JULIANA HALL | AMERICAN ART SONG COMPOSER

WELCOME

American art song composer Juliana Hall specializes in creating vocal works: “glistening, poignant music” (Gramophone), “complex in conception and construction” (Planet Hugill, London) with “graceful, nuanced vocal lines” (Opera News).

Hall’s more than 60 song cycles, monodramas, and vocal chamber works have been described as “brilliant” (Washington Post), “beguiling” (The Times, London), and “the most genuinely moving music of the afternoon” (Boston Globe)“masterful writing in every respect” (NATS Journal of Singing).

strikingly imaginative … gracious to sing and hear, interesting piano accompaniments, always worthy texts

— Dominick Argento

Hall attended the Yale School of Music as a graduate student, studying composition with Frederic Rzewski, Leon Kirchner, and Martin Bresnick, receiving her masters degree in 1987. Following Yale she moved to Minneapolis to study with renowned vocal composer Dominick Argento.

Shortly after arriving in Minnesota later in 1987, she wrote a song cycle as a first commission for soprano Dawn Upshaw. The piece received both popular and critical acclaim, with performances across America and around the world. In 1989, Hall was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition, as well as her second commission for a song cycle for Metropolitan Opera baritone David Malis.

Revealing each morsel of poetry through her brilliant tonal, textural, and rhythmic language, her work is immediately recognizable and wonderfully familiar. Singers and audiences alike take delight in her songs…It is positively magical.

— Stephanie Blythe

Since completing her studies, Hall has composed works for dozens of singers, including vocal luminaries Brian Asawa, Stephanie Blythe, Molly Fillmore, Anthony Dean Griffey, Zachary James, Randall Scarlata, and Kitty Whately.

In discussing her long-time career interest in writing vocal music, Hall shares that, “I have rarely gone a day without some sort of text in my mind, primarily poems, but also diaries, fables, letters, play texts, and sacred writings. Great writers illuminate beauty, truth, and magic present in even the smallest of things in our world, and since song is all about text, it is those writers’ insights I wish to share in my songs.”

one of the finest text setters writing English song anywhere…leading with her distinctive and feminine voice combined with a big pianist’s brilliance and her uncanny way of writing music that gives singers the ability to be better than their best

— Margo Garrett

Hall’s music has been performed in dozens of countries on six continents by some 700 singers, pianists, and other musicians. Concert venues where Hall’s works have been heard include the 92nd Street Y, Herbst Theatre, Library of Congress, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and Wigmore Hall, among many, many others. Festival performances include concerts at the London Festival of American Music, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Ojai Music Festival, Oxford Lieder Festival, and Tanglewood Music Center.

Recitals dedicated to Hall’s work have been presented by Calliope’s Call in Boston, New York’s Sparks & Wiry Cries, Princeton’s Contemporary Undercurrent of Song Project, the Re-Sung art song series in London, the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut, the University of North Texas’ CollabFest program (where she served as 2018 Resident Composer), and the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar (where, at the invitation of artistic director Stephanie Blythe, she was the 2018 Guest Composer).

Other special concerts include performances on the Joy in Singing’s Edward T. Cone Composers Concert at New York’s Lincoln Center, a Holy Week meditation service at London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral, and Dawn Upshaw’s First Songs Project at New York’s Morgan Library & Museum.

Numerous other groups have presented Hall’s works, too, among them the Boston Art Song Society, New York’s Center for Contemporary Opera, the CHAI Collaborative Ensemble in Chicago, Cincinnati Song Initiative, the UK-based Duo Emergence, San Francisco’s Ensemble for These Times, Lyric Fest in Philadelphia, Northern Ireland Opera and On Site Opera, Canada’s Société d’Art Vocal de Montréal, Australia’s Song Company, Voices of Change in Dallas, and the SongFest organization, which awarded Hall its prestigious Sorel Commission.

Composer Juliana Hall’s music is to poetry what light is to a prism; it brings out a wealth of colors from the text…

— Molly Fillmore

A favorite of faculty and students alike, Hall’s vocal works have been researched and published in both masters level theses and doctoral level dissertations, and they have been studied and performed at more than 200 colleges, music schools, and universities around the world, a few of which include the Bard College Conservatory, Cincinnati College-Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, Eastman School of Music, Hartt School of Music, Juilliard School, Longy School of Music, Manhattan and Mannes Schools of Music, the Peabody Institute, and Westminster Choir College, in addition to colleges and universities across America.

