Concert Blog Series

Posts

  • Another review of Songs from the Tundra

    January 23, 2019

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    SONGS FROM THE TUNDRA – Lyric Fest in collaboration with Variant 6Review by Michael Caruso, Chestnut Hill performance, January 12, 2019, 4PMChestnut Hill LocalClick or tap: https://www.chestnuthilllocal.com/2019/01/17/tundra-warm-not-chilly-at-hill-presbyterian-church/Highlights from the review:“Chestnut Hill pianist Laura Ward and East Falls mezzo-soprano Suzanne DuPlantis founded Lyric Fest in 2003 and have overseen its growth into one of Greater Philadelphia’s most…
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  • Review of Songs from the Tundra

    January 17, 2019

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    Gail Obenreder reviewed “Songs from the Tundra” in the Broad Street Review. Here is a sample: The evening featured three first-rate soloists and the luminous a cappella singing of Variant 6, all grounded by the sensitive, intuitive piano collaboration of Lyric Fest co-artistic director Laura Ward. For the whole review, please click https://www.broadstreetreview.com/music/lyric-fest-presents-songs-from-the-tundra#
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  • Un-layering Leonard Bernstein, Letter by Letter

    October 9, 2018

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    Lyric Fest Leonard Bernstein – Biography in Music Presented by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society at the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater October 21, 2018 at 3pm Tickets Here   This is our 7th “Biography in Music”. (This is where Laura and I select a composer whose music and life excites us. Then we launch into…
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  • My Residency with Lyric Fest (Benjamin C.S. Boyle)

    May 28, 2018

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    What a year it’s been! Like all wonderful times, we remember the beginning as if it were years ago and the end as having come impossibly quick. From the opening concert from the pianist’s point of view and the recital of my songs in December, to the Debussy portrait in music and the finale with…
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  • Crowning the 15th-Anniversary Season

    April 30, 2018

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    Lyric Fest is 15! Having assisted in its birth, having made the first online outfit for this new baby in the Philly song scene (its first website), having helped take care of the baby’s affairs as a member of the board, having made new outfits and accessories for the growing child (new versions of the…
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  • Chansons de Diane

    April 24, 2018

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    I grew up (mostly) in Maryland and memorized as much E.A. Poe as I could get my hands on. There was a statue of him near my house, which may have deepened the kinship. Poe was also a contemporary of the early Romantic composers Chopin and Schumann, whose music I adored growing up and continue…
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  • Songs from the Great American Song Book

    April 5, 2018

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    “When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are, anything your heart desires will come to you….” I grew up listening to my mother sing “When You Wish Upon a Star” (Leigh Harline & Ned Washington, 1940), so when I heard those lyrics emerge from Richard Troxell and Suzanne DuPlantis at the…
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  • HUMMING AND STRUMMING – A guitar blog

    March 28, 2018

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      LIEDER ON SIX STRINGS   Allen Krantz, guitarist for Humming and Strumming, says Schubert is like a fine consommé, and Brahms is… how did he put it? A potage? A thick stew? A cassoulet? I can’t remember exactly, but you’re getting the point, and I’m getting hungry. Nevertheless, I am here to tell you…
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  • HUMMING AND STRUMMING – A Guitar Blog

    March 18, 2018

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      SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING BORROWED… Mátyás György Seiber and the folksong At heart I must be utterly simple. And what I so love about song, I doubly love in folksong. Fortunately, I am not alone, and many a decent composer, even many renowned ones, have a soft spot for these direct and unpretentious…
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  • HUMMING AND STRUMMING – A GUITAR BLOG

    March 12, 2018

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    Sitting Down on the Job In planning a concert for singers and guitar there are some choices to make: Limit yourself to strictly guitar music? Or include songs written for its third cousin twice removed, the lute? * Stick to Schubert who published songs with guitar accompaniments, or push the envelope a little, venturing into…
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  • Songs for Butterflies / for Homeless Children during Noel

    February 26, 2018

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    Gentle reader, I have something to tell you. It’s about music and the love of song. It’s about traveling on the wings of song. It will start from an apparently prosaic place and end in memories of sublime beauty. Along the way, I will tell you about butterflies, songs of love and tragedy.   This…
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  • Debussy and His Songs – A Blog

    January 29, 2018

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    5. RAIN   I like rain. Actually, it would be more true to say I love rain. But then again, I am not prone to too much melancholy, except the seasonal, almost pleasant kind. So truth to tell, leaden skies, wind-blown sheets of rain, splashing cars, puddled pavements – for me, these only soothe.  …
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