Catalog
To My Child
Friday, March 2, 2012 at 8:43PM 2004 | baritone or mezzo-soprano/cello/piano
Poem by Vilna Ghetto survivor Abraham Sutzkever,translated by C.K. Williams
Song 3 of The Seed of Dream
Commissioned by Music of Remembrance, Seattle, WA.
Click here to see a YouTube video from a live performance at St. Katerine Catheral in Vilnius, Lithuania on Jan 27, 2009. It features baritone Stein Skjervold (Norway), cellist Tom Collingwood (UK) and pianist Sonata Zuboviene (Lithuania).
Errata
Some newer editions may already have these corrections.
- All tempos in the song should be slightly slower (i.e., instead of a quarter = 69 at beginning, quarter = 66, etc. Tempos are guidelines anyway.
Todesfuge
Sunday, March 6, 2011 at 11:18AM 2010 | baritone and cello
Poem by Paul Celan, composed at the request of baritone Wolfgang Holzmair. This is my first dual language setting and the translation I use is by John Felstiner. The settings are slightly different, in order to best accommodate the prosody of each language.
Baritone Wolfgang Holzmair and cellist Sophie Wieder-Atherton premiered the songs in NYC on February 21, 2012, in DC on February 23, 2012 and in London at Wigmore Hall on July 14, 2012. Please see a video of the NYC premiere here.
ERRATA: Prior English version had a typo in m. 11 voice: the last word of that measure should be "air" not "grave" — and the word "ist" should be "is" in m. 187.
The song was recorded by baritone Randall Scarlata and cellist Thomas Kraines and is available on Naxos' release: "Living in the Body — Songs of Lori Laitman"
To-Night
Monday, February 27, 2012 at 11:20PM 2001 | soprano or mezzo-soprano/piano
Poem by Sara Teasdale.
- Song 2 of The Years
- Song 4 of Come To Me In Dreams
Tragedy
Thursday, August 15, 2013 at 9:04PM 2013 | soprano/oboe/piano
Poem by Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger
translated from the German by Jerry Glenn and Florian Birkmayer, with Helene Silverblatt and Irene Silverblatt
Song 3 of In Sleep The World Is Yours
Premiere on May 12, 2014 at Benaroya Hall, Seattle, WA.
Commissioned by Music of Remembrance, Mina Miller, Artistic Director.
Two Dickinson Songs
Sunday, March 6, 2011 at 9:45AM Song cycle: Good Morning Midnight; Wider than the Sky
2002 | soprano/piano
Poems by Emily Dickinson, about 4 minutes long.
Two Horses Playing in the Orchard
Friday, March 2, 2012 at 9:06PM Premiere recording of this cycle, with soprano Jennifer Check and pianist Warren Jones, is expected to be released December 2019 on the Naxos label.
Ultrasound
Saturday, June 25, 2022 at 11:53AM
Uncovered
Thursday, January 9, 2020 at 4:32PM UNCOVERED
a new one-act chamber opera
Music by LORI LAITMAN
Libretto by LEAH LAX
Director: BETH GREENBERG
Uncovered examines one woman’s secret life in a restrictive society and the consequences of living a lie. Against her family's wishes, Leah, a young lesbian, joins the Hasidim, an ultra-orthodox Jewish sect. In her desire for inclusion and serenity, she hides her true self, enters an arranged marriage and bears seven children. Then she faces a crisis that changes everything. The opera is based on Leah Lax’s memoir Uncovered: How I Left Hasidic Life and Finally Came Home.
INSTRUMENTATION:
clarinet, violin, cello and piano
The opera was a finalist for the 2018 Dominic J. Pellicciotti Opera Composition Prize. To view the first scene (unrevised) as performed by the students and faculty of SUNY Purchase, please click here. Leah and I speak a bit about the opera starting at 48:52 and the music starts at 57:12.
The expected length is about 70 minutes. I have put together a consortium of universities and small opera companies and expect to finish the work for a spring 2021 premiere. If you are interested in co-commissioning, please email me at lori@artsongs.com for more information.
Vedem
Saturday, February 25, 2012 at 7:38AM 2010 | boychoir/mezzo-soprano/tenor/clarinet/violin/cello and piano. Also available for boychoir (or children’s choir) and piano
From the Vedem oratorio and the Vedem choral excerpt cycle
Libretto by David Mason. Original poems from the Vedem magazine by Petr Ginz, Hanuš Hachenburg, Zdeněk Ornest (Orce) and Josef Taussig. English translations by Paul Wilson from We are Children Just The Same: VEDEM, the secret magazine by the Boys of Terezin ©1995 by the Jewish Publication Society, used with permission.
ERRATA:
In Farewell to Summer — the A in the RH piano in mm. 34-36 should be an A#.