Gilda Lyons
Gilda Lyons (born January 11, 1975,
Education and early career
Lyons attended Bard College, where she studied with Joan Tower and Daron Hagen, and in 1997 received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Composition, Vocal Performance, and Visual Arts.
She then attended the University of Pittsburgh, where she studied with Eric Moe and Anne LeBaron, and received a Master of Arts degree in Music Composition and Theory in 2001.
She studied with
Lyons also studied voice, first at Bard with Arthur Burrows, then privately with heldentenor Barry Busse.
Performer, impresario, educator
She made her professional debut as both vocal soloist and composer in her own orchestral
Lyons founded the Phoenix Concerts, a New York City-based contemporary music performing and presenting organization, in 2005 and serves as its Artistic and Executive Director. The New Yorker describes it as "New York’s plucky Upper West Side new-music series".[7] As of October 2014, Lyons had programmed music by over 160 composers on over fifty concerts.[8] She has commissioned and performed premières of works by numerous living composers, including Kathryn Alexander, Juhi Bansal, Hayes Biggs, Robert Carl, Chen S’iang, Jesse D’Aiello, Stephen Dembski, Jed Distler, Kaeza Fearn, Daniel Felsenfeld, Daniel Gilliam, Daron Hagen, Wang Jie, Paula Kimper, Wendy Wan'ki Lee, Katarina Leyman, Eli Marshall, Jorge Martin, Daphna Mor, Frank Oteri, Glen Roven, David Rakowski, Jessica Rudman, She Ye, Faye-Ellen Silverman, Daniel Sonenberg, Dennis Tobenski, Craig Urquhart, Barbara White, Beth Wiemann, Peter Winkler, Randall Woolf, and Zhou Xu.
Lyons served as Assistant Executive Director of the
Since 2013, she has served as a Senior Artist Teacher with her own composition studio on the faculty of
Compositions
Lyons has received commissions from, among others, the
Lyons often turns to unusual sources for texts, and combines ritualistic chant and expanded vocal techniques. Tom Strini in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel described "Nahuatl Hymn to the Earth Mother" for treble choir as “hair-raising, yet elegant, [with] slides, dips, yips and yelps amid ceremonial intensity."[10] (Clarion CLCD-936) The wide range of her textual sources embraces poetry by grade school children in the Bronx "Songs from the F Train", (commissioned by American Opera Projects, and published by Schott, 2010),[11] the Anne Sexton-inspired solo voice cycle "A Small Handful" (EC Schirmer, 2006),[12] and even "transforms acronyms, route numbers and letters and a listing of transit-authority service changes into a comic soprano and mezzo-soprano duet [called] rapid transit".[13]
She also incorporates visual imagery, as in the multi-media work "riverrun", (images by Holen Sabrina Kahn) and combines voice with pre-recorded sound, as in "walk, run, fly", which she premiered at
Schott Music, EC Schirmer, and Burning Sled Music publish her music. Recordings are available on the GPR and Clarion labels.
References
- ^ Gilda Lyons website Archived October 6, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
- ^ American Opera Projects website. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
- ^ O'Driscoll, Bill (2015). "A New Kind of Fallout at Opera Theater: A new opera inspired by the work of Rachel Carson is frequently powerful". Pittsburgh City Paper. No. July 22, 2015.
- ^ Kanny, Mark (2015). "Review: Compelling new opera, 'Fallout,' revisits 1960s, dangers of pesticides". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. No. July 15, 2019.
- ^ ECS Publishing Website Lyons Biography. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
- ^ Shengold, David (2009). "Shining Brow Review". Opera, UK.
- ^ Platt, Russell (2011). "Concert Listings". The New Yorker.
- ^ Phoenix Concerts Concerts Webpage. Archived October 6, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
- ^ Seasons Music Festival Composers Seminar Webpage Archived October 6, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
- ^ Strini, Tom (February 18, 2008). "Milwaukee Choral Artists Shine". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
- ^ Schott Website Product Page. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
- ^ ECS Publishing Product Page Archived October 6, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
- ^ Kozinn, Allan (January 15, 2012). "A Score of Ways to Serenade a City". The New York Times.
- ^ The Flea Theater Blog. Retrieved October 5, 2014.