Duo to Perform Contemporary Art Songs at Hudson Opera House

Daron Hagen and Gilda Lyons(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Works by modern and contemporary composers will be performed in Pairings: Art Songs and Cabaret, featuring vocalist Gilda Lyons and composer-pianist Daron Hagen, at the Hudson Opera House on Saturday, March 29, 2014, at 7pm. The program will include the premiere of a new work commissioned from David Macbride by the Phoenix Concerts, as well as works by Marc Blitzstein, Jacques Brel, Chabuca Granda, Jennifer Higdon, Ned Rorem, Stephen Sondheim, Ken Steen, Kurt Weill, and Judith Weir, as well as works by the performers themselves.

Gilda Lyons is a composer, vocalist, and visual artist who combines elements of renaissance, neo-baroque, spectral, folk, agitprop music theater, and extended vocalism. Lyons serves as artistic and executive director of the Phoenix Concerts, New York’s “plucky Upper West Side new-music series” (The New Yorker). An active vocalist and fierce advocate of contemporary music, Lyons has commissioned, premiered, and workshopped new works by dozens of composers and is currently writing a mainstage opera for Opera Theater of Pittsburgh with a libretto by Tammy Ryan. Lyons made her professional debut as composer and vocalist with the American Symphony Chamber Orchestra in 1997, performing the world premiere of her orchestral song cycle “Feis.”

Daron Hagen is one of America’s most prominent, prolific, and respected composers. All eight of his major operas are currently in production or revival somewhere in the U.S., Europe, or Asia. His orchestral, chamber, and song catalogues are frequently programmed internationally.

Hagen’s work varies from stage direction and conducting to engagements as a collaborative pianist, artistic director, writer, and librettist.  He has collaborated with distinguished musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, JoAnn Falletta, Gary Graffman, Nathan Gunn, Jaime Laredo, David Alan Miller, Sharon Robinson, Gerard Schwarz, Leonard Slatkin, and Robert Spano, among others. His work has been widely performed by most of North America’s major musical institutions, and numerous institutions abroad, including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony, Seattle Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, Curtis Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Swan (UK), Seattle Opera, Opera Theater of Ireland, as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Louvre, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing), and Royal Albert Hall. In 2012, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has also received the Kennedy Center Friedheim Prize, two Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowships, ASCAP and BMI prizes, and the Seattle Opera Chairman’s Award.

The Hudson Opera House offers a year-round schedule of arts and cultural programming in the former Hudson City Hall, which houses New York State’s oldest surviving theatre. Ongoing programs include concerts, readings, lectures, exhibitions, theatre and dance presentations, after-school programs, workshops, classes and community arts events like the annual Winter Walk on Warren Street.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.