Song of America

The American Song Initiative

By Christie Finn

The Hampsong Foundation is pleased to announce the American Song Initiative, which provides small grants, on a rolling basis, for projects in American classic song that have both a scholarly and performance element. A winning project will use American classic art song to tell a larger narrative in history, culture, literature, and/or the visual arts. Projects that use new technology to present and/or disseminate the content of the project (i.e. recordings, visual, and/or textual materials) are encouraged. Multimedia projects, projects involving a website or web-based platform, or projects using another more experimental technological element (such as an iBook or smartphone application) will be given priority. Priority will also be given to smaller projects whose entire budget falls within the $1,500 (or less) range.

SongFest 2012 Bolcom Project on Hampsong

By Christie Finn

This summer, William Bolcom served as the Composer-in-Residence at SongFest, a unique summer program that focuses on the art of song and is currently based at the Colburn School in California. As part of Bolcom’s residency, SongFest presented the “Songs of William Bolcom” concert, which featured some of his most well-known song cycles and many of which set the poetry of American poet Jane Kenyon (1947-1995). The concert also included a new commission, “Gettysburg: July 1, 1863,” which also sets the poetry of Kenyon and was underwritten by the Sorel Organization. SongFest has generously made the audio materials from this concert available through a special feature on the website of the Hampsong Foundation.

Margaret Ruthven Lang Anniversary

By Donald George & Lucy Mauro

May 29, 2012 marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Margaret Ruthven Lang. If you have never heard of Margaret Ruthven Lang, you are not alone. This forgotten American woman, born in Boston in 1867 and who lived until 1972, spent the first 50 years of her life surrounded by prominent musicians , poets and painters of the day and indeed becoming one of the most highly regarded female composers of her time, the first American woman to have a major orchestra perform her compositions in 1893, and to publish some 150 works, performed by great artists throughout the US and Europe, only to spend the next 50 years of her life in anonymity, never to compose again or hardly even to mention it.

Hampsong / SongFest Collaboration

By Christie Finn

The Hampsong Foundation announces a new collaboration with SongFest, a training program for singers focusing on the art of classic song. Since 1996, SongFest founders Rosemary Hyler Ritter and John Steele Ritter have invited composers and teaching artists of the highest caliber to work with students and young professionals on the performance of song, especially American classic song. Through the Hampsong/SongFest collaboration, past materials from SongFest performances, including video and audio recordings of world premiere works by some of the most acclaimed American composers today, will be made available through the Song of America database as well as on the soon-to-be-launched new website of the Hampsong Foundation (www.hampsongfoundation.org). Click on "More" to learn more about SongFest.

Setting the Historical Record With Song

By Pia Catton (Wall Street Journal)

Learning American history by listening to music may sound like a short cut, but when the teacher is opera star Thomas Hampson, it's more of a highbrow leg-up.

Mr. Hampson, the 56-year-old baritone from Spokane, Wash., is internationally known for his interpretations of Mahler and Verdi. But he's also a longtime advocate of American song: His Hampsong Foundation, established in 2003, undertakes projects that support the art of song, commissioning composers, funding research, hosting seminars and classes, and launching new-media initiatives.

Song of America Radio Series Takes Off

By Christopher Dingstad

Thomas Hampson’s Song of America project reached a new high this fall with the introduction of a 13-week Song of America radio series. While many stations began airing the series in the fall, it will also be heard on many additional stations starting in 2012, including WQXR 105.9 FM in New York, which will broadcast the programs on Sundays at 9 pm, starting on January 8. The series will also be offered to members of the European Broadcasting Union. A list of stations and translators is found here.

"New" song by Amy Beach discovered

By University of Washington Music LIbrary

A summer project to catalogue a collection of manuscripts donated to the University of Washington Music Library turned up a manuscript of "Birth," a previously unpublished song by Amy Beach. The song was premiered at a student recital in the spring of 2011.

Song of America Radio Series

By Glenn Petry, 21C Media

Thomas Hampson continues his impassioned advocacy for American song with the introduction this October of “Song of America”, a 13-week radio series that reveals American classic song – poetry set to music by American composers – as a vibrant diary of the American experience. Hampson conceived and developed the series, which is co-produced by the Hampsong Foundation and the WFMT Radio Network of Chicago and will be syndicated by the network to public radio stations across the country. The network will also offer the series to members of the European Broadcasting Union and to stations in other countries around the world.

Interview with Thomas Hampson

By MusicWeb

Thomas Hampson discusses his thoughts on American art song, in addition to his upcoming projects in the operatic world.

Songs of America, With Beauty and Gusto

By New York Times

In his series of six “American Songbooks,” which surround skeletons of melodies from hymns, folk songs and spirituals with shimmering, hallucinatory percussion effects, the great composer George Crumb finds a way out of this limiting paradigm [of the folk song], conjuring the horrors — slavery, religious rigidity, war — that resulted in much of the beauty of American music without ignoring the reality of that beauty.

American Song in High Tech Master Class

By Christopher Dingstad

On Feb. 14, 2011, from 4-6pm EST, the renowned American baritone and Manhattan School of Music Distinguished Visiting Artist, Thomas Hampson, returns to the school to coach hand-selected voice students on pieces from the American songbook. The event will be presented before a live audience at the school and simultaneously streamed to a virtual global audience through Manhattan School of Music's website and Thomas Hampson's and MSM's own Android, iPhone and Smartphone apps.

