Deadmall Ballads - Hilliard and Boresi

Lyric Fest Movie Now Streaming On Demand

Deadmall Ballads – a seriocomic song cycle about the life cycle of the American shopping mall. Offered in a new vision with video antics by Lyric Fest, this song-movie features the brilliant score / libretto of Hilliard and Boresi, brought to full hilarity and poignance by the artist who inspired the work, Jennifer Aylmer. Deadmall Ballads was originally premiered by LF in 2022 by Jennifer Aylmer and Laura Ward and was then studio recorded for our movie.

“[With] original, bluesy-driven penetrating music… composed by Peter Hilliard with idiosyncratic words by Matt Boresi… Deadmall Ballads has a clear story arc built around nine colorful songs about a dying shopping mall. The listener is taken on a journey not unlike Dante’s Inferno."

-D.C. Metro Theatre Arts

What audiences are saying about Lyric Fest

“It's much more than just a concert. It's the feeling of being alive.”

Raehann Bryce- Davis,  Photo: Donato Valentino

“You are at the center of the world where music, poetry, and thought come together. You are inches away from the art, and there's no other group that is giving you that kind of emotional immediacy.”

Lyric Fest is a place to experience the unique power of the human voice in song. We bring together great singers, composers, history, biography, and humor. Here we tell our stories in song.

Have A Look At Our

2020-2021 Season

September

Play a Simple Melody

The Historic Songs of Tin Pan Alley

28 & 29

November

Nevertheless, She Sang

Women Composers, Women Poets

16 & 17

February

The Soul of the City

Urban living in the best and worst of times

22 & 23

Here's What's Happening Right Now

Antique songs in modern garb

Everything Old is New Again

“La musica, come il sale, conserva meglio.” “Music, like salt, preserves better.” - Erri De Luca The old Italian songs, sung in vocal studios the world over, are here reimagined with flair by America’s premier Black composers. Lyric Fest is honored to collaborate with the Denyce Graves Foundation in presenting the world premiere of these beloved songs in their newly decked out versions. Commissioned by the Denyce Graves Foundation and sung by DGF artists, Symone Harcum, Taylor-Alexis Dupont, and Joseph Parrish, with Laura Ward, piano.
Where
When
The Academy of Vocal Arts
April 5, 2025 @ 3:00 pm
Haverford College - Jaharis Recital Hall
April 6, 2025 @ 3:00 pm
Tickets are no longer available for this concert.