2024 | baritone/piano or soprano or mezzo-soprano/piano or tenor/piano.
Dana Gioia’s moving poem about grief and its continuing aftermath is a tribute to the son that he and Mary Gioia lost to SIDS at age 4 months. From the moment I read Majority, I wanted to set it to music, envisioning it as a sequel to my 2003 setting of Dana’s Pentecost. Over the years, I tried to compose a setting but could not find the right sounds. Then, in early December 2024 I succeeded. The result sounds very different from much of my music. The vocal line is lyrical, but melodically contained before expanding in scope mid-section. The piano’s sparse motif begins in the extreme registers of the piano but the hands come together as the song progresses, and then wander upwards to end the song, as if entering another dimension. When I was done composing, I realized it was 21 years since I wrote Pentecost — an interesting coincidence. The work was premiered March, 23, 2025 at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Kansas City, MO with Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s Resident Artists baritone Alex Smith and pianist Matteo Generani.
From Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s recital: Becoming a Redwood — The Songs of Lori Laitman and Dana Gioia. The concert took place at at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Kansas City on March 23, 2025. Pictured L to R: Piotr Wiśniewski, Matteo Generani, Daniel J. Lee, Dana Gioia, Lori Laitman, Alex Smith, Bethany Jelinek and Virginia Reed.
photo credit: Bill Brownlee