Abroad, Hall’s music has appeared at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Royal Welsh School of Music & Drama in the UK; the Conservatorio di Musica F. A. Bonporti in Italy; and Fontys Conservatorium in the Netherlands. Performances overseas have also been presented at the Collège Mont-Saint-Louis, University of Alberta, and Western University in Canada; Universidad de Costa Rica in Costa Rica; the Universities of Birmingham, Leeds, and Oxford in England; the University of Bonn in Germany; the University of Aveiro in Portugal; and both Chung Yuan Christian University and the National Taipei University of the Arts in Taiwan.

amazing and interesting writing for both the voice and the piano…Her ability to illuminate the poetry is splendid

— Alan Louis Smith

Hall’s music has been broadcast over the BBC and NPR radio networks, as well as classical music radio stations around the world, including Classical King (Seattle), CJSW-FM (Calgary), CKIA (Québec), NPO Radio 4 (Amsterdam), Radio ArtsIndonesia (Jakarta), Radio France (Paris), Radio Horizon (Johannesburg), Radio Monalisa (Amsterdam), RTVE Radio C (Madrid), Sociocultural Radio Establishment (Kirchberg, Luxembourg), Swiss Radio SRF 2 Kultur (Zürich), WGBH (Boston), and WQXR (New York). Her songs have also been heard on special radio programs broadcast by Hawaii Public Radio (Gary Hickling’s Singing and Other Sins show), WHUP Hillsborough, NC (on the Composer’s Studio program, with hosts Tarik Ghiradella and Anna Linvill), and WPRB Princeton (on Marvin Rosen’s Classical Discoveries program).

Her vocal works have also appeared on the Albany Records, Arsis Audio, Blue Griffin Recordings, MSR Classics, PARMA’s Navona Records, and Shokat Projects labels, Germany’s Solo Musica label, Britain’s Stone Records label, and Austria’s Vienna Modern Masters labels, as well as on Zachary James’ award-winning audio/visual album CALL OUT.

Her adroit text choices, sensitivity to the demands of each voice for whom she has written, and the lively, fulfilling collaborative accompaniments are sure to please

— Darryl Taylor

In recent years, Hall was asked to participate in the initial season of the NATS Mentoring Program for Composers as one of ten established composers chosen to act as mentors to young African-American composers, and she has twice judged the NATS Art Song Composition Award competition (first as one of three preliminary round judges, and later as the sole final round judge). In 2021, Hall served as one of three judges adjudicating the first-ever Dominick Argento Opera Composition Fellowship competition.

Hall’s vocal music is published primarily by the E. C. Schirmer Music Company, and most works are available in both print editions and downloadable PDF files. Printed works are available from dozens of sheet music distributors around the world, and more recently a large number of her pieces have been made available on the nkoda digital subscription platform. There are additional vocal publications by Boosey & Hawkes and NewMusicShelf.

absolutely, unequivocally beautiful music

— Martin Bresnick

Most publications are available as downloadable PDFs, including individual songs, providing an economical way to build a concert program or a music library.

COMPOSITIONS FOR

Brian Asawa : countertenor
Stephanie Blythe : mezzo-soprano
Joel Burcham : tenor
Cherie Caluda : soprano
Simon Chalifoux : bass-baritone
Gwen Coleman : soprano
Kara Dugan : mezzo-soprano
Katherine Eberle : mezzo-soprano
Molly Fillmore : soprano
Maggie Finnegan : soprano
Steffi Fischer : soprano
Andrew Fuchs : tenor
Anthony Dean Griffey : tenor
Martha Guth : soprano
Charles Humphries : countertenor
Zachary James : bass-baritone
Richard Lalli : baritone
David Malis : baritone
Clara Osowski : mezzo-soprano
Amy Petrongelli : soprano
Randall Scarlata : baritone
Pamela Jordan Schiffer : soprano
Daniel Shirley : tenor
Laura Strickling : soprano
Dawn Upshaw : soprano
Christopher Walker : tenor
Kitty Whately : mezzo-soprano

