Concert Blog Series

Posts

  • Debussy and His Songs – A Blog

    January 22, 2018

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    4. The Chattering Mandolin I’m torn. It’s hard to choose an angle from which to view Debussy’s exuberant song, Mandoline. Shall it be the commedia dell’arte characters who inspired the painter Antoine Watteau to capture on canvas this beautiful, nocturnal scene of masqueraders, poets and musicians in sweet poses, amid ancient ruins? Or that these paintings…
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  • Debussy and His Songs – A Blog

    January 18, 2018

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        3. DEBUSSY, VOYAGER contributed by Rachel Kesselman   Friday night, over an apéritif, I hear the question again: Et alors, pourquoi tu es venue en France ? So, why did you come to France? It is a question that naturally rises to the surface after a few introductory exchanges, one whose innocence both comforts and…
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  • Debussy and His Songs – A Blog

    January 15, 2018

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    2. A VERY STRANGE MAN? “I honestly don’t know if Debussy ever loved anybody really. He loved his music – and perhaps himself. I think he was wrapped up in his genius…. He was a very, very strange man.” —Mary Garden, who premiered Mélisande in the original production of Pelléas et Mélisande   So, how strange…
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  • Debussy and His Songs – A Blog

    January 2, 2018

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    1. THE ALLURE OF THREE  There is something so satisfying about the number three. Not too much, not too little. It says it all, or somehow all that needs to be said, anyway. I was thinking about this, and about the distilled perfection of Debussy’s Chansons de Bilitis, a three-song cycle with its titillating encounter,…
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  • ARGENTO Song Blog – “Winter” from Six Elizabethan Songs

    October 18, 2017

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      In 1958 Dominick Argento was 31, he had just landed his first job teaching theory and composition at the University of Minnesota. Did he celebrate by writing a few songs? He did. Since this was long before the allure of setting prose, letters, and diaries set in, Shakespeare would suffice…   Here are Jessica Lennick and…
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  • Lyric Fest Announces Argento Concert

    October 3, 2017

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    Lyric Fest Announces Argento Concert FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media contact: Suzanne DuPlantis    suzanneduplantis@gmail.com,    215 432 5946 Lyric Fest Announces its first of two Happy Hour and Mini Concerts ~ The songs and biography of living composer, Dominick Argento ~ celebrated on his birthday. DOMINICK ARGENTO TURNS 90 Friday, October 27th, 2017 at 5:30 PM…
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  • Review of Pedals, Page-Turns, and Postludes

    October 3, 2017

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    Michael Caruso published his review of our season opener in the Chestnut Hill Local yesterday, October 2, 2017. Click here for the review. Some tidbits from the review to whet your appetite to read the whole thing: “The center of gravity for Lyric Fest’s concert was Chestnut Hill pianist Laura Ward … co-director Ward oversaw…
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  • Pedals, Page-turns and Postludes – A Blog

    September 10, 2017

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    I’m not complaining, but… September 10, 2017 …It’s time. It’s time that Laura tells you all about what she does: her craft, her art, her technique. And while she’s at it, she’s going to tell you all about our songs, too. In this program, Laura is going to do the talking! Now this reminds me…
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  • A word from Suzanne and Laura about Magic…

    August 29, 2017

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    “You know, it is probably time to remove that phrase ‘young organization’ from your Lyric Fest materials,” said a friend recently with a congratulatory smile. How did that happen? Perhaps magic had something to do with it, the kind Benjamin Britten wrote about in the Saturday Review in 1964: The magic comes when the written…
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  • Irving Berlin Program

    May 8, 2017

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    Click here to see our program.
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  • Tom Purdom reviews “It’s Elementary”

    April 6, 2017

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    Tom Purdom’s review of It’s Elementary was published yesterday in the Broad Street Review. Here are a few brief quotes to entice you to follow the link (click here) so you can read the whole, elegantly written, review. The lineup’s 21 songs were distributed among four appealing young vocalists. Soprano Meryl Dominguez and tenor Jonas…
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  • Press coverage of “Music in the White House”

    February 4, 2017

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    “Music in the White House” presented on January 28 and 29, 2017, received two write-ups in the local press. Ronnie Polaneczky, writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer “Speaking with feet, hearts, and voices” (Article) Excerpt: […] about 250 Philadelphians on the other side of town were moved to tears during a Rittenhouse Square concert called “Music…
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