Sparks & Wiry Cries Podcast: Recent Episodes
Sparks & Wiry Cries
Sparks and Wiry Cries began in 2009 as a podcast and online magazine with a vision to contextualize art song in the sharing of recordings, interviews, and articles by prominent artists and scholars.
Martha sits down with storied tenor Paul Sperry for a conversation about his early music education, the state of song careers, working with Pierre Bernac, and his many collaborations with some of the most extraordinary composers of our times.
April 14, 2023
Martha interviews composer Shawn Okpebholo and baritone Will Liverman about our commission, Songs in Flight. Shawn and Will talk about their long history of collaboration, grappling with difficult and personal subject matter, and bringing one’s authentic self to performance and composition. Songs in Flight will receive its world premiere this week in NYC, as part of the 2023 sparksLIVE events. More information about Sparks & Wiry Cries and our sparksLIVE events are available at our website.
Martha Guth interviews LaToya A. Lain, soprano, jessica Care moore, poet, and Andrew Staniland, composer about creating the 2021 commission "Ramadan 20 vs COVID 19" with Erika Switzer, co-founder of Sparks and Wiry Cries. The piece received its world premiere during the 2021 songSLAM festival, and the score is available through the Sparks and Wiry Cries shop.
An insightful interview with composer/writer Herschel Garfein in his Park Slope Apartment about his newest song cycle: Mortality Mansions with texts by poet Donald Hall. We discuss 'why song', his own compositional style, and the delights of Donald Halls poetry.
The Internationally renowned baritone speaks about his love for American Song, the Hampsong Foundation and the 'Song of America' educative initiative which explores the history of American Culture through Song.
An Interview with composer Scott Wheeler and an in depth look at his cycle 'Wasting the Night', poetry by Edna St. Vincent Millay.
The Casement Fund Song Series (now the songSLAM Festival) kicks off its inaugural concert with a live podcast event!
The Motown project and Alicia Hall Moran. In this interview, we speak to the creator and star of this incredible new fusion of Motown, Classical song and Opera, creating an incredible new hybrid and expanding the definition of art song.
A wonderful conversation with our friend, the late Deen Larsen in which he speaks about Goethe's poetry as set by Schubert. Performances by Elly Ameling and Dalton Baldwin.
The end of Napoleon's reign and the birth of the Biedermeier era brought about many things, including - in a round about way - the birth of the song salon. Musicologist Ben Binder discusses why the politics of the time created an atmosphere where people were comfortable to be themselves only at home, and why Schubert mattered so much. Performances of 'Nacht und Träume', Auflösung, Der Jungling und der Tod, and Der Wanderer.
Two performances from the Aldeburgh Connection recital series and recording label in Toronto: 'Abraham and Isaac' and 'The Journey of the Magi', performed by Brett Polegato, Daniel Taylor, Bruce Ubukata and Stephen Ralls and Benjamin Butterfield.
A beautiful recording of early songs by Francesca Caccini performed by Soprano Shannon Mercer, with Luc Beausejour (harpsichord), Amanda keesemat (cello) and Sylvain Bergeron (theorbo/guitar).
Esteemed performers, mezzo soprano Susan Platts and pianist Rena Sharon take us through Robert Schumanns beloved work
An interview in Carlisle Pennsylvania at Dickinson College with Libby Larsen, discussing her cycle ‘Try me Good King’.
Baritone Shen Yang and Pianist Vlad Iftinca take us through some wonderful ballads by Carl Loewe.
This podcast is devoted to two brilliant artists who exude the essence of art song: Lenneke Ruiten and Thom Janssen. Works by Debussy, Fauré, Poulenc and R. Schumann