Songs of Margaret Ruthven Lang

By Delos

In preparing to promote Delos’ January release Love is Everywhere, we asked pianist Lucy Mauro and tenor Donald George to reflect a bit on why they decided to record the songs of female American composer Margaret Ruthven Lang. They provided so many anecdotes and such rich, historical information that we decided that we must share it all with you. After reading, let us know what you find most interesting about Ms. Lang, the first woman to have had her music performed by a major American orchestra (Boston).

American Song on Performance Today

By Jeff Bina

On Thursday, November 11th, Performance Today will broadcast a Thomas Hampson performance from the 2009 Minnesota Beethoven Festival of the Aaron Copland's song "The Golden Willow Tree" (with Craig Rutenberg at the piano). American Public Media's Performance Today is broadcast on 260 public radio stations across the country and is heard by about 1.3 million people each week. Each station individually decides what time to air the program. To find out where and when Performance Today is broadcast in your area, please visit performancetoday.org.

Oral History of American Music

By Christie Finn

Last night, the Oral History of American Music (OHAM) celebrated its 40th Anniversary at Carnegie Hall with a tribute to director Vivian Perlis. The concert included works by Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, Steve Reich, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Jacob Druckman, John Cage, and some of the jazz greats. Live performances from current Yale School of Music students as well as alumni were interspersed with video footage (from the OHAM archives) of the composers discussing their works and, in John Cage's case, searching for mushrooms.

Samuel Barber at Library of Congress

By Library of Congress

On March 9, 2010, what would have been Samuel Barber's 100th birthday, the Library of Congress launched a new web page featuring information on Barber, including links to manuscripts, letters and a video clip. The Library of Congress is the preeminent repository for manuscripts by American composer Barber.

ASCAP/Lehmann Art Song Winners Announced

By newmusicbox

The winners of the third ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Foundation Art Song Competition have been announced. The competition, named for legendary soprano Lotte Lehmann, was established to encourage and recognize gifted young composers who write for voice. The three winning composers, who are all of American origin, will receive commissions to write song cycles through the Foundation.

Thomas Hampson Endowment for Research

By C. Dingstad

The Thomas Hampson Endowment was established in November 2009 by Mr. Hampson in honor of the American Musicological Society's OPUS Campaign and by the AMS in recognition of Hampson’s outstanding contributions to the field of music as a performer, teacher, and scholar. The purpose of the endowment is to foster editions and scholarship on song in all its contexts, as well as new and innovative technologies for promoting and understanding song via interactive media and the Internet. Guidelines for application to the endowment are currently in preparation. The first award is expected to be made in November 2010. For more information, please go to the AMS website.

Thomas Hampson celebrates American song

By SF Classical Music Examiner/S. Smoliar

9/30/09: SF Classical Music Examiner (Stephen Smoliar)
Last night in the Concert Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, baritone Thomas Hampson offered one of the most interesting preview events I have ever attended...

Hampson as Ambassador of American Song

By Mercury News (Sue Gilmore)

9/21/09: San Jose Mercury News (Sue Gilmore)
America's best-known baritone, now in town helping Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony wrap up their long-running Gustav Mahler recording project, is indeed one of the world's preeminent interpreters of that pensive German Romantic's rich vocal canon. But when the last strains of the "Songs of the Wayfarer" have died away in Davies Hall on Saturday, Thomas Hampson will cross metaphorical continents and switch gears for another project that is every bit as dear to his heart and a lot closer to his own cultural heritage.

On Sept. 30, Hampson opens San Francisco Performances' new season in the Herbst Theatre with pianist Wolfram Rieger in a "Song of America" recital. It's a stop on his second cross-country tour, a continuation of the collaboration he launched with the Library of Congress in 2005 to document, record and celebrate the enormous diversity of 250 years of American song.

Listening to Thomas Hampson's America

By San Francisco Classical Voice (Serinus)

9/15/09: San Francisco Classical Voice (Jason Victor Serinus)
After several decades of championing American art song, baritone Thomas Hampson refuses to let the major label slowdown hold him back. Instead, he’s started the Thomas Hampson Media label, and launched a full-out multimedia American song assault, as well.
Wondrous Free: Song of America II (THM 5432), his first recording on his label, showcases familiar and lesser-known American songs written between 1759 and 1982.

Thomas Hampson "Song of America" Project

By 21C Media Group

Thomas Hampson’s 2009 “Song of America” Project, in Collaboration with the Library of Congress, Celebrates the 250th Anniversary of the First American Song.

Hampson Gives Twelve “Song of America” Recitals between July 2009 and February 2010 and Sings Orchestral Concerts with American Songs at Summer Festivals and with the New York Philharmonic.

Continuation of "Song of America"

By Opus 3 Artists

2/11/09: Opus3Artists:
In 2009 Thomas Hampson will continue his acclaimed "Song of America" project and collaboration with the Library of Congress with a shore-to-shore celebration of American song that will also recognize the 250th anniversary of the first published art song in America.