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Ausrine Stundyte as Cio-Cio-San, Elizabeth Janes as Butterfly’s child and Sarah Larsen as Suzuki in Seattle Opera's production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Photo by Elise Bakketun.
North American Works Directory Listing
Songs From the F Train
Composer: Gilda Lyons
Composer Bio: Gilda Lyons is a composer, performer, and visual artist, is a frequent recitalist, performing both her own vocal works and those of other living composers. The 2009/10 season includes her multi-media performance collaboration with Anonymous 4's Ruth Cunningham, the powerfully expressive mezzo Elaine Valby, and video-artist Holen Kahn, as well as new works for violinist Anthea Kreston, the Finisterra Piano Trio, and the Seasons Festival Chamber Orchestra, among others. She will return as Composer-in-Residence to The Season's Music Festival in Washington State where she served as Visiting Artist in fall of 08; she serves as Visiting Artist for the Wintergreen Summer Music Academy in Summer 09.

Recent works include: Colette's Heirlooms, for treble voices, commissioned by The ASCAP Foundation / Charles Kingsford Fund and Nahuatl Hymn to the All-Mother for treble choir. Her one-act opera The Walled-Up Wife was presented in workshop performance by American Opera Projects in spring of 2007. Ms. Lyons made her professional debut as composer and vocalist with the American Symphony Chamber Orchestra in 1997, performing the world premiere of her orchestral song cycle Feis. She received her Ph.D. in Music Composition from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Bard College.
Librettist: Samori Covington
Alexis Cummings
Najaya Royal
Other Artistic Personnel: Thomas Bagwell (conductor)
Original Cast: Nicole Mitchell (mezzo-soprano)
Work Web Site: http://www.gildalyons.com/index.php?page=songs-from-the-f-train
Premiere Date: June 21, 2009
Description: This work is the first commissioned by the new music initiative I Hear America Singing. Created by American Opera Projects and The Walt Whitman Project in 2009, I Hear America Singing seeks to express the varied thoughts, feelings, and stories of the people of our nation into a communal voice that will resonate for all.

Songs from the F Train is a setting of poems by three Brooklyn schoolgirls - Samori Covington (age 9), Alexis Cummings, and Najaya Royal (both age 12). The poems were written in a poetry workshop led by Brooklyn writer Angeli Rasbury in Fort Greene Park.

Comments: Songs from the F Train is a co-commission from AOP, Fort Greene Park Conservancy and The Walt Whitman Project.
Video Clip:
Length: 00:07
Total Acts: Not Available
Contact: Gilda Lyons
E-mail Address: gilda@gildalyons.com
Composer Web Site: http://www.gildalyons.com

Spring 2013 Magazine Issue
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  • Of One: The Quest for Asian Fusion in the Opera House
  • Vancouver: Where Nature Nurtures Art
  • Inheriting the Wind
  • My First Time
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