Daughters & sons: 3 song cycles in the key of power
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Program is FREE to attend
About the Event
On Wednesday, October 16 at 6:00 pm , the acclaimed composer Stefania de Kenessey and director-writer Stephen Kennedy Murphy present a musical program the centerpiece of which will be the premiere of their politically-themed song cycle American Sons.
American Sons, for which de Kenessey wrote the music and Murphy wrote the lyrics, features songs from the point of view of young men named Kennedy, Cuomo and Trump as they were 35 years ago when these men gathered at a fundraiser.
The text by Murphy, who was present that night, asks how might these sons of powerful men have reflected then on today’s issues?
Would the apples fall far from the trees?
American Sons will be sung by Blake Friedman
The program will be rounded out by two other short cycles.
The first, the cantata Names of Women, with music by Stefania de Kenessey and lyrics by powerful female writers who have been unjustly neglected by history.
Among those women is (above) AMELIA BASSANO LANIER (1569-1645), the first woman to assert herself as a professional poet in Elizabethan England; she is thought to be Shakespeare’s “Dark Lady” and possibly the author of some of his work.
Names of Women will be sung by Malaika Alvaro, accompanied by The Del Sogno Ensemble, for which Ms. de Kenessey is Composer-in-Residence.
Another premiere, Aphrodite: A Hot Mess, explores different incarnations of the goddess of love with a skip-stop through the history of desire from Eden’s Eve to Marie Antoinette with songs written by Stephen Kennedy Murphy to be performed by Sara James.