Melodic Musings: Uncovering the Beauty of Art Song

Commissioning New Works

Commissioning New Works

We are excited that mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack has selected the fabulously gifted American composer Rene Orth as her collaborator on the newly commissioned work that will stand proudly as part of Daniela’s recital with Keun-A Lee on April 18. Rene Orth’s most recent...

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Tribute to Renée Fleming Part 2

Tribute to Renée Fleming Part 2

Gerald Perman, our beloved Founder, subscribed to the theory that Washington audiences had short memories; if a singer therefore presented a notably successful debut recital here, his oft-repeated mantra was, “We have to bring them back right away,” ideally intended...

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Tribute to Renée Fleming, Part 1

Tribute to Renée Fleming, Part 1

Let us pay tribute to Renée Fleming on the occasion of her well-deserved 2023 Kennedy Center Honors Award by traveling back over three decades to her first Vocal Arts DC recital at an exciting moment in the soprano’s burgeoning career. In January 1992, Fleming gave...

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Walden

Walden

I wonder whether the reason our second commission—Gregory Spears’ song cycle Walden, to verses by Henry David Thoreau—has such a special place in my heart is because its birth was so difficult. I can’t objectively know. Yet its message of simplicity in all things,...

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