News
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Dutch baritone Hans Pieter Herman and pianist Jason Wirth perform Lori’s Men With Small Heads
The wonderful young Dutch baritone, Hans Pieter Herman, along with collaborative pianist Jason Wirth, will perform songs by Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Ravel, Poulenc, and Laitman on the evening of April 5, 2013 at Symphony Space in NYC. Men with Small Heads cycle (poems by Thomas Lux) will be on the program. http://www.symphonyspace.org/event/7799-hans-pieter-herman-in-recital-jason-wirth-piano
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Opera America Songbook Recital of March 19, 2013
On March 19, 2013, Lori Laitman and soprano Jennifer Check performed Lori’s “Building A House.” The work was one of 47 songs commissioned by Opera America to celebrate the opening of the National Opera Center. Lori chose to set a poem by Joyce Sutphen, the current Poet Laureate of Minnesota. 10 selections were performed on…
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Reach Out Kansas, Inc (ROKI) commissions new cycle for soprano Julia Broxholm and pianist Russell Miller
Thanks to funding from Reach Out Kansas, Inc. (ROKI), Smithyman and Zakoura Chartered and the Zakoura Family Foundation, a new work has been commissioned for soprano Julia Broxholm of Kansas University’s School of Music, and pianist Russell Miller of The Eastman School of Music. The work will be the centerpiece of a new CD of…
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OPERA COLORADO receives NEA Artistic Excellence Grant for The Scarlet Letter
Opera Colorado was awarded a $30,000 grant by The National Endowment for the Arts to support the professional world premiere of my opera The Scarlet Letter. For more information, please visit: http://www.nea.gov/grants/recent/13grants/13aae.php?CAT=Art%20Works&DIS=Opera
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The Opera America Songbook
Laitman’s Building A House, to a poem by Minnesota Poet Laureate Joyce Sutphen, is one of the 47 songs commissioned by Opera America for the opening of the National Opera Center in NYC in September of 2012. The Opera America Songbook is available in print from Schott Music New York, and the songs are available…
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Vedem featured on WETA’s Choral Showcase
On November 4, 2012, WETA (90.9 FM, www.weta.org) featured Lori’s Vedem on their Choral Showcase program. The wonderful Vedem libretto is by David Mason, who wraps his touching narrative around six poems by the imprisoned teenage boys who contributed to the Vedem magazine. To hear and view excerpts from Vedem, or to purchase the CD,…
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Naxos Releases Binders Full of Women Composers CD
Naxos has issued a new CD, Binders Full of Women Composers, (inspired, of course, by Mitt Romney’s 2012 debate remark) – and the CD includes an excerpt from Lori’s Holocaust oratorio, Vedem — Home Number One, to poetry by David Mason. This particular excerpt features the Northwest Boychoir, under the direction of Joseph Crnko, and…
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Andrew Garland’s American Portraits CD
Baritone Andrew Garland’s latest CD, American Portraits, with collaborative pianist Donna Loewy, features a new recording of Lori’s Men with Small Heads, as well as songs by Jake Heggie, Stephen Paulus and Tom Cipullo. To order, please click here: http://www.gprrecords.com/andrew-garland-american-portraits/
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Lori to present a Master Class at West Chester University
Lori will present a master class on her songs on September 27, 2012 at West Chester University in West Chester, PA.
