Delos Releases Colors of Feelings Featuring French & American Songs by Composer Philip Lasser

DELOS RELEASES COLORS OF FEELINGS FEATURING FRENCH & AMERICAN SONGS BY COMPOSER PHILIP LASSER Colors of Feelings features sopranos Elizabeth Futral & Susanna Phillips with pianist Margo Garrett and narrations by Michael York Colors of Feelings due at retail October 30th, 2012 The music of Philip Lasser is fast entering the repertoire of the established conductors, orchestras and performers worldwide. In his new and lyrically beautiful recording, Colors of Feelings, composer Philip Lasser explores the distant past and the unknown present in song. Colors of Feelings includes three new vocal works with assured, soulful and deeply musical performances from sopranos Elizabeth Futral and Susanna Phillips, both familiar names in the top echelons of the vocal world, as well as a winning performance from Michael York, in a medieval Sung‐fable “Nicolette and Aucassin” for two sopranos and narrator. The music on Colors of Feelings is suffused with the virtues of French musical culture: clarity, grace, lyricism and, of course, harmonic and vocal color. And the touches of idiomatic blues give earthy, American roots and a prominent personal stamp to the refined settings. The three sets of songs span across both continents and epochs: “Les Visages de L’Amour” gathers six varied love poems from important French poets such as Gérard Nerval, Paul Verlaine, and Louise de Vilmorin; the dramatic “Nicolette et Aucassin” revives a Medieval fable (in the legendary tradition of the sung story which extends back to Homer); and the title composition sets four poems from American poet Wynelle Ann Carson (1959‐1996), whose brief career, cut short by muscular dystrophy, captivated the composer. Lasser calls Carson a “modern‐day Emily Dickinson,” and met the challenge of her sharply crafted, intense lines with a lovely and aching sense of yearning. Lasser’s skill with language and ease of expression is as powerful with English as French, and the love songs are voluptuous and charming. In “Nicolette et Aucassin,” Lasser updates the chantefable tradition by alternating spoken narration from actor Michael York, in a warm, intimate voice, with singing from the duet of Futral and Phillips. The counterpoint, the specific rhythms of the words and the intertwined voices balance the music, like tapestry, between the ancient and the modern day. Futral, Phillips and Garrett have been performing this music for years and with their clear affinity and love for the works, Lasser’s music comes to us as both refreshingly new and attractively familiar. The music is of our period, but already with a performance history, and the necessary time it takes for performers to truly find their own meaning in the notes and words. It is also firmly part of the classical tradition, and both singers bring their experience with the repertoire, both old ‐‐ operatic/recitals ‐‐ and new ‐‐ Futral has sung in premieres from Andre Previn, Tan Dun, Philip Glass and Kaija Saariaho. Futral debuted with New York City Opera in Lakmé in 1994, and has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and the San Francisco Opera, as well as internationally. This summer Futral performed the role of Marian Paroo in The Music Man at Glimmerglass and this fall she will be appearing with the Washington Bach Consort and the New York Philharmonic. Phillips, winner of the 2010 winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s Beverly Sills Artist Award, performs frequently at the Met, the Chicago Lyric and Santa Fe Operas as well as appearing in recitals and concerts around the world. In 2012‐13 season, Phillips will be performing Donna Anna at the Met and appearing at Carnegie Hall as Stella along side Renée Fleming as Blanche, in A Streetcar Named Desire. Lasser’s musical and personal background are colored by both the French and American cultures. His musical career began as a teenager at Nadia Boulanger’s Ecole d’Arts Americaines in Fontainbleau, where he studied with pianist Gaby Casadesus. After graduating from Harvard College, Lasser studied in Paris with Boulanger’s colleague Narcis Bonet. His music is heard frequently in a myriad of settings, from Simone Dinnerstein’s The Berlin Concert album where she performs his “Twelve Variations on a Chorale by J.S. Bach,” to concerts by the Seattle Symphony and New York Chamber Symphony, as well as on CDs from New World Records and Crystal Records. He has also recently published a book, The Spiraling Tapestry: An Inquiry into the Contrapuntal Fabric of Music, which offers a pioneering view on Bach's compositional world. For more information on composer Philip Lasser, please contact Amanda Sweet/Bucklesweet Media 347-564-3371 [email protected] .

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