Kathleen Kelly : piano
Carrie Koffman : saxophone

Feminine Musique : New York
Lynx Project : Chicago
Lyric Fest : Philadelphia
Mirror Visions : New York
Schubert Club : Saint Paul
Seattle Art Song Society : Seattle
SongFest : Los Angeles

VENUES

92d Street Y
Ambassador Auditorium
Art Museum of South Texas
Blackheath Halls
Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Bruno Walter Auditorium
Caffe Vivaldi
Corcoran Gallery of Art
Cosmos Club
DiMenna Center
Emily Dickinson Museum
Frauenmuseum
French Library
Helmsley Art Centre
Herbst Theatre
Het Concertgebouw
Holywell Music Room
Library of Congress
Lyceum Club di Firenze
Marigny Opera House
Morgan Library & Museum
Music Center at Strathmore
National Opera Center
Ordway Music Theater
Sinngewimmel
Snape Maltings
St. Pancras Clock Tower
St. Paul’s Cathedral
The Chapel
The Street Theatre
The Warehouse Waterloo
Trinidad Theatre
Trinity Church Wall Street
War Memorial Arts Initiative
Weill Recital Hall
Wigmore Hall

FESTIVALS

Bay View Music Festival
Beverley Chamber Music Festival
Bitesize Proms
Buxton International Arts Festival
Carmel Bach Festival
Christiansen Art Song Festival
CollabFest
Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar
Illinois Chamber Music Festival
International Song Festival Zeist
London Festival of American Music
Middlebury Song Fest
Music by Women Festival
Norfolk Chamber Music Festival
Ojai Music Festival
Orvieto Musica Festival
Oxford Lieder Festival
Paradigm Shifts Festival
Rhonefestival für Liedkunst
Saint Paul Summer Song Festival
Schumannfest Düsseldorf
SongFest
songSLAM
Source Song Festival
Tanglewood Music Center
Thirsty Ears Festival
Voces8 Live from London
Women’s Theatre Festival

GROUPS

ÆPEX Contemporary Performance
ANA Trio
Astoria Music Project
Astralis Duo
Boston New Music Initiative
Boston Opera Collaborative
Calliope’s Call
CHAI Collaborative Ensemble
Cheah Chan Duo
Cincinnati Song Initiative
Center for Contemporary Opera
dell’Arte Opera Ensemble
Detroit Song Collective
Duo Emergence
Duo Vocialo
Ensemble for These Times
Feminine Musique
Fourth Coast Ensemble
Greek National Opera
Joy in Singing
Lynx Project
Lyric Fest
Mallarmé Chamber Players
Mirror Visions Ensemble
NON:op Open Opera Works
Northern Ireland Opera
Northwest Art Song
One Ounce Opera
On Site Opera
Opera del West
Opera Steamboat
Prismatic Arts Ensemble
Re-Sung
Société d’Art Vocal de Montréal
Song Collaborators Consortia
Song in the City
Sparks & Wiry Cries
STL Opera Collective
The Lied Society
The Schubert Club
The Song Company
Voices of Change

PRESENTERS

Access Contemporary Music
Amriswiler Konzerte
Casement Fund Song Series
Civic Morning Musicals
College Music Society
Concerts of the Earth
Connecticut Composers Inc.
Contemporary Music Forum
Dame Myra Hess Concert Series
NewMusicShelf
Project 142
Schubert Club
Second Street Sonorities
Shokat Projects
Social Justice Music Factory
taNDem – Kunst und Kultur

MUSIC SCHOOLS

Academy of Vocal Arts
Bard Conservatory
Cincinnati Conservatory
Cleveland Institute
Eastman School of Music
Fontys Conservatorium
Guildhall School of Music
Hartt School of Music
Harvard University
Jacobs School of Music
Juilliard School
Longy School of Music
Manhattan School of Music
Mannes School of Music
Oxford University
Princeton University
Peabody Institute
Royal Academy of Music
Royal College of Music
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Royal Irish Academy of Music
Royal Welsh College
Smith College
University of Illinois
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota
University of North Texas
University of Southern California
Vanderbilt University
Westminster Choir College
Yale School of Music

