R. Michael Daugherty’s catalog of compositions contains over 350 works, including eleven song cycles and numerous individual songs. As a singer, he makes sure his vocal works are text driven and reflect the strengths of the voice.

Acclaim for his vocal works: “…LOCALS MARVELED AT THE SEEMINGLY PERFECT MATING OF LANGUAGE AND MICHAEL’S REACTION TO IT.” – William Osborne, Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts Emeritus, Denison University

“…HONEST SONGS THAT YOU CAN WEAR FOR A LIFE TIME!” – soprano, Alice Pierce

“…THE SONGS SEEM PRACTICALLY TO SING THEMSELVES.” - Mary Ann Dodd, “The Fourth Biennial Holtkamp/AGO Award in Organ Composition 1989-1990” published in The American Organist, October 1990

Dr. Daugherty holds a B.A. degree from Denison University, studying with Elliot Borishansky and M.M. and D.M.A. degrees from The Ohio State University studying with Marshall Barnes.

:Crab, my Dog is a speech that comes from Act II, scene 3, of Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Here, it is the solo baritone part performed in the play by Launch, described as a clownish servant of Proteus, one of the two gentlemen. This is a comic piece and really should be acted as well as sung. The speech calls for two shoes, a staff, a hat and Crab as props. As Crab never weeps, cries or barks, I envision the dog as a stuffed animal toy.

Allen Molineux (b.1950) received a B.M. degree in composition from DePauw University, a M.M. in composition degree from the Eastman School of Music and a D.M. in composition from Florida State University.

A few years back, I saw a call for scores by a countertenor. For it, I composed a new song using Walt Whitman's "Music Always Round Me". The singer announced the songs selected for performance from his score call and my song was chosen to be included. Unfortunately, the recital never materialized and now I had a work with severely limited future potential. Thus I created this version for baritone voice.

Ella Deloon is a 31-year-old composer of classical music. Her work is inspired by space and our place in it. In addition to a myriad of nonclassical influences, she draws from the traditions of the Russian Romantics and French Impressionists. Her programmatic tone poems explore the fascinating nature of astrophysics and planetary science. Past works include a symphonic vignette narrating the advent of light in the early birth of the Universe, a wind quintet inspired by the Horsehead Nebula, and a piano solo evoking a binary star. She has an interdisciplinary degree in Music, Language and Culture through Vanderbilt University and the Blair School of Music. She taught at the W.O. Smith Music School where she also developed the composition and songwriting curriculum as a grant-funded fellow. She currently lives in rural Maine where the sky is dark and the stars are bright. More information and work can be found at elladeloon.com.

This chamber vocal tone poem is set for the poem "A Solar Eclipse" by American author and poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox, published in 1906 in the collection Poems of Sentiment. In it, the author describes a solar eclipse as allegory, personifying the "pallid, faithful Moon" and the Earth as two lovers in orbit "about the mighty, all-directing Sun." The poem and music is meant to capture the awe and wonder that we as humans feel when we look out at the Universe, and the epic journey we are each on to find our place in it. In order to make sense of the Universe, we try to see ourselves reflected in it. The poet may be interpreted to have seen herself reflected in the Moon and, as a woman in her time, she also found herself overshadowed and overlooked by "the men our world call wise." As we all find our role in the intricate interweavings of the Universe, we look to each other for communion of value and purpose. We are often misjudged or mischaracterized, yearning to be truly seen. The struggle of self-actualization is beguiled by the appearance of self-expression. What do you look up and see?

