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About
Lori Laitman has composed multiple operas and choral works, and hundreds of songs setting texts by classical and contemporary poets, including those who perished in the Holocaust. Her music is widely performed throughout the world and has generated substantial critical acclaim. The Journal of Singing wrote “It is difficult to think of anyone before the public today who equals her exceptional gifts for embracing a poetic text and giving it new and deeper life through music.”
In May 2016, Opera Colorado presented the World Premiere of Laitman’s opera The Scarlet Letter, to a libretto by David Mason. Laitman and Mason also collaborated on Vedem, a Holocaust-themed oratorio commissioned and premiered by Music of Remembrance, with a new production by Indianapolis Opera now scheduled for the Spring of 2021 (delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic).
The Three Feathers, Laitman’s children’s opera with librettist Dana Gioia, based on a Grimm’s fairy tale, was commissioned by the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech. The abridged version toured schools in Florida, New York and Washington states, and L’arietta Singapore presented the international premiere in November 2019. Due to the pandemic, Opera Steamboat’s full production has been postponed to August 2022. Laitman is currently finishing a chamber opera, Uncovered, based on Leah Lax’s memoir, commissioned by a consortium of universities, scheduled to premiere at Utah State University in the spring of 2022.
Other prestigious commissions have come from the BBC and The Royal Philharmonic Society, Opera America, Opera Colorado, Seattle Opera, Grant Park Music Festival, Washington Master Chorale, Music of Remembrance, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Her works have been featured on Thomas Hampson’s Song of America radio series and website and in The Grove Dictionary of American Music.
She is a magna cum laude Yale graduate and received her MM from The Yale School of Music. In May 2018, Laitman was the recipient of The Yale School of Music’s Ian Mininberg Alumni Award for Distinguished Service. For more information, please visit her official website www.artsongs.com.
The composer in her own words:
Since childhood, I have loved to listen to sung stories. Some of my earliest memories are of listening to “kiddie” records — including Bongo the Bear and PeeWee the Piccolo. I began formal music training at age 5 with piano lessons, and at age 7, I started flute lessons. Until college, my musical life was focused on becoming a professional flutist.
Going to Yale at age 16, I was surrounded by friends who were composers. This was a revelation, and wishing to emulate them, I started composition lessons my sophomore year with Jonathan Kramer. I remained at Yale for graduate school, and took Frank Lewin’s course in composing music for film and theater. This class taught me techniques for writing dramatic music to fit words or images.
After graduating with a masters in music in flute performance, I freelanced as a flutist and composed music for film and theater, but it wasn’t until 1991 that I discovered my true compositional voice — when, at the behest of my dear friend, soprano Lauren Wagner, I composed my first art song, a setting of Sara Teasdale’s The Metropolitan Tower. I realized that I instinctively drew on the techniques for writing dramatic music I had learned decades ago. And in fact, I often respond to poetry as if it were film — and feel as if I am still composing dramatic music to illuminate the text.
My compositional process is remarkably similar whether I am composing an art song, a choral work or an opera. I compose the vocal line first, aiming to create a singable line, which in turn allows the singer to effectively communicate the words to an audience. I use melody and rhythm to emphasize the most important words in a line. I use harmonies to color the emotions of the subtext. Other musical aspects add additional layers of textural interpretation. And in opera, I aim to create distinct music for the different characters, music that reveals each character’s psychological traits.
The final composition is an aural representation of how I view the poem or libretto.
Related Information
Songs
A Birth
Lori Laitman
James Dickey
Song Collection: River of Horses
A Blessing
Lori Laitman
James Wright
Song Collection: River of Horses
A Brown Girl Dead
Lori Laitman
Countee Cullen
Song Collection: Sable Pride
A Letter for Emily Dickinson
Lori Laitman
Song Collection: Fresh Patterns
And Music Will Not End
Song CollectionLori Laitman
A Pastoral Lament
Lori Laitman
Song Collection: And Music Will Not End
A Small Tin Parrot Pin
Lori Laitman
Thomas Lux
Song Collection: Men With Small Heads
A Winter Night
Lori Laitman
Sara Teasdale
Song Collection: The Metropolitan Tower and Other Songs
Along With Me
Lori Laitman
Robert Browning
Song Collection: Days and Nights
Becoming a Redwood
Song CollectionLori Laitman
Dana Gioia
Becoming a Redwood
Lori Laitman
Dana Gioia
Song Collection: Becoming a Redwood
Being Happy
Lori Laitman
Dana Gioia
Curriculum Vitae
Lori Laitman
Dana Gioia
Song Collection: Becoming a Redwood
Days and Nights
Song CollectionLori Laitman
Robert Browning
Emily Dickinson
Christina Rossetti
Dreams
Lori Laitman
Mary Oliver
Song Collection: Sunflowers
Early Snow
Song CollectionLori Laitman
Mary Oliver
Fresh Patterns
Song CollectionLori Laitman
Emily Dickinson
Fresh Patterns
Lori Laitman
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Fresh Patterns
Four Dickinson Songs
Song CollectionLori Laitman
Emily Dickinson
Full Moon
Lori Laitman
William Carlos Williams
Song Collection: Two Songs for Tenor
Hope is a Strange Invention
Lori Laitman
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: One Bee and Revery
It’s All I Have to Bring Today
Lori Laitman
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Fresh Patterns
Incident
Lori Laitman
In Sleep the World is Yours
Song CollectionLori Laitman
I Stepped From Plank to Plank
Lori Laitman
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: In This Short Life
I'm Nobody
Lori Laitman
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Four Dickinson Songs
If I...
