Rhinebeck natives Gilda Lyons and Daron Hagen perform a half-recital of songs drawn from the new Naxos Records (8.559714) release "Lyric Fest Performs 21st Century Cycles of Daron Hagen," visit with patrons, answer questions, and sign records.
The recording is underwritten by a major grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and by Lyric Fest.
Daron Hagen and Gilda Lyons (Photo credit: Maureen Gates, Rhinebeck Living Magazine)
“Hagen, hailed by NATS Magazine as “the finest living American composer of art song,” received the 2016 “Academy Award” from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (whose recording award partly underwrites this release) for the “outstanding achievement of a composer who has arrived at their personal voice” and a Guggenheim Fellowship based in part on these cycles. The recordings are composer-supervised, and the aesthetic unity of the recital program is uniquely focused through the guidance of Lyric Fest co-founding artistic director Laura Ward, who serves as collaborative pianist for the entire disc.”
The disc features world premiere recordings of three major song cycles: Phantoms of Myself, commissioned by Ashley Putnam and premiered by Putnam and Hagen at the 92nd Street Y in New York City and recorded here by Gilda Lyons; After Words, commissioned by Lyric Fest, and featuring Justine Aronson and Joseph Gaines; and Songs of Experience, premiered at the Wintergreen Music Festival and recorded here by Daniel Teadt. In addition, two song groups: Four Irish Folk Songs, recorded by Suzanne DuPlantis and Kelly Ann Bixby, and Four Dickinson Songs, recorded by Ms. Bixby.
Learn more about Philadelphia's Lyric Fest here.
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