Tenor Paul Sperry and Daron Hagen, 2017. (Photo credit: Neil Erickson)

Daron returns to Paul Sperry's American Artsong Repertory class at the Manhattan School of Music to coach performances of his art songs, and to discuss performance and audition strategies with singers. Paul Sperry and Hagen have been close collaborators and friends since the 1980s, and have appeared together onstage over thirty times over the years at venues as diverse as Aspen, Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, the Bruno Walter Auditorium, Yaddo, the New School, Curtis Institute, Juilliard, Greenwich House, Bard College, Aaron Copland School of Music, City University, the Ethical Society of Philadelphia, and many others.

Sperry has commissioned a number of cycles from Hagen, including the "dramatic monodrama" Songs of Madness and Sorrow (premiered by Sperry with the Pacific Chamber Soloists, conducted by Troy Peters, and recorded on Arsis by Sperry and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, conducted by Victoria Bond), Figments (premiered at Bruno Walter Auditorium by Sperry and Hagen on a Joy in Singing Hagen retrospective and recorded by the duo at Town Hall for Albany Records), and Muldoon Songs, (premiered by Sperry and Hagen on a Friends and Enemies of Music Concert produced by bTom Cipullo and recorded by Hagen with baritone Paul Kreider for Arsis records).

To learn more about Paul Sperry and his amazing career as a champion and commissioner of American music and performer of great artsongs and cabaret works, click here.