News
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Composers and Cocktails
The Cincinnati Song Initiative, founded by Samuel Martin, has started a new online series entitled Composers and Cocktails. Please tune in each Thursday night at 5:30 pm ET (via Facebook Live), as Sam Martin interviews living song composers about their work, their lives and their favorite cocktail. Be sure to watch the entertaining cocktail instructional…
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Music of Remembrance to launch a series of weekly online programs, starting April 20, 2020
Music of Remembrance, the Seattle-based organization founded by Mina Miller, will launch a series of weekly online programs, streaming some of the works they have commissioned over the years. The programs can be viewed by clicking the “Weekly Feature” tab on MOR’s home page. Here is the schedule: From April 20-26: The Boys of Terezin: a…
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Virtual Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony
On Friday April 24, 2020, beginning at noon EDT, the City of Carmel, Indiana will stream its 2020 Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony. The film will last approximately an hour and a half and can be viewed on Facebook by clicking here. I will be delivering the keynote talk in a pre-recorded speech, and will give a…
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Vedem
This is a photo of the four Vedem “boys” — who travelled to Seattle, WA in May 2010 to attend the premiere of my oratorio Vedem. From left to right are: Emil Kopel (from Melbourne, Australia), Leo Lowy (from Pompton Plains, New Jersey), Sidney Taussig (from Palm Beach, Florida) and George Brady (from Toronto, Canada).…
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Partial Lunar Eclipse for chorus to be featured on Harmonium Choral Society concerts in New Jersey in June 2020
The Harmonium Choral Society, directed by Dr. Anne Matlack, is presenting two performances of their concert “Moondance” — featuring works about the moon, as well as the winning entry of the 23rd annual High School Student Choral Composition Contest. Included is the choral version of my work Partial Lunar Eclipse for SATB with piano. The concerts will take place…
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Festival Chamber Music to present “Music by Holocaust Composers” at Museum of Jewish Heritage in NYC
From 7-9 pm on April 22, 2020, Festival Chamber Music will present a concert entitled “Music by Holocaust Composers — as part of the closing ceremonies for the Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. exhibit. The concert will be at the Safra Hall in The Museum of Jewish Heritage at 36 Battery Place at Battery Park…
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Festival Chamber Music to present “Music by Holocaust Composers”
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BBC/Royal Philharmonic Society co-commission to premiere at Cheltenham Festival July 10th
The BBC and The Royal Philharmonic Society co-commissioned a song cycle for BBC New Generation artist, soprano Katharina Konradi. The cycle is about childhood, and I set 4 poems to music — 2 by MacArthur “Genius” A.E. Stallings, 1 by Eugene Field and 1 by Minnesota Poet Laureate Joyce Sutphen. The cycle’s title is taken…
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In Series to feature Lori’s “Fresh Patterns”
Washington DC’s IN SERIES, with Artist Director Timothy Nelson, is presenting a Women Composers Festival from March 6-8. 2020. Featured will be Emily Lau’s Three Dickinson settings; Kate Soper’s “On the Words Themselves Mean What They Say,” music by Jessica Krash, and my “Fresh Patterns” — a setting for two sopranos and piano that combines…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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Recording with baritone Stephen Powell
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Naxos released a double CD “Living in the Body — Songs of Lori Laitman” on December 13, 2019
On December 13, 2019, Naxos will release a double CD of Lori’s songs entitled “Living in the Body
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GUEST ARTIST AT GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
I am thrilled that I will be the Guest Artist Master Class Clinician at George Mason University as part of the Fall 2019 Vocal Studies/Opera Division Master Class Series. I will be conducting master classes on November 19 and November 21, 2019 at 3 pm at the Center for the Arts Concert Hall at…
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BBC/Royal Philharmonic Society commission for soprano Katharina Konradi
I am thrilled to announce that the BBC and The Royal Philharmonic Society have commissioned a song cycle for their “New Generation Artist” Katharina Konradi. The work will center around the themes of parenthood and childhood, and will feature the poetry of A.E. Stallings and another well-known female poet, whose name I will release after…
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Steamboat Opera to present The Three Feathers in August 2020
I am thrilled to announce that Steamboat Opera, under the Artistic Direction of Maestro Andres Cladera, will present The Three Feathers from August 7-9, 2020 in Steamboat Springs, CO. Based on a little known tale by the Brothers Grimm, with a libretto by Dana Gioia, this magical opera presents a young female protagonist, Princess Dora, as…
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Indianapolis Opera to present Vedem with Brundibar in April 2020
UPDATE: This production will be postponed to spring 2021, due to the Coronavirus. Indianapolis Opera will present a semi-staged version of my Holocaust-themed oratorio Vedem in a double bill with Hans Krasa’s Brundibar from April 24-26, 2020. Vedem tells the story of the boys imprisoned in the infamous Terezin Concentration Camp during WWII, and their…
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Opera at UC Irvine to present THE SCARLET LETTER in MAY 2020
POSTPONED DUE TO THE CORONAVIRUS. PLEASE CHECK BACK FOR INFO ON RESCHEDULED DATES. I am thrilled to announce that The Opera Department at UC Irvine in California will present The Scarlet Letter May 9-10, 2020. The presentation will be under the artistic direction of Dr. Darryl Taylor with Dr. Stephen Tucker conducting. For more…
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Review of “Hands” premiere by Chicago Classical Review
The Grant Park Chorus, under the director of Christopher Bell, premiered my choral work “Hands” on July 18, 2019 at the Columbus Park Refectory in Chicago. The piece sets the poetry of Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962). This particular poem was written in response to Jeffers’ visit to the ancient Esselen people’s “Cave of the Hands” near…
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New Mary Oliver choral work commission
The Donald Sinclair Sutherland Music Endowment for the Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church Chancel Choir, under the director of Matthew Robertson, has commissioned a new choral work to premiere in early March 2020. Early in my career, Mary Oliver granted me permission to set many of her poems. For this commission, I chose to set her…
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The Royal Conservatory 2019 Voice Series Anthology
I am thrilled that the 2019 Edition of The Royal Conservatory’s Voice Anthology includes my Emily Dickinson song If I…. This song is the last of my Four Dickinson Songs. My father, Milton Abraham Laitman, lived to be almost 100. This song was written as a birthday gift for his 80th birthday. It has become…
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Edinburgh Fringe Festival performances mark the Scottish premiere of The Ocean of Eternity
Soprano Sally Carr, clarinetist Calum Robertson and pianist Anna Michels will be presenting the Scottish premiere of my song cycle The Ocean of Eternity (in a new arrangement for voice, clarinet and piano) at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The cycle sets the poetry of Sri Lankan poet Anne Ranasinghe. All concerts are in Edinburgh –…