by Kile Smith | Sep 3, 2021 | Chamber Music, Choral music, hymn, liturgical music, new music, Vocal music
“Held the audience spellbound,” “leaping to their feet in a standing ovation,” “raucous,” “beautifully crafted, “especially moving and inventive,” “a worthy addition to that sacred canon” — Gail...
by Kile Smith | Feb 19, 2021 | Art songs, new music, Vocal music
April Showers. A song cycle for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, and piano. 17′. Commissioned for Conspirare and Craig Hella Johnson. Online premieres June 11th and 13th, 2021 by soprano Stefanie Moore, mezzo-soprano Laura Mercado-Wright, tenor Dann...
by Kile Smith | Dec 23, 2020 | Broad Street Review, Classical music, Vocal music
[First published in Broad Street Review 21 Dec 2020 and reprinted here by permission.] About the best advice for composers I’ve heard comes from Mac Sledge, Robert Duvall’s washed-up country singer who finds redemption in 1983’s Tender Mercies. When word gets out he’s...
by Kile Smith | Oct 29, 2020 | Art songs, new music, Vocal music
Blue Lobster. Baritone, piano, 4′. Text by Jane Flanders (1940–2001). Commissioned by Benjamin Flanders. Ben Flanders sings in the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati, so we’ve known each other since Craig Hella Johnson commissioned Canticle for them in...
by Kile Smith | Dec 16, 2017 | Baroque music, Choral music, new music, Orchestral Music, Vocal music
Vespers selections: (1) Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, (7) Psalm 113, (10) Magnificat, (13) Deo gratias. Re-orchestrated for the instrumentation of the J. S. Bach Cantata No. 1, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern: 2 Oboes da caccia, 2 Horns, Organ, Strings....
by Kile Smith | Oct 8, 2016 | Art songs, New Compositions, new music, Vocal music
There Is No Great and No Small. Mezzo-soprano, piano, 3′. Text by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Premiered Philadelphia: 8 Oct 2016, the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 9 Oct 2016, the Academy of Vocal Arts. For Lyric Fest’s opening concert of the 2016/17...