Lori Laitman
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Four Dickinson Songs
In This Short Life
Lori Laitman
Emily Dickinson
Last Night the Rain Spoke to Me
Lori Laitman
Mary Oliver
Song Collection: Early Snow
Light Hearted William
Lori Laitman
William Carlos Williams
Song Collection: Two Songs for Tenor
Lullaby
Lori Laitman
Song Collection: In Sleep the World is Yours
Men With Small Heads
Song CollectionLori Laitman
Thomas Lux
Men With Small Heads
Lori Laitman
Thomas Lux
Song Collection: Men With Small Heads
My Hand Forever
Lori Laitman
Song Collection: River of Horses
Mystery
Song CollectionLori Laitman
Sara Teasdale
Nightfall
Lori Laitman
Sara Teasdale
Song Collection: Mystery
One Bee and Revery
Song CollectionLori Laitman
Emily Dickinson
Old Tunes
Lori Laitman
Sara Teasdale
Song Collection: The Metropolitan Tower and Other Songs
Over the Fence
Lori Laitman
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Days and Nights
Partial Lunar Eclipse
Lori Laitman
Song Collection: And Music Will Not End
Pentecost
Lori Laitman
Dana Gioia
Song Collection: Becoming a Redwood
Plums (Two Songs)
Song CollectionLori Laitman
William Carlos Williams
Refrigerator, 1957
Lori Laitman
Thomas Lux
Song Collection: Men With Small Heads
River of Horses
Song CollectionLori Laitman
James Dickey
Sable Pride
Song CollectionLori Laitman
Countee Cullen
She Died
Lori Laitman
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Four Dickinson Songs
Snake Lake
Lori Laitman
Thomas Lux
Song Collection: Men With Small Heads
Some Keep the Sabbath
Lori Laitman
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: In This Short Life
Song
Lori Laitman
Christina Rossetti
Song Collection: Days and Nights
Spray
Lori Laitman
Sara Teasdale
Song Collection: Mystery
Sunflowers
Song CollectionLori Laitman
Mary Oliver
Sunrise
Lori Laitman
Mary Oliver
Song Collection: Sunflowers
Swimmers on the Shore
Lori Laitman
David Mason
Tableau
Lori Laitman
Countee Cullen
Song Collection: Sable Pride
The Apple Orchard
Lori Laitman
Dana Gioia
In This Short Life
Song CollectionLori Laitman
Emily Dickinson
The Butterfly Upon
Lori Laitman
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: One Bee and Revery
The Hour
Lori Laitman
Sara Teasdale
Song Collection: The Metropolitan Tower and Other Songs
The Kiss
Lori Laitman
Sara Teasdale
Song Collection: Mystery
The Metropolitan Tower and Other Songs
Song CollectionLori Laitman
Sara Teasdale
The Metropolitan Tower
Lori Laitman
Sara Teasdale
Song Collection: The Metropolitan Tower and Other Songs
The Mystery
Lori Laitman
Sara Teasdale
Song Collection: Mystery
The Rose
Lori Laitman
Sara Teasdale
Song Collection: Mystery
The Silver Swan
Lori Laitman
Anonymous
The Song
Lori Laitman
Dana Gioia
Song Collection: Becoming a Redwood
The Strong House
Lori Laitman
Sara Teasdale
Song Collection: The Metropolitan Tower and Other Songs
The Sunflowers
Lori Laitman
Mary Oliver
Song Collection: Sunflowers
The War God's Horse Song
Lori Laitman
Song Collection: River of Horses
They Might Not Need Me
Lori Laitman
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Days and Nights
This Is Just To Say
Lori Laitman
William Carlos Williams
Song Collection: Plums (Two Songs)
To a Loose Woman
Lori Laitman
Sara Teasdale
Song Collection: The Metropolitan Tower and Other Songs
To Make a Prairie
Lori Laitman
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: One Bee and Revery
To a Poor Old Woman
Lori Laitman
William Carlos Williams
Song Collection: Plums (Two Songs)
Tragedy
Lori Laitman
Song Collection: In Sleep the World is Yours
Two Horses Playing in the Orchard
Lori Laitman
James Wright
Song Collection: River of Horses
Two Songs for Tenor
Song CollectionLori Laitman
William Carlos Williams
Wild Nights
Lori Laitman
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Days and Nights
Will There Really Be a Morning?
