by Kile Smith | Mar 21, 2015 | Art songs, Jazz, new music, Vocal music
In the Philadelphia Inquirer, David Patrick Stearns reviewed the first of the premiere concerts of In This Blue Room—the cycle setting four poets inspired by the batik paintings of Laura Pritchard—and in the Broad Street Review, Tom Purdom reviewed the second....
by Kile Smith | Mar 12, 2015 | Art songs, new music, Vocal music
Lucky indeed am I to have seen and heard such a fantastic performance of Plain Truths on Wednesday night, March 11th, at Temple University. This was the original version, five songs with piano accompaniment. Baritone Lawrence Indik, professor at Temple University,...
by Kile Smith | Mar 8, 2015 | Art songs, Broad Street Review, Jazz, new music, Vocal music, WRTI
[First published in the Broad Street Review, 3 Mar 2014, as Composing “In This Blue Room”] They thrill me here, the seagulls. Above the Beneficial Savings Bank building on Broad at Chew Avenue, a block north of Broad and Olney, they weave and mull over a...
by Kile Smith | Mar 6, 2015 | Art songs, new music, Vocal music
In This Blue Room is a 17-song, 45-minute cycle commissioned by Lyric Fest on poems of Julia Blumenreich, Susan Fleshman, Siobhan Lyons, and Donna Wolf-Palacio, which are based on the batik artwork of Laura Pritchard. It premiered 13 and 15 March 2015 with...
by Kile Smith | Feb 26, 2015 | Art songs, new music, Vocal music
What a great night at the preview party for In This Blue Room last night! Lyric Fest held it at the Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA) in Center City Philadelphia, and the co-directors performed: mezzo-soprano Suzanne DuPlantis sang four of the songs, accompanied by pianist...
by Kile Smith | Feb 12, 2015 | Art songs, new music, Vocal music
Just finished my 45-minute song cycle In This Blue Room for mezzo-soprano, baritone, and piano, for Lyric Fest’s March 13th and 15th concerts. I had a personal deadline of February 13th, so I’m happy to have beaten that by one day. Suzanne DuPlantis,...
