Daron Hagen is a force to be reckoned with in the world of opera and orchestral music, with Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards numbering among his accolades. With Hagen’s catalogue of over 500 songs and large-scale cycles, The Art of Song is founded on 45 years of distinguished experience in vocal music. Divided into four ‘life seasons’, this richly emotional cycle embraces themes that range from the human cost of America’s politics since the Civil War; the rueful wisdom of aging, love and nostalgia; and on towards tragedy, faith and an acceptance of nature’s cycles.

The Art of Song follows on from the Naxos recording of Daron Hagen’s opera Shining Brow (866902021) admired by BBC Music Magazine for being ‘a well-crafted post-tonal work’. Hagen’s album of 21st-Century Song Cycles (8559714) was ‘a welcome revelation’ for the American Record Guide, and declared ‘quite sublime’ by Gramophone. Hagen’s Piano Trios have been released on Naxos 8559657, of which one Fanfare reviewer found that ‘in all four trios there are spine-tingling, hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck-standing-up moments of sheer astonishment’.

Lyric Fest:
- Gilda Lyons (soprano)
- Rebecca Myers (soprano)
- Elisa Sutherland (mezzo-soprano)
- Meg Bragle (mezzo-soprano)
- James Reese (tenor)
- Steven Eddy (baritone)
- Laura Ward (piano)