Song of America

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. More

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. More

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of manuscripts donated to the University of Washington Music Library turned up a manuscript of "Birth," a previously unpublished song by Amy Beach.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. More