Lyric Fest’s 16th season continues our journey of bringing beautiful music to you in Philadelphia and beyond. After an outreach concert of Irving Berlin favorites In Yellow Springs, Lyric Fest joins the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society in October at the Kimmel Center to present Leonard Bernstein – Biography in Music. This concert is in honor of the centennial of Bernstein’s birth, and features very special guest Jamie Bernstein who will read from her father’s letters. Lyric Fest will also bring this celebration of Leonard Bernstein to the Girard Academic Music Program for Philadelphia students.
A new premiere by Benjamin C.S. Boyle will accompany imaginative song selections reflecting on beginnings and endings in the first concert included in the season subscription, Sparks and Embers. This November concert is shortly followed by Fleurs des Femmes in New Orleans, where our Artistic Director Suzanne DuPlantis will be featured not only as a singer, but also as a painter. Laura Ward will be at the piano.
Season’s Greetings, the first happy-half hour and mini concert of the year, comes in early December to celebrate the holiday season. The new year opens up with a collaboration between Lyric Fest and Variant 6 exploringSongs from the Tundra in our January concert. As we near the spring, an exciting co-production with New Orleans’ Opus Opera brings Bryan Hymel and Irini Kyriakidou back to Lyric Fest, now joined by dancers under choreographer Darcy Lyons for Mahler’s Das Lied Von Der Erde.
Keeping with our tradition of commissioning new songs for a new age, Lyric Fest will celebrate Walt Whitman’s bicentennial in April with two concerts with distinct programming of Whitman songs in Philadelphia. Presented in two parts, CAROL OF WORDS ~ Walt Whitman in Song premieres 10 new works alongside extant settings of Whitman, featuring singers, a pianist, instrumentalists, Whitman expert Greg Trupiano, actor Jim Bergwall, as well the composers for a special talk before each concert, including the winner of our young composers competition. A third performance of all commissions will be offered in NYC with The Phoenix Concerts, Inc.
We close the season with The Glitter of Gershwin, a happy-half hour and mini concert celebrating the Great American Songbook.
Please see www.lyricfest.org for more information about all of these wonderful concerts!
Artists: Suzanne DuPlantis, Randall Scarlata, and Laura Ward at the piano
Artists: Jennifer Aylmer, soprano; Elizabeth Shammash, mezzo soprano; William Ferguson, tenor; Randall Scarlata, baritone; Laura Ward, pianist; Suzanne DuPlantis, narrator; and Jamie Bernstein reading her father’s words
Artists: Symone Harcum, soprano; Suzanne DuPlantis, mezzo soprano; Jared Bybee, bass-baritone; and Laura Ward at the piano.
Artists:Irini Kyriakidou, soprano; Suzanne DuPlantis, mezzo-soprano; and Laura Ward at the piano
Artists: Kara Mulder, soprano; Colin Doyle, tenor; and Laura Ward at the piano
Artists: Maeve Höglund, soprano; Maren Montalbano, mezzo soprano; Cody Müller, bass; Variant 6; and Laura Ward at the piano
Artists: Bryan Hymel, Irini Kyriakidou, choreographer Darcy Lyons, and Laura Ward at the piano
Artists: Composers: Melissa Dunphy, Derek Bermel, Gilda Lyons, James Primosch, David Shapiro, Curt Cacioppo, Glen Roven, Isabella Ness, Raymond Lustig, Nkeiru Okoye, and the winner of the young composer competition. Singers: Amy Van Roekel, Kristina Bachrach, Hannah Ludwig, Raehann Bryce-Davis, William Burden, James Reese, Keith Phares, Sidney Outlaw; with pianist Laura Ward