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1st Act of LUDLOW at University of Colorado’s New Opera Works
The University of Colorado’s New Opera Works Program, run by Leigh Holman, presented Act I of my newest opera Ludlow in three workshop performances from June 1- 3, 2012, with director Beth Greenberg and music director Robert Spillman. Ludlow is based on the verse novel by David Mason. The action takes place in the early American…
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David Mason’s The Scarlet Libretto now available
The Scarlet Libretto is the libretto for my opera The Scarlet Letter. Award-winning poet and librettist David Mason, author of Ludlow and other books, gives new life in verse to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel. By distilling the book’s narrative line and adding a charged lyricism of his own, Mason has created another magnificent work in his ongoing poetic portrait…
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Laitman songs on NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART Recital by Jessica Jones and Danielle Hahn
On March 25, 2012 at 6:30 pm, Soprano Jessica Jones and pianist Danielle Hahn will present a recital at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The recital will feature music by Nadia Boulanger, Clara Schumann and Lori Laitman. For more information, please visit http://www.nga.gov/programs/music/
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Vedem Songs and The Boys of Terezin
The Boys of Terezin documentary will be featured at the New Jersey Jewish Film Festival. Prior to the screening on Sunday, March 25, 2012 at 7:30 pm, Lori and mezzo-soprano Denise Mihalik will perform selections from Vedem Songs. Leo Lowy, one of the Terezin survivors and original contributor to the Vedem Magazine will be the…
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Dark Spring Premiere
The premiere of Dark Spring will take place on April 21 Saturday, June 23, 2012 at 4:30 pm at the Salone of the Galleria Nazionale Palazzo Spinola di Pelliceria in the Centro Storico of Genoa, Italy. Fondazione Spinola will host the concert, which features British tenor Chris Elliott and Austrian pianist Bernadette Bartos. The cycle…
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Lori’s music featured on Thomas Hampson’s Song of America Radio Series
Song of America is a 13-week radio series, developed by Thomas Hampson. The series showcases American song, and each hour long program focuses on a particular topic. Lori’s songs are featured on two of the shows: “There Is No Gender in Music” and “Emily Dickinson: Letter to the World”. For more information, please visit: http://www.songofamerica.net/cgi-bin/iowa/radio/index.html
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Lori Laitman Recital at the National Museum of Women in the Arts
On Wednesday, March 14, 2012 at 7:30 pm, I presented a recital of my music on The Shenson Series at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. I accompanied three wonderful vocalists: soprano Megan Monaghan, tenor Vale Rideout and baritone Randall Scarlata. Together, we presented a selection of artsongs as well…
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Wolfgang Holzmair premieres Todesfuge in NYC and DC
Tuesday, February 21, 9:00 PM at the Austrian Cultural Forum in NYC, the acclaimed Austrian baritone Wolfgang Holzmair, along with French cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton, will premiere my Todesfuge Songs as part of the recital. This concert is part of the ACFNY’s ongoing series, Lied: The Art of Song. The recital will also be performed in…
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ACT I of Ludlow is Completed
I have just completed the piano/vocal score to Act I of my new opera, Ludlow. I am thrilled that The University of Colorado’s New Opera Works Program, run by Leigh Holman, will present Ludlow in workshop this summer. Director Beth Greenberg and Librettist David Mason (currently Poet Laureate of Colorado) will be in attendance with…
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The website is open for visitors!
I’m so excited to see the new website, and I hope you enjoy the new look and the improved functionality! If you have any comments or information for inclusion on this site, please feel free to contact me.
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My thanks to Mark Gruen
I wish to thank my wonderful copyist of many years, Mark Gruen. He has prepared several of my larger works with extreme care and knowledge. If anyone ever needs a copyist/editor, I recommend him wholeheartedly. You can contact him at mgruen@verizon.net.
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Soprano Hila Plitmann and Clarinetist Julian Bliss record Lori’s Butterfly cycle
Grammy-award-winning soprano Hila Plitmann and UK clarinetist Julian Bliss recorded Lori’s “I Never Saw Another Butterfly” in November 2010 for Signum Records. The CD was released in December 2011. (Amazon, iTunes)
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Emerging Voices Project
Elisabeth Halliday and Zach Herchen have created the Emerging Voices Project to commission, perform, and record music for voice and saxophone. The project was inspired by Lori Laitman’s “I Never Saw Another Butterfly,” a musical setting of poetry written by Jewish children who lived in the concentration camp Theresienstadt. Elisabeth and Zach selected composers Kathleen…
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Five Lovers Update
In December 2010, soprano/poet Jama Jandrokovic and pianist Andrew Rosenblum recorded Lori’s “Five Lovers.” The upcoming CD will include other settings of Jama’s poetry, by composers Paul Moravec and Luna Pearl Woolf. Details about the release will be forthcoming, and for more information, please visit http://www.jamajandrokovic.com/
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From Muse to Music: Exploring the Craft of the American Song
A video from the November 14, 2010 panel on American Song at the Philoctetes Center in NYC is now up on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb9ZZdueGf0 The presentation includes a performance and discussion with violinist Stephanie Chase, soprano Hope Hudson, and composers Tom Cipullo, Richard Pearson Thomas and Lori Laitman.
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Lori’s Music on the Opera America “Salon Series” in New York City
The NY premiere of excerpts from The Scarlet Letter took place on September 15, 2010, when Lori’s music was showcased on Opera America’s “Salon Series: Exploring American Voices” with Sari Gruber, Vale Rideout and Randall Scarlata. Click here to view the video. The Scarlet Letter excerpts start at 18:33 in this video.