Lawrence Kramer, Distinguished Professor of English and Music at Fordham University, turned to composing in 2007 after winning international renown as a musicologist. (In 2017 he was awarded an ASCAP Foundation Virgil Thomson Award for Outstanding Music Criticism.) His vocal and chamber music, including sixteen song cycles and eight string quartets, has been performed throughout America and Europe on concerts in New York, San Francisco, Santa Fe, London, Edinburgh, Oxford, Cambridge, Vienna, Krakow, Belgrade, Ghent, Stockholm, and Bern. In 2013 his string quartet movement “Clouds. Wind. Stars.” (later the finale of his String Quartet no. 8, “Reflections and Memories,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxhBFW7QBl0) won the Composers Concordance “Generations” Prize. He has also won competitions held by Hartford Opera Theater, Ensemble for These Times, and The Arc Project. “Ecospheres” for Baritone and Chamber Ensemble will premiere in February, 2022, in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall on an ecologically themed program, “Songs for the Earth.”

Program notes:The Black Riders and Other Lines is a collection of poems by Stephen Crane published in 1895. This ten-minute sequence for voice and percussion sets seven of these short, stinging, strikingly modern texts—poetic aphorisms rather than lyrics. “Strikingly” is the right word here: Crane’s irony and intensity do seem to strike at the reader, and thus seem to cry out to be set for voice and percussion. Who or what the “black riders” are we never know; the first poem, not set here, says they came out of the sea. But perhaps one can say of them what Crane said of the poems: “They came, and I wrote them; that’s all.”

Stanley M. Hoffman was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1959. He has lived in the greater Boston area since 1977. He received degrees in Composition from Brandeis University (Ph.D. 1993), The New England Conservatory of Music (M.M. 1984), and the Boston Conservatory (B.M. 1981).

Bass flute players Peter Sheridan and Judy Diez d’Aux gave the premiere of Arirang Variations (flute duet) in Toronto, on 04/12/2015. Mr. Sheridan also commissioned Prelude and Fughetta (alto flute, organ). He and organist Christopher Trikilis gave the premiere in St. Patrick, Mentone, VIC, Australia on 05/03/2015. Peter Sheridan also recorded the flute duets Meditations and Memories, Monologues and Dialogues, and Arirang Variations for the Australian label MOVE Records. Senior Editor at ECS Publishing Group from 1998–2021, Dr. Hoffman was laid-off because of the economic toll caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. He also works as a conductor, arranger, vocalist, lecturer, documentary film consultant, and writer.

In 1988, I began collecting poems to set to music someday including PEARS by Linda Pastan. The idea for certain poems was and is is to create “Songs of Passion.” This is the first one I have completed. A synthesized accompaniment was the biggest surprise and expressive challenge for me.

Mike McFerron is professor of music at Lewis University, and he is founder and co-director of Electronic Music Midwest (http://www.emmfestival.org). His music can be heard on numerous commercial recordings as well as on his website at http://www.bigcomposer.com.

X Marks the Sirens was written for and dedicated to mezzo-soprano, Katherine Crawford. This composition was completed in my home studio in July, 2013. My heartfelt thanks to acclaimed poet and my colleague, Jackie White, for supplying a beautiful text. - MRM

New music powerhouse Lisa Neher is a mezzo-soprano, composer, and actress on a mission to transform audiences through story, sound, and vulnerability. Described by Oregon ArtsWatch as “a small woman with a very big voice” and “especially alive,” Neher captivates audiences with her electrifying dramatic commitment and unforgettable vocal colors. She recently performed with Third Angle New Music, the Portland Columbia Symphony, New Music Gathering, Queer Opera, and Opera Theatre Oregon. As a composer, Neher is inspired by female athleticism, the tender love of friends, the ambiguities of death, and the eerie mystery of deep ocean life. For more information, visit www.lisanehermusic.com.

Program notes:American Waters explores bodies of water as literal and metaphorical barriers between us and the places and people we know and love. Fragments of folk song lyrics are reinvented with new melodic lines, while whispered sounds emulate the noises of splashing surf and crashing waves.

