Songs of New Beginning

for mezzo soprano and piano

Near the end of my masters, many of my friends became interested in idea of becoming and new beginnings. I attribute this to the fact that most of us graduated into the Great Recession into a region that was hit particularly hard by the housing crisis. Having just completed a major work with Leah and a soprano named Sarah Smith concerning the liberation of women from social norms, Suzanne came to us and asked for a set of songs to usher in a new chapter of her life marked by the competition of her degree.

The text, again written by Leah Soderberg, handles the ideas of beginning anew, embracing discovery, and the uncertainty ahead. Her words so elegantly capture the unease, but also the excitement of embarking on a new journey and what might lie ahead. My hope, as always, is that the music supports these depictions of the text.