Music of Remembrance's online premiere of Wertheim Park

My Holocaust work, Wertheim Park, to Susan de Sola's haunting poem about Dutch Jews murdered in the Holocaust, was commissioned by Music of Remembrance to celebrate its 25th season. The piece premiered in Benaroya Recital Hall in Seattle, WA last October 30, 2022 with soprano Alisa Jordheim, clarinetist Laura DeLuca, violinist Mikhail Shmidt, double bassist Jonathan Green and pianist Mina Miller.

Music of Remembrance has created a special program to premiere the work online, and streaming will begin on Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jan 27th, 2023. 

Link to the performance is here.

U.S. Air Forces in Europe Band to present excerpts from Lori's "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" for International Holocaust Remembrance Day

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, 2023, soprano Aliyah Richling and saxophonist Joseph Rulli will perform excerpts from Lori's 1996 song cycle I Never Saw Another Butterfly — which sets poems by children who were killed in the Holocaust. Video of their performance will stream on the band's social media sites:

On Facebook @usafeband and on Instagram @usafe_band. The date/time we are targeting for release of the video is Friday, 27 January at 11:00 AM, Central European Time. 

Melvin Chen to premiere Lori's "Across Time" January 18, 2023 on the Horowitz Piano Series at Yale

I am thrilled that Melvin Chen will premiere my new solo piano piece, Across Time, on his January 18, 2023 recital in Morse Recital Hall at Yale University as part of the Horowitz Piano Series. Melvin commissioned this variation of Diabelli's 1819 waltz back in December of 2019. The original premiere date was postponed several times due to the pandemic.

My work will premiere on the first half of the recital, alongside other new Diabelli variations by Yale faculty composer Aaron Jay Kernis, YSM alumni Timo Andres, Krists Auznieks and Liliya Ugay as well as existing variations by Czerny, Hummel, Liszt, and Schubert.

The second half of the recital will be the Beethoven Diabelli Variations.

For more information about tickets and the free live-stream, please click here.

Sarong Song recognized at film festivals

My Sarong Song film is getting noticed at film festivals worldwide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oznbQ2sCXQk

Sarong Song is song #2 of The Soul Fox, a song cycle composed in 2013 by Lori Laitman to a poem by David Mason, her frequent collaborator. The cycle set Mason’s autobiographical poems to create a narrative about the upheaval in Dave’s life as his second marriage dissolved. This song seizes on the moment Dave from Colorado met Chrissy from Tasmania — and her mesmerizing effect on him, which later resulted in their marriage and move to Tasmania. The film alternates between a superb performance of Laitman’s melodic music by mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately and pianist Simon Lepper and slow animation created from famed illustrator Ian Beck's custom watercolors. The musical blending of these elements by director Jeremy Hamway-Bidgood creates a new kind of film — a hybrid presentation of classical song, poetry, and original art. 

Textura.org names The Ocean of Eternity #4 on Top 20 Classical Vocal CDs of 2022

The Ocean of Eternity is #4 of  Textura.org's Top 20 Classical Vocal CDs of 2022 List!

American composer Lori Laitman has issued numerous art song-oriented albums since her 2000 debut album Mystery, which might make it difficult to choose one over another. Yet in bringing together multiple strands of her music-making, The Ocean of Eternity presents a strong case for being as quintessential a Laitman portrait as any. There are stand-alone songs and song cycles, and the material extends from majestic and lyrical expressions to ones sprinkled with humour and irreverence; enhancing its appeal, the release includes a song cycle extracted from the oratorio Vedem plus excerpts from Ludlow, the opera project she initiated with librettist David Mason in 2012 and which is currently nearing completion.

https://www.textura.org/archives/articles/2022picks.htm