coming up on Sunday, 5/6, 3 pm, at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Cherry Hill, NJ (no ticket required; free-will offering at door). If you missed the April 29 performance, here’s your chance to catch this really fun (and funny) show. To whet your appetite more, we have two photos of the show by audience member Dominick Miserandino:

Maggie Moliterno as Gretel and Katherine Pracht as Hansel in Hansel and Gretel

Jeffrey Halili as Lindoro/Count Almaviva, Maggie Moliterno as Rosina, Daniel Pantano as Don Bartolo in the Barber of Seville

It was as if the poem was projected on a IMAX screen.

Well then! Read the whole review and see for yourself why Sharon loved the variety of the songs on the program as well as the historical and artistic context provided by the concert.

[...] one of Lyric Fest’s most varied and entertaining programs, complete with an after-concert mingle that included birthday cake and champagne in the Academy of Vocal Arts reception room.

The event included two spectacular young talents— soprano Meagan Miller and tenor Zach Borichevsky. Miller owns the kind of voice that made me sit up and take notice [...] It’s a strong voice that’s pure throughout its range, and she wields it with the sure touch of an artist who understands the full range of emotions demanded by opera. [...] Borichevsky displayed the same virtues when he joined her in the Puccini excerpt. In other pieces, he proved he can move between the power demanded by opera and the quieter, nuanced style required by art song.

[...] The third guest vocalist, Randall Scarlata, contributed the kind of performances that have made him a mainstay of the Philadelphia vocal scene. [...] Scarlata delivered the first section with imposing authority [...] he captured the intense high drama [...]

[...] soprano Randi Marrazzo had a good time with the comic lyrics from Victor Herbert’s “Baghdad,” [...] Marrazzo contributed the long melody line of a French chanson by the Venezuelan composer Reynaldo Hahn, and a moving performance of the song Irving Berlin wrote on the loss of his first wife [...]

[...] Suzanne DuPlantis presented one of the afternoon’s big surprises: A John Cage song that set a passage from James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake. [...] stunningly haunting [...] DuPlantis’s dark, knowledgeable delivery added the final touch. [...]

The third Lyric Fest founder, pianist Laura Ward, again contributed accompaniments that surrounded the vocalists with atmosphere and instrumental color. [...]

With immense wit and perhaps tongue in cheek, Lyric Fest, the Philadelphia art song collective, unveiled the program titled “A Very Good Year: Happy Birthday to 1912″ last weekend. [...]

Discoveries began in the very first song. Simple arpeggios have rarely been more eloquent than in “Orpheus With His Lute” by the little-known Ivor Gurney (and as elegantly sung as Borichevsky). [...]

Reynaldo Hahn was represented by “Song at the edge of the fountain,” which [...] as sung by Marrazzo, emerged as one of the composer’s most distinctive creations.

DuPlantis had some choice items such as “In the Garden” by Ottorino Respighi, often imprinting the music with her personality as deeply as Ian Bostridge a few weeks back, but with infinitely greater emotional underpinning. [...]

The crowd pleaser was Delaware-raised Miller, in her first area appearance since re-debuting as a Straussian soprano. “There is a realm where all is pure” from Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos fit her voice and linguistic abilities beautifully. [...]

Do head over to the original to read the whole thing!

Lyric Fest explores the art of song

Zach Borichevsky sings as a vehicle for truth

What can we say? Better not miss the concert!