Lori Laitman is a composer of art songs, a specialty for which she seems uncommonly suited. A recital of her work, sung by soprano Lisa Shaw at the Levine School of Music on Saturday, revealed a taste for fine texts, a reverence for language and the sense to know when to stop. Her inclinations are more dramatic than lyrical, but she has a nice ear for color and texture and her lines, while angular, are molded to the inflections of the texts and are eminently idiomatic for the voice.

The program featured a number of premieres. "One Bee and Revery," a set of three songs on poems of Emily Dickinson, was as concise and direct as the poetry itself. A powerful cycle of seven songs on poems by Dana Gioia, reflections on love, death and healing called "Becoming a Redwood," conveyed complicated and subtle emotions in a transparent musical language. Gioia, now the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, beautifully read his poems as an introduction to the songs.

Also on the program were songs to touching poems written by children from the Terezin concentration camp, accompanied with gorgeous intensity and artistry by saxophonist Jason McFeaters; and the delightful four songs of "Men With Small Heads" on wonderfully zany poems of Thomas Lux.

Shaw warmed up to her assignment as the evening went on, so that by the time she came face to face with Lux's humor, she was in top shape, her voice focused and in full cabaret form. Accompanist Patrick O'Donnell was stylish and supportive throughout.

-- Joan Reinthaler, The Washington Post, June 21, 2004.