On March 19, 2013, Lori Laitman and soprano Jennifer Check performed Lori’s “Building A House.” The work was one of 47 songs commissioned by Opera America to celebrate the opening of the National Opera Center. Lori chose to set a poem by Joyce Sutphen, the current Poet Laureate of Minnesota.
10 selections were performed on March 19. The other works on the recital were by composers David Carlson, Christopher Cerrone, Paula Kimper, Robert Xavier Rodriguez, Gregory Spears, David T. Little, Erling Wold, Richard Danielpour, and Lewis Spratlan.
The recital can be viewed at this link. Lori and Jennifer close the program, beginning at 53:40. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WBsrDhj3RY&feature=youtu.be
Gregory Berg of The Journal of Singing recently reviewed the Opera America Songbook CD set. He wrote: “Space does not permit comment on all forty-seven songs, but several deserve at least a brief mention. Lori Laitman’s contribution to the collection is an exquisite setting of a text by Joyce Sutphen titled “Building a House,” which Jennifer Check sings divinely.”