Lyric Fest Opens 22-23 Season With ELYSIAN FIELDS, 20th Anniversary Concert Celebrates Lyric Fest's Beginnings

Lyric Fest opens its 20th anniversary season with Elysian Fields: Dawns, Dreams, Visions - A Celebration of Lyric Fest's Beginnings on Sunday, September 18, 2022 at 3:00pm at The Academy of Vocal Arts, and on Tuesday, September 20, 2022 at 7:30pm at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church. The concert features solos and duets by Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Canteloube, Rachmaninoff, Boyle, Ferré, Higdon, Cipullo, Lieberson and more - sung by two rising vocal stars, soprano Magdalena Kuźma and mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce, who will present an evening of "dawns, visions, and dreams" in song. These two young artists are alums of Music Academy of the West - which is where co-founders Suzanne DuPlantis and Laura Ward first met and dreamed of creating a song series that would become Lyric Fest. Ward joins the concert on piano.

"We curated a program that both plays to the strengths of these two amazing young singers, each widely recognized for their artistry, warmth, and truly glorious voices, and that highlights significant songs and moments in Lyric Fest's journey," said DuPlantis. "Polish American soprano Magdalena Kužma is a young artist at the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann program, and Chinese American mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce is a studio artist at Houston Grand Opera. Both are incredible ambassadors of American song and have had works written especially for them. They met at the famed Music Academy of the West, like Laura and I, and it was there we dreamed and planned to found an art song series together. It's thrilling to honor our beginnings in this way, with Magda and Sun-Ly."

Lyric Festival's upcoming concert season continues with two performances of A Singer's Singer - A Biography in Music of Winnaretta Singer, An American Patroness in Paris, held on Saturday, November 12, 2022 at 3:00pm at the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, where Lyric Fest began, and Sunday, November 13, 2022 at 3:00pm at The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill.

Performance Details

Elysian Fields: Dawns, Dreams, Visions - A Celebration of Lyric Fest's Beginnings
Sunday, September 18, 2022 at 3:00pm
The Academy of Vocal Arts | 1920 Spruce St | Philadelphia, PA
Tickets: $25 advance purchase, $30 at the door
Link: https://lyricfest.org/concerts/elysian-fields/

Elysian Fields: Dawns, Dreams, Visions - A Celebration of Lyric Fest's Beginnings
Tuesday, September 20, 2022 at 7:30pm
Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church | 625 Montgomery Ave | Bryn Mawr, PA
Tickets: $25 advance purchase, $30 at the door
Link: https://lyricfest.org/concerts/elysian-fields/

Magdalena Kuźma, soprano
Sun-Ly Pierce, mezzo-soprano
Laura Ward, piano

Program:

DAWN

TCHAIKOVSKY: Рассвет (Dawn) - Opus 46, No. 6
CHOPIN:
Życzenie
Wiosna
JOSEPH CANTELOUBE:
Ound' onorèn gorda?
Obal din lou Limouzi
BRAHMS AND DVOŘÁK: Two Duets
DVOŘÁK - Skromná, Opus 32, No. 8
BRAHMS - Die Boten der Liebe - Op. 61, No.. 4.

VISION

Four Baudelaire Settings
LÉO FÉRRE: La mort des amants
BENJAMIN C.S. BOYLE: Harmonie du Soir
BENJAMIN C.S. BOYLE: Le flambeau vivant
LÉO FÉRRE: La pipe

DREAM

RACHMANINOFF
Ау! (The Quest), Op. 38, No. 6
Сон (Dream), Op. 38, No. 5
Two Songs in Spanish from the newer world
PETER LIEBERSON: Ya eres mía. Reposa con tu sueño en mi sueño, from Neruda Songs
Xavier Montsalvatge: Canción de cuna para dormir a un negrito, from Cinco Canciones Negras

SUMMER AND THE NIGHT

Jake Heggie: Hummingbird Duet
JENNIFER HIGDON: Moon Songs
The Night Is Still
The Half Moon Shows a Face of Plaintive Sweetness
TOM CIPULLO: Late Summer
Summer into Autumn Slips
Crickets

ONWARD

Edward German: Restless River

About Lyric Fest
Lyric Fest has been hailed in the press as "An irresistible mix of high art and humane feeling... As entertaining as a well-managed party" (Broad Street Review). Founded in 2003 with the goal of celebrating and revitalizing the art song tradition, it is the only performing arts organization in the Mid-Atlantic region with a primary focus on song in all its varied expression.

Lyric Fest has produced and presented over 100 distinctly crafted and curated concert programs. Each has featured multiple artists of national and international stature sharing song through theme and story, together with the spoken word. The organization has defined commissioning new works as an integral part of its mission and programming philosophy. To date, Lyric Fest has commissioned an impressive body of more than 200 new American songs from many of the nation's preeminent composers.

Lyric Fest is run by two of its founders, artistic directors Suzanne DuPlantis and Laura Ward. Known for their excellence and innovation in creating rich, thematic, accessible concerts, Lyric Fest performs throughout the Philadelphia region, and has brought programs to Washington DC; Moorestown, NJ; Wilmington, DE; New Orleans, LA; Pittsburgh, PA; Brooklyn and New York City, NY; and San Jose, CA. Learn more about Lyric Fest at lyricfest.org.