Lori Laitman

This six-song cycle was commissioned and premiered through a Special Projects Grant from the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Georgia Southern University, for Saxophonist Dr. Carolyn Bryan and soprano Sandra McClain.[1] Set to poetry by Joyce Sutphen, Living in the Body explores themes such as grief, loss, the past, and their emotional toll on the body of someone looking towards the second half of their life. The cycle was composed between the dates of September 14th and December 3rd, 2001, and was premiered on March 7th, 2002 at the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference at the University of North Texas.[1]

This cycle is one of few existing for soprano and saxophone; a normatively unorthodox pairing in Western classical repertoire inspired by Laitman's real life friendships.[1]

Below is the text (in both English and Spanish) for the first song in the cycle:

I am burning the woods of my childhood, tree by tree,

I am warming myself by the fire of those days.

I am remembering faces I can no longer see.

And the places I loved that are gone from me

and the roads and the paths and the open ways,

I am burning the woods of my childhood, tree by tree.

Where the elm trees stood, where the fox ran free,

and we listened to the owl and the screeching jays,

I am remembering the faces I can no longer see.

For those who walked under the pines with me,

who cannot join me at the fire as I sit and gaze,

I am burning the woods of my childhood, tree by tree.

Thinking old dreams that no longer can be

Watching them fall into ashes, the reds into grays

I am remembering the faces I no longer can see.

While the fire goes low and night is around me,

the memory of that time rises up from the haze.

I am burning the woods of my childhood, tree by tree,

I am remembering the faces I no longer can see.

Spanish

Estoy quemando los bosques de mi infancia, árbol por árbol,

Me estoy calentando con el fuego de aquellos días.

Estoy recordando rostros que ya no puedo ver.

Y los lugares que amaba que se han ido de mi

y las carreteras y los senderos y los caminos abiertos,

Estoy quemando los bosques de mi infancia, árbol por árbol.

Donde estaban los olmos, donde el zorro corría libre,

y escuchamos a la lechuza y los chillidos de los arrendajos,

Recuerdo los rostros que ya no puedo ver.

Para los que caminaron bajo los pinos conmigo,

que ya no pueden unirse a mí junto al fuego mientras me siento y miro,

Estoy quemando los bosques de mi infancia, árbol por árbol.

Pensando en viejos sueños que ya no pueden ser

Mirándolos caer en cenizas, los rojos hacia los grises

Recuerdo los rostros que ya no puedo ver.

Mientras el fuego se apaga y la noche me rodea,

el recuerdo de esa época surge de la bruma.

Estoy quemando los bosques de mi infancia, árbol por árbol,

Recuerdo los rostros que ya no puedo ver.

Laitman created the opera The Scarlet Letter based on the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was commissioned by The University of Central Arkansas through Robert Holden and the UCA Opera program, premiered there in November 2008 and received its professional premiere in May 2016 by Colorado Opera. The libretto is by David Mason. Huffington Post ran an interview with Laitman,[2] and the May 2016 issue of Opera News had a feature about Laitman and The Scarlet Letter. Naxos released the CD in Aug. 2017. 2022 performances are scheduled at The University of Oklahoma and Wichita State University.

Laitman and Mason also collaborated on Vedem, a Holocaust oratorio commissioned by Music of Remembrance. Indianapolis Opera's double bill of Vedem and Brundibar has been rescheduled to the spring of 2022, due to the Coronavirus.

Laitman and Mason continue to develop the opera Ludlow, based on Mason's verse novel about the 1914 mining disaster in Ludlow, Colorado.

Laitman created The Three Feathers children's opera with librettist Dana Gioia, based on a Grimm's fairy tale. It was commissioned by the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech. The work premiered in conjunction with VA Tech, Opera Roanoke and the Blacksburg Children's Chorale in Oct. 2015 in a production directed by Beth Greenberg and conducted by Scott Williamson. Huffington Post ran a feature on the opera.[2] The children's outreach version, which is condensed to under an hour, was premiered by Florida State University in February 2016. Seattle Opera commissioned a 5 voice/piano abridged version which toured Seattle schools from January through June 2018. Hartt College of Music premiered the abridged orchestral version, and L'arietta Productions in Singapore presented the international premiere. Opera Steamboat will present a full production in August 2022 (delayed, due to the virus).

Uncovered is Laitman's opera with Leah Lax, based on Lax's memoir. It was a 2018 finalist for the Domenic J. Pelliccioti Opera Composition Prize. It has now been co-commissioned by a consortium led by Utah State. City Lyric Opera of NYC (another co-commissioner) presented The Mikvah scene virtually in October 2021 (see citylyricopera.org/uncovered), and the full premiere by Utah State has been moved to April 2022 in the hopes that the vaccine will allow for travel and singing once more.

Laitman received a 2015 Centennial Commission from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra with Music Director Marin Alsop for an orchestral piece to celebrate the BSO's 100th anniversary. Unsung premiered in September 2016.

Laitman's commission from the Howard Hansen Institute for American Music at the Eastman School of Music and the Susan B. Anthony Center for Women's Leadership produced "Are Women People?" . The piece was created for SATB vocal quartet and piano 4 hands, This piece uses texts by Alice Duer Miller, Susan B. Anthony and also the 19th Amendment of the Constitution. The work premiered at Eastman School of Music in March 2017. The premiere recording of the work is featured on the May 2021 CD release on Acis: Are Women People? — The Songs of Lori Laitman.

Her BBC/Royal Philharmonic Society commission for soprano Katharina Konradi premiered October 25, 2020, live at Wigmore Hall, London, to a reduced audience.