RECORD LABELS

Albany Records
Arsis Audio
artistShare
Blue Griffin
MSR Classics
Navona Records
Shokat Projects
Solo Musica
Stone Records
Vienna Modern Masters
and
Bright Shiny Things
(coming Spring 2023)

RADIO BROADCASTS

BBC – London
CKIA – Québec
Cincinnati Public Radio
Classical KING – Seattle
Hawaii Public Radio
Minnesota Public Radio
NPO Radio 4 – Amsterdam
NPR – Washington DC
Radio ArtsIndonesia – Jakarta
Radio France – Paris
Radio Horizon – Johannesburg
Radio Monalisa – Amsterdam
RTVE Radio C – Madrid
Sociocultural Radio – Kirchberg
SRF 2 KULTUR – Zürich
WGBH – Boston
WPRB – Princeton
WQXR – New York

September 8, 2023  :  Coral Gables, Florida
“The Mystic Trumpeter” will be performed by tenor Anthony Dean Griffey & pianist Warren Jones at the University of Miami

October 7, 2023  :  Antwerp, Belgium
Françoise Vanhecke will perform selections from “In Spring” – songs for unaccompanied Soprano

October 25, 2023  :  Nashville, Tennessee
“Setting Sail” – 12 songs for Soprano and Piano
Maggie Finnegan and Jennifer McGuire give the first complete live performance of these new songs at Vanderbilt University

November 3, 2023  :  Jacksonville, Florida
The New Colossus – Jordan Rutter-Covatto, countertenor and Tyson Deaton, piano perform at the University of North Florida

November 10, 2023  :  London, England
Song Settings of Poetry by Walter de la Mare – London Song Festival

November 11, 2023  :  Genoa, Italy
“Night Dances” – 6 songs for Soprano and Piano – Valentina Valente & Anna Barbero Beerwald present “American Pastoral: Ask The Poetess” at the Palazzo Spinola

November 16, 2023  :  Kortrijk, Belgium
Françoise Vanhecke will perform selections from “In Spring” – songs for unaccompanied Soprano

December 3, 2023  :  Rochester, New York
“The Mystic Trumpeter” will be performed by tenor Anthony Dean Griffey & pianist Warren Jones at the Eastman School of Music

I’ve returned to one of my “core” poets, Emily Dickinson, to write a dozen new songs as a collection called Setting Sail. When I studied with Dominick Argento back in 1987 and 1988, he used to joke with me that I would one day set every single poem Emily wrote, so I am dedicating this collection to the loving memory of Dominick Argento with gratitude for his mentorship and, later, his friendship. I’ve also dedicated these songs to Maggie Finnegan, for her stellar artistry and her friendship. Here are the poems I’ve made songs out of, beautiful poems of real substance.

TEXTS
1 – Setting Sail
2 – A little madness in the Spring
3 – If I can stop one heart from breaking
4 – A Book
5 – Suspense
6 – I died for beauty
7 – Down Time’s quaint stream
8 – The blunder is to estimate
9 – Faith is a Fine Invention
10 – I reason, Earth is short
11 – Look back on time with kindly eyes
12 – Playmates

Setting Sail
Maggie Finnegan soprano : Juliana Hall piano

I’m thrilled and honored to have had the opportunity to compose a work for the great American tenor, Anthony Dean Griffey, a very large (18 minute) single-movement setting of the Walt Whitman poem The Mystic Trumpeter.

In my more than 30 years of composing, I had never been drawn to Whitman as so many other composers have been, but I thought I would go through his poems just “one last time” in my search for the perfect text for Tony to sing.
Lo and behold, the moment I laid eyes on The Mystic Trumpeter, electricity went down my back and I knew this was the text.

The Mystic Trumpeter will be premiered in the coming seasons, with the wonderful pianist Warren Jones performing on piano.

AHAB
Zachary James bass baritone : Charity Wicks piano

Godiva
Kitty Whately mezzo-soprano : Joseph Middleton piano

Death’s Echo
Richard Lalli baritone : Juliana Hall piano

Some Things Are Dark
Dawn Upshaw soprano : Margo Garrett piano

At That Hour When All Things Have Repose
Stephanie Blythe contralto : Alan Louis Smith piano