Commissioning New works is at the core of what we do

“Lyric Fest commissions new works, so that generations to come will know who we are, by our songs.”

Commissioning and performing new works has become integral to LF's mission and programming philosophy.

Lyric Fest makes a special commitment to American song by commissioning new works, and by promoting the work we commission. Our work is focused on creating new songs for a new age, connecting more relevantly to today’s audiences, and adding works of substance to the repertory.

 

LF enjoys working in partnership with composers, providing them opportunities for creating and mounting performances of their work. Since its founding, Lyric Fest has commissioned 39 composers, 10 poet/ lyricists, for over 200 songs, 19 song cycles/groups, and numerous arrangements by local, regional and nationally recognized composers.

Please address all inquiries to Suzanne or Laura at info@lyricfest.org.

Have a look at the works we have commissioned. 

Past Commissions

2022

Jennifer Higdon

Little River Songs

Jennifer Higdon's "Little River Songs" was commissioned by Lyric Fest through the generous gift of Marilyn Fishman.

Apr 9, 2022

2022

Allen Krantz

Three Sephardic Songs

Apr 9, 2022

2022

John Conahan

American Dreams

Apr 9, 2022

2022

Apr 9, 2022

2022

Gilda Lyons

El Zopilote

Apr 9, 2022

2022

Melissa Dunphy

Eat the Rich

Melissa Dunphy's "Eat the Rich" was commissioned by Lyric Fest through the generous gift of Mignon Groch.

Apr 9, 2022

2022

Robert Maggio

The Story About the Rose

Apr 9, 2022

2022

Benjamin Wenzelberg

Through the Brightening Air

Benjamin Wenzelberg's "Through the Brightening Air" was commissioned by Lyric Fest through the generous gift of Suzanne DuPlantis.

Apr 9, 2022

2022

Jeffrey Scott

A Morte Devagar

Jeffrey Scott's "A Morte Devagar" was commissioned by Lyric Fest through the generous gift of Jeffrey Brillhart and Joacy Mendonça.

Apr 9, 2022

2022

Michael Djupstrom

Sejdefu majka budaše

Michael Djupstrom's "Sejdefu majka budaše" was commissioned by Lyric Fest through the generous gift of Allen Schimmel.

Apr 9, 2022

2022

Damien Geter, composer

COTTON

Multi-Media Song Cycle Inspired By The Cotton Photography Of Philadelphia Artist John Dowell

Feb 27, 2022

2021

Karl Hinze

Song

(Commissioned for "The Funny Bone")

Jul 9, 2021

2021

David Shaprio

Advice To Youth

(text by Mark Twain)

Jul 9, 2021

2021

Lori Laitman

A Party for Kevin (the piglet)

Poetry by Susan de Sola. A Party for Kevin (the piglet) was commissioned by LF for "The Funny Bone."

Jul 9, 2021

2020

Jasmine Bairnes

Taking Names

(Commissioned for #SAYTHEIRNAMES)

Nov 14, 2020

2020

Patrice Michaels

RESOLVED

Songs of Women's Suffrage & the 19th Amendment

Aug 26, 2020

2019

Daron Hagen

The Art of Song

Nov 4, 2019

2019

Raymond Lustig

The Lines Below

(text by Walt Whitman)

Apr 7, 2019

2019

Robert Convery

Of These I Sing America

(text by Walt Whitman)

Apr 7, 2019

2019

Curt Cacioppo

Red Jacket/Yonnondio

(text by Walt Whitman)

Apr 7, 2019

2019

David Shapiro

Two Lincoln Elegies

(text by Walt Whitman)

Apr 7, 2019

2019

Samuel McLaughlin

The Dismantled Ship

(text by Walt Whitman)

Apr 7, 2019

2019

Isabella Nicole Ness

All Things Being Finite

(text by Walt Whitman)

Apr 7, 2019

2019

Gilda Lyons

America, Singing

(text by Walt Whitman)

Apr 6, 2019

2019

Melissa Dunphy

Come, My Tan-Faced Children

(text by Walt Whitman)

Apr 6, 2019

2019

Derek Bermel

We Two Boys

(text by Walt Whitman)

Apr 6, 2019

2019

Glen Roven

We Two-How Long We were Fool’d

(text by Walt Whitman)

Apr 6, 2019

2019

Nkeiru Okoye

Twenty Eight Bathers

(text by Walt Whitman)

Apr 6, 2019

2019

James Primosch

Two Whitman Love Songs

(text by Walt Whitman)

Apr 6, 2019

2018

Benjamin C.S. Boyle

Reverie

(text by Sara Teasdale)

Nov 10, 2018

2017

Benjamin C.S. Boyle

Spirits in Bondage

(text by C.S. Lewis)

Dec 3, 2017

2017

Benjamin C.S. Boyle

Lullaby

(text by Sara Teasdale)

Sep 21, 2017

2017

Michael Djupstrom

Oars in Water

(text by Jeanne Minahan)

