Guest Composer for the SHE FESTIVAL 2020

I am honored to be the living guest composer for the upcoming SHE Festival 2020, which will take place at The University of Arkansas from March 5-7, 2020. The festival celebrates the contributions and achievements of women in music.

I will give a lecture about my compositional path and process, and will also conduct a master class for the graduate student singers. Looking forward!

Returning Guest Artist at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA

I am thrilled to be returning to George Mason University in Fairfax, VA to continue working with the very talented vocal students. I will conduct two workshops on my songs — on January 31 and February 10, 2020. The students will then be presenting a special Art Song Recital at Old Town Hall in Fairfax, VA on the evening of February 12, 2020. Thanks again to Dr. Patricia Miller for her kind invitation! 

Piano Commission from Dr. Melvin Chen, Professor of Piano at Yale School of Music

In early December 2019, Melvin Chen, who serves as Professor of Piano at The Yale School of Music (as well as Deputy Dean and Director of the Yale Summer School of Music), wrote to see if I had any interest in participating in a project involving the commission of a new set of Diabelli Variations to be composed by Yale composition faculty and alumni. This new work would be paired with a performance of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, to honor the upcoming 250^th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth — with both performed by Melvin in the fall of 2020 as part of the Horowitz Piano Series at The Yale School of Music (date to be announced). 

I accepted the commission, and am honored to be in the company of other composers, including Aaron Jay Kernis, Hannah Lash, and Timo Andres.

My composition is called Across Time —and I actually wrote about 15 versions of this one variation before finishing. I look forward to the concert!

Baritone Stephen Powell's debut CD

Baritone Stephen Powell is recording his debut CD for the Acis Productions label, run by Geoffrey Silver. The CD will feature 4 contemporary composers who will all play their own works: William Bolcom, John Musto, Ricky Ian Gordon and myself.

After practicing for six months, I feel ready! My portion of the recording includes the following:

If I... — the last of my Four Dickinson Songs, arranged for baritone, clarinet and piano, with Charles Neidich on clarinet.

Men with Small Heads — my humorous cycle that sets the poetry of Thomas Lux.

Money — a Dana Gioia setting

and

The Wind Sighs — the premiere recording of David Mason's beautiful aria for the Poet from our opera-in-progress, Ludlow. 

Looking forward to the release!

"Living in the Body — Songs of Lori Laitman" Double CD set released by NAXOS on December 13, 2019

Naxos released a new double CD of Lori's music on December 13, 2019 entitled Living in the Body — Songs of Lori Laitman. The 49 songs (many world premiere recordings) on the CD were composed between 1997 and 2017 to texts by celebrated poets including Elizabeth Bishop, Paul Celan, Dana Gioia, David Mason, Sylvia Plath and Joyce Sutphen, on topics that range from the profound hours of the Holocaust to the humorous truths of everyday life, and the comedy and tenderness of childhood. The set also includes two works for saxophone with piano.

For more information about the contents, and for a link to the texts, please click here.

To purchase the CD on Amazon, please click here.