Her Light Escape
About "Her Light Escape"
“Her Light Escape” is a program of 16 curated art songs in English that follow one woman's emotional journey of grappling with profound loss throughout the cyclical transitions of a year. The program explores the ways grief is a clarifying force of the human experience, as well as the complexity inherent in grief's touch upon our lives. In every seasonal transition, we are asked to rethink the narratives we tell ourselves about what this new season of life will represent, question which borders truly mark the beginning and end of the story of a life, and audiences will be surprised and renewed by the ferocity, despair, hope, joy, and complexity of this story of the human experience.
We begin our program with the changing colors and falling leaves of autumn, venture through the harsh elements and episodic slumps of the winter, rejoice in the burgeoning of new life and glimpses of humor in the spring, and arrive in the welcome quietude of warm summer, reflecting on both sentimental moments of the past as well as life's present beauty. The words of master poets such as Emily Dickinson, W. H. Auden, and Robert Frost capture the joy, dejection, wonder, and renewal of a year in a life well-lived through the music of composers such as Benjamin Britten, André Previn, Dominick Argento, and more.
Fall
Emily Dickinson | André Previn
Arthur Maquarie | Roger Quilter
W. H. Auden | Benjamin Britten
Ranier Maria Rilke | Lee Hoiby
Winter
William Shakespeare | Dominick Argento
Wilfred Owen | Lee Hoiby
Robert Frost | Ned Rorem
John Fletcher | Ivor Gurney
Spring
Thomas Nash | Dominick Argento
Rupert Brooke | John Ireland
Christina Rossetti | Gerald Finzi
e.e. cummings | Lee Hoiby
Summer
John Fandel | Lee Hoiby
Robert Hillyer | Ned Rorem
Stanley Kunitz | Tom Cipullo
Anonymous | arr. Benjamin Britten
Critical Praise for Her Light Escape:
“Her Light Escape” is a breathtaking experience…I felt lifted to another plane as this exquisite program unfolded. Balanced between the familiar and the sublime, the depth of thought and detail that inspire this mingling of poetry and music are exceeded only by the flawless and ethereal performance."
- Gregory Berton
Board President
Lincoln City Cultural Center
Audience Reactions to Her Light Escape:
"The concert was a true delight. An unexpected surprise really. I loved being exposed to this new-to-me Art Song which just as appropriately could be called "Heart Song!" :)
To sing through the seasons of grief and loss with such a voice as yours Emma somehow gave a tangibility to those deep feelings...and the dance of Andrew's fingers on the piano added a deep undergirding depth to each piece."
- Jakki Staat McDonald
Audience Member