Barry S. Brook
Center for Music Research and
Documentation
Music PhD/DMA program
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Emily Dickinson
Performed by the Helding/Blyth Duo, with special guest, actress Karen Lordi. The great American poet Emily Dickinson is the source of inspiration for this concert, with mezzo-soprano Lynn Helding, pianist Jennifer Blyth, and their special guest, actress Karen Lordi. The program features Dickinson’s poems in settings by William Bolcom, Aaron Copland, Jake Heggie, and Lori Laitman interspersed with dramatic readings of selected Dickinson letters. The performance of Julie Harris in the Belle of Amherst, the play based on the life of Emily Dickinson, prompted the Duo to create this program. According to Helding, “The dramatic reading of selected letters affords the opportunity to bridge the gap between poetry and music—indeed, her letters often segue from prose into poetry, and we have used this as a model to effect a transition from the written to the declaimed, and finally, to the sung word.” The major themes of her poetry (nature, death, spirituality, immortality) are explored and enhanced in the musical setting of the four accomplished composers on the program. The Helding/Blyth Duo, specializing in contemporary American vocal music, was formed in 1998, when they embarked on an around-the-world tour. During the tour, they served as artists-in-residence at Melbourne's LaTrobe University. In 2000 they performed at the official residence of the president of Iceland. Since then, they have had numerous performances of their unique concerts, including Made in America, Voyages and other Journeys of the Soul, and Songs of Love, Loss, and Longing. Both Lynn Helding and Jennifer Blyth teach at Dickinson College. Karen Lordi received her theater training at the Yale School of Drama and has been active as a director and actress in both New York and Los Angeles. Ms. Lordi recently opened Strindberg’s “The Dance of Death” at the Jean Cocteau Repertory in New York City. She teaches at Dickinson College.
. Sponsored by
The Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research
and Documentation and
Continuing Education and Public Programs
of The CUNY Graduate Center, and
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