Soprano Jill Morgan Brenner and pianist Paul Dab present Vermilion Border: Songs at the Threshold, a wide-ranging program of contemporary American art song and opera featuring works Brenner has commissioned and premiered over the past decade.
The recital revisits selections from I Sing Words: The Poetry Project, a commissioning initiative Brenner founded in 2015 to expand the contemporary art song repertoire. For the project, Brenner curated poetry primarily by living poets, inviting composers to select the texts that inspired them and create new works for voice and piano. The program features art songs by Emily Shisko, Kyle Hovatter, Nicolás Lell Benavides, Julie Barwick, and Joseph M. Colombo.
The program also includes excerpts from Brooke DeRosa’s opera The Yellow Wallpaper, in which Brenner performed the lead role of Jane in the West Coast premiere.
Vermilion Border celebrates the collaborative spirit of contemporary vocal music, bringing poets, composers, and performers together on one stage and inviting audiences to hear these works in a new light