Andrew Garland's Performance of "Men With Small Heads"

Bruce Hodges, writing for www.musicweb-international.com, reviewed Andrew Garland's "American Portraits" Recital from November 21, 2008 in NYC:

"It is hard to overstate the importance of recitals like this one: an intelligently conceived array of 21st-century songs by living American composers, some of whom could benefit from higher profiles, sung with grace, fervor and intelligence.  Andrew Garland brought his expressive baritone coupled with the occasional streak of theatricality to make this exceptionally rewarding evening at Weill Recital Hall come to life, with pianist Donna Loewy his discreet collaborator....Lori Laitman's Men with Small Heads had many in the audience laughing.  The title song refers to a small child gazing up at adults, whose heads appear to be disproportionately tiny.  "Refrigerator, 1957" contains an unopened jar of maraschino cherries, brimming with fascination to someone weaned on bland food, and "A Small Tin Parrot Pin" uses internal rhyme and wordplay to smirking effect, coupled with Laitman's light, brisk vocal writing.  But the final song might have been the funniest: "Snake Lake," in which the singer uses an overly sibilant "s" in every word that that has one."

Joanne Sydney Lessner, writing for the February 2009 online edition of Opera News, reviewed the same concert:

On November 21 at Weill Recital Hall, baritone Andrew Garland did something refreshing: he presented New York premieres by six living American composers, all but one of whom were in attendance. Garland and his pianist, the accomplished, nimble-fingered Donna Loewy, are carving out a place for themselves in this arena, aided in part by The Marilyn Horne Foundation, and if not all the songs were distinctive or perfectly matched to Garland's skills, most were encouraging harbingers of the future of American song literature...Garland, who has a lean, fine-grained, vibrant baritone, presents himself with a tautly focused concentration that can sometimes become stagy, but his natural twinkle and comic timing were on display during Lori Laitman's delightful Men with Small Heads. Garland thoroughly owned these quirky settings of child's-eye-view poems by Thomas Lux, and as he began to sing less, he communicated more. Whether as the perspective-challenged six-year-old of the title song, a youth lusting after a jar of maraschino cherries, the proud owner of a tin parrot pin whose charm is lost on others or a deliciously sibilant snake warning swimmers out of his lair, Garland was utterly engaging. Laitman's sense of humor enhances her considerable skill as a text-painter, and this set was easily the highpoint of the concert.