Greg A Steinke (1942 - ) is Former Chair, Departments of Art and Music, (The Joseph Naumes Endowed Chair in Music), also Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Marylhurst University, Marylhurst, Oregon (retired, 6/15/01); Associate Director, Ernest Bloch Music Festival (‘93–97) and Director, Composers Symposium (‘90–97) (Newport, OR); Holds B.M. degree, Oberlin Conservatory, M.M. degree, Michigan State University, M.F.A. degree The University of Iowa, and Ph.D. from Michigan State University. Publications: on new oboe literature and music composition; revisions to Paul Harder Harmonic Materials in Tonal Music, 6th-10th Ed., Basic Materials in Music Theory, 7th-13th Ed., Bridge to Twentieth-Century Music, Rev. Ed., Pearson, and with H Owen Reed the Harder-Reed Basic Contrapuntal Techniques, Warner Bros. Pub.; and article, “Music for Dance: An Overview” in The Dance Has Many Faces, 3rd Ed., Ed. by Walter Sorell, a cappella books. Served as National Chairman of the Society of Composers, Inc. (‘88–97) and currently national President of NACUSA (‘12–19); Board Member of NACUSA Cascadia. Composer of chamber and symphonic music with published/recorded works and performances across the US and internationally, speaker on interdisciplinary arts and oboe soloist specializing in contemporary music. Composition honors: winner – ’15 of 10th NACUSA Texas Composition Competition for my

"Civil Wars" Poetry: Carol Coffee Reposa Music: Greg A Steinke “Civil Wars” Now Vicksburg’s under siege again. A thick Smoke hangs in heavy, acrid curls around Antietam. Oracles appear. They pound Their fists and often you can hear the click Of tongues trained on the shattered glass and brick. Marauders in black cruisers circle, hound The helpless. Guards have burrowed underground, While Lincoln dies each day by some new trick. And it will take more than the searing war Lee offered up at Appomattox, more Than shining words at Gettysburg’s dark watch To stop the bloodstained pageant, end the march, Parade of graves from Ferguson to Watts, Hearts lost to knives and cross-hairs, calls and shots. By Permission: Carol Coffee Reposa © 2019 by Carol Coffee Reposa

Blair Whittington is a composer and Los Angeles native. Guitar was his first serious instrument but he now spends most of his free time composing instrumental and vocal chamber music. He studied composition with Byong-kon Kim. For the last two decades he has worked as music librarian at the Brand Library & Art Center and also directs the Brand Library chamber music series on behalf of the Brand Associates. His music has been performed by musicians such as pianist Mark Robson,, pianist Yumi Suehiro, the UK Guitar Quartet, the Bateira Trio, Nautilus Brass, Trio Emporte (flute/oboe/piano), Trio Spilliaert (Brussels) and the musicians of the Boston New Music Initiative. He also has composed many miniatures that have been performed across the United States and Europe as part of Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame and 60x60.

Program notes:My first thought when seeing Andrew White's call was to write a piece for solo voice with nature sounds. That grew into an accompaniment that was a set of variations with the sound of wind and birds. The text I wrote is about a person who lives alone and is self sufficient until a drought threatens his existence. I made the music like a dirge but a very colorful dirge using samples of instruments from around the world. The ideas that influenced this piece are the California drought and the COVID pandemic which has caused so many people to feel isolated.

Stephen Stanziano is an active composer, educator, and bassist in Northeast Ohio, and holds a Ph.D. in music theory and composition from Kent State University. His works have been performed by the Cleveland Chamber Collective, Grammy-award winning guitarist Jason Vieaux, baritone Andrew White, several Cleveland Orchestra members including violist Lisa Boyko, flautist Peter Bloom, the Gruca White Ensemble, and The Cleveland Chamber Symphony. His music has been recorded by the Gruca White Ensemble on Big Round Records, the St. Cecilia Foundation, and performed live throughout the United States and Europe, including St. Peters Basilica in Rome.

Street Fair: The Quartet (text by Marvin Bell, used with permission)

This work is a six-and-a-half-minute song setting of a poem by Pulitzer Prize winner, Marvin Bell. In four sections, the melody is a lyrical, word-painted journey over a collection of digitally reproduced sounds of supporting pan-diatonic harmony.