Mar 31, 2017

2017

John Musto

Be Music, Night

(texts by Sri Aurobindo, Carl Sandburg, Leonie Adams, & Kenneth Patchen)

Mar 31, 2017

2016

Logan Skelton

Letters to Santa

(texts from children’s Santa letters)

Dec 6, 2016

2016

John Conahan

How Can I Keep From Singing

(text by Robert Wadsworth Lowry, with revised lyrics by John Conahan)

Oct 8, 2016

2016

Kile Smith

There is no great and no Small

(text by Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Oct 8, 2016

2016

Isabella Nicole Ness

Ever Yours, Vincent

(text by Vincent van Gogh)

Apr 2, 2016

2016

Thomas Lloyd

You must know…

(text by Amelia Earhart)

Apr 2, 2016

2016

Logan Skelton

4 Letters to Santa

(texts from children’s Santa letters)

Apr 2, 2016

2016

Lori Laitman

Dear Future Roommate

(text by Mike Gioia)

Apr 2, 2016

2016

Benjamin C.S. Boyle

Zelda’s Dream

(text by Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald)

Apr 2, 2016

2016

Abbie Betinis

Your Ever Faithful Friend

(text by Abigail and John Adams)

Apr 2, 2016

2016

Juliana Hall

A Northeast Storm

(text by Emily Dickinson)

Apr 2, 2016

2016

Daron Hagen

The Bixby Letter

(text by Abraham Lincoln)

Apr 2, 2016

2016

John Conahan

I Love my Wife. My Wife is Dead.

(text by Richard Feynman)

Apr 2, 2016

2015

Nicholas White

The Raven

(text by Edgar Allan Poe)

Nov 7, 2015

2015

Joel Puckett

the greatest evil-six years

(text by Edgar Allan Poe)

Nov 7, 2015

2015

Ellen Mandel

To One in Paradise

(text by Edgar Allan Poe)

Nov 7, 2015

2015

Kile Smith

The Heavens Declare

(text from Psalm 19)

Apr 19, 2015

2015

John Conahan

Hard Times Come Again no More

(text by Stephen Foster/Mary J. Blige)

Apr 19, 2015

2015

Kile Smith

In This Blue Room

(text by Julia Blumenreich, Susan Fleshman, Siobhan Lyons, and Donna Wolf-Palacio; based on the batik paintings of Laura Madeleine)

Mar 13, 2015

2014

Kile Smith

Mark the Music

(text by William Shakespeare)

Nov 16, 2014

2014

James Primosch

Waltzing the Spheres

(text by Susan Scott Thompson)

Mar 28, 2014

2014

Daron Hagen

Four Dickinson Songs

(texts by Emily Dickinson)

Mar 28, 2014

2014

Michael Djupstrom

Infirm

(text by Gwendolyn Brooks)

Mar 28, 2014

2014

Douglas Cuomo

Our Vision for the Future

(text by Amanda Nadleberg)

Mar 28, 2014

2014

Benjamin C.S. Boyle

Patience

(text by Edith Wharton)

Mar 28, 2014

2014

Maurice Wright

Hold my hands, lover

(text by Virginia Robinson)

Mar 28, 2014

2013

John Conahan

Wade in the Water

Mar 3, 2013

2013

John Conahan

O Freedom

Mar 3, 2013

2013

Andrea Clearfield

The Drift of Things; Winter Songs

(text by Frost, Kancewick, Wagoner, Keats, Shakespeare, Hoelderlin and Rilke)

Jan 25, 2013

2013

Daron Hagen

After Words

(text from the Bible, Ruben Dario, Peter Handke, Seamus Heaney, and Wilhelm Muller)

Jan 25, 2013

2012

Allen Krantz

From On the Road

(text by Jack Kerouac)

Oct 14, 2012

2012

Thomas Lloyd

Ben Unleashed

(text by Benjamin Franklin)

Oct 14, 2012

2011

Curt Cacioppo

Volgi, Beatrice

(text by Dante Alighieri)

Nov 12, 2011

2011

Allen Krantz

Little Elegy with Books and Beasts (II)

(text by Nancy Willard)

Nov 12, 2011

2011

Maurice Wright

To Kiss the Earth

(text by Marguerite Wildenhain)

Nov 12, 2011

2011

John Conahan

Fly Me to the Moon

(original by Bart Howard)

Jan 28, 2011

2010

Thomas Lloyd

Fatherly reflections

(text by Karl Kirchwey)

Nov 21, 2010

2009

Kile Smith

Two Laudate Psalms

(text from Psalms 113 and 150)

Oct 30, 2009

2008

Nicholas White

The Aim Was Song

(text by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Robert Frost, Christina Rossetti, and Alfred Lord Tennyson)

Apr 12, 2008

2006

Nicholas White

Going Home

(original by Antonín Dvořák)

Oct 15, 2006

2005

Jeffrey James Harvey

Sweet potato pie

(text by Dan May)

Nov 19, 2005

2005

Jeffrey James Harvey

Dance Through Life

Nov 19, 2005