Lori’s third album, Becoming a Redwood (Amazon, iTunes), was released October, 2006. The songs on the recording are compositions in partnership with contemporary poets Mary Oliver, Thomas Lux, Dana Gioia, Paul Muldoon, Anne Ranasinghe, Karen Gershon and C.G.R. Shepard. The CD features sopranos Jennifer Check, Sari Gruber and Barbara Quintiliani; mezzo-soprano Patricia Green; tenor Robert McPherson; baritones Lee Poulis, Randall Scarlata and William Sharp; bass Gary Poster; cellists Thomas Kraines and Marcy Rosen; violinist Juliette Kang; and pianists Warren Jones, Lori Laitman and Kirsten Taylor.
“An extraordinarily impressive achievement…[which indicates] increasing evidence of a major talent. Lori Laitman’s beautiful, sensitively crafted songs deserve to be performed widely.”(Laurence A. Johnson, Gramophone Magazine, March 2007)
“Here is yet another collection that confirms the greatness of song composer Lori Laitman. It is difficult to think of anyone before the public today who equals her exceptional gifts for embracing a poetic text and giving it new and deeper life through music. She has an unerring way of enhancing a text’s beauty and meaning while not obscuring the text through artifice or excess. One also has to admire how deeply personal her songs are, and that depth of self-expression is surely one of the chief reasons why singers are drawn to her work and find her songs so gratifying to perform…Throughout this disc, one cannot help but be impressed at how well Laitman manages to set poignant texts of heartbreak and loss, and then in the very next song will write just as effectively in a more light-hearted vein.” (Gregory Berg, The Journal of Singing, May/June 2007).
“According to The Journal of Singing as quoted in the liner notes, Lori Laitman (b.1955) is “one of the finest art song composers on the scene today, who deservedly stands shoulder to shoulder with Ned Rorem for her uncommon sensitivity to text, her loving attention to the human voice, and her extraordinary palette of musical colors and gestures”. I must agree. After listening to this several times, I have discovered to my great pleasure what a fine composer she is…Many of the texts of Laitman’s songs are very recent poems, and she selects wonderful texts that have depth and richness…The composer’s notes about each work are illuminating. This is music worth knowing, and these artists are exceptionally adept at helping us hear just how good it is.” (Robert A. Moore, American Record Guide, March 2007).