Lori Laitman
Emily Dickinson
Song Collection: Four Dickinson Songs
Yes
Lori Laitman
Song Collection: In Sleep the World is Yours
Videos
Recordings
American Composers at Play
(William Bolcom, Ricky Ian Gordon, Lori Laitman and John Musto)
2020
The Soul Fox
(Amy Marcy Beach, Lori Laitman and Ned Rorem)
2017
In This Moment: Women and Their Songs
(Juliana Hall, Lori Laitman and Libby Larsen)
2013
(In) Habitation
(Tania León, Lori Laitman and Libby Larsen)
2010
Between the Bliss and Me. . . Songs to Poems of Emily Dickinson
(Ernst Bacon, Aaron Copland, John Woods Duke, Arthur Farwell, Lee Hoiby, Lori Laitman and Richard Pearson Thomas)
2009
Heggie: For a Look or a Touch / Laitman: The Seed of a Dream
(Jake Heggie and Lori Laitman)
2008
The Shining Place
(Lee Hoiby, Lori Laitman, Stephen Paulus and Simon Sargon)
2006
Dwell in Possibility: Dickinson in Song
(Ernst Bacon, Aaron Copland, Celius Dougherty, John Woods Duke, Lee Hoiby, Richard Hundley, Jake Heggie, Lori Laitman, Libby Larsen, Etta Parker, Simon Sargon, Leo Smit and Richard Pearson Thomas)
2004
Dreaming - Songs of Lori Laitman
(Lori Laitman)
2003
American Song Recital
(Leonard Bernstein, William Bolcom, Paul Bowles, John Corigliano, John Woods Duke, Richard Hundley, Lori Laitman, John Musto and Richard Pearson Thomas)
1992
Sheet Music
Lori Laitman Sheet Music
Buy via MusicaNeoBecoming a Redwood (High voice)
Composer(s): Lori Laitman
Song(s): 1. The Song
2. Pentecost
3. Curriculum Vitae
4. Becoming a Redwood
Voice Type: High
Buy via Classical Vocal ReprintsBecoming a Redwood (Medium Voice)
Composer(s): Lori Laitman
Song(s): 1. The Song
2. Pentecost
3. Curriculum Vitae
4. Becoming a Redwood
Voice Type: Medium
Buy via Classical Vocal ReprintsEarly Snow
Composer(s): Lori Laitman
Song(s): 1. Last Night the Rain Spoke to Me
2. Blue Iris
3. Early Snow
Four Dickinson Songs (High Key)
Composer(s): Lori Laitman
Song(s): 1. Will There Really Be a Morning?
2. I'm Nobody
3. She Died
4. If I...
Voice Type: High
Buy via Classical Vocal ReprintsFour Dickinson Songs (Low key)
Composer(s): Lori Laitman
Song(s): 1. Will There Really Be a Morning?
2. I'm Nobody
3. She Died
4. If I...
Voice Type: Low
Buy via Classical Vocal ReprintsIn This Short Life
Composer(s): Lori Laitman
Song(s): 1. Some Keep the Sabbath
2. I Stepped From Plank to Plank
3. In This Short Life
Men With Small Heads (Baritone)
Composer(s): Lori Laitman
Song(s): 1. Men With Small Heads
2. Refrigerator, 1957
3. A Small Tin Parrot Pin
4. Snake Lake
Voice Type: Low
Buy via Classical Vocal ReprintsMen With Small Heads (Countertenor or Mezzo-Soprano)
Composer(s): Lori Laitman
Song(s): 1. Men With Small Heads
2. Refrigerator, 1957
3. A Small Tin Parrot Pin
4. Snake Lake
Voice Type: Medium
Buy via Classical Vocal ReprintsMystery (Mezzo-Soprano Version)
Composer(s): Lori Laitman
Song(s): 1. Nightfall
2. Spray
3. The Kiss
4. The Mystery
5. The Rose
Voice Type: Medium
Buy via Classical Vocal ReprintsMystery (Baritone Version)
Composer(s): Lori Laitman
Song(s): 1. Nightfall
2. Spray
3. The Kiss
4. The Mystery
5. The Rose
Voice Type: Low
Buy via Classical Vocal ReprintsOne Bee and Revery
Composer(s): Lori Laitman
Song(s): 1. The Butterfly Upon
2. Hope is a Strange Invention
3. To Make a Prairie
Plums (Two Songs)
Composer(s): Lori Laitman
Song(s): 1. To a Poor Old Woman
2. This Is Just To Say
Sunflowers
Composer(s): Lori Laitman
Song(s): 1. The Sunflowers
2. Dreams
3. Sunrise
The Metropolitan Tower and Other Songs
Composer(s): Lori Laitman
Song(s): 1. The Metropolitan Tower
2. A Winter Night
3. Old Tunes
4. The Strong House
5. The Hour
6. To a Loose Woman
Voice Type: High
Buy via Classical Vocal ReprintsTwo Songs for Tenor
Composer(s): Lori Laitman
Song(s): 1. Full Moon
2. Light Hearted William