There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, 
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night, 
And wild plum trees in tremulous white,

Robins will wear their feathery fire 
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one 
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree 
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn, 
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

—Sara Teasdale (American)
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Maria Lindsey, soprano
Jessica Sandidge, soprano
Sarah Beckham-Turner, soprano
Caitlin McKechney, mezzo-soprano
Briana Hunter, mezzo-soprano
Angel Desai, mezzo-soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Elena Moon Park, violin
Andie Tanning, viola
Meghan Burke, cello
Mimi Jones, bass

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

There Will Come Soft Rains

Finally, when the end came,

When the end came,
Finally, when the end—
It took everyone’s breath away.

From the old French woman in the village bakery,
To the grinning Tommy who passed you on the road—

Finally, when the end came—

Or even to the Germans in the camps 
Who tossed their caps into the air, 
No one could realize it.

When the end came,
Finally, finally—
It took everyone’s breath away.

On the 11th day
Of the 11th month 
“Hostilities ceased at 11am”

Finally, when—
A clerk brought the communiqué into the ward

Finally, finally, That was all.

—Elizabeth Lazenby (American)
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Caitlin McKechney, mezzo-soprano

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

Finally

In the pathway of the sun,
In the footsteps of the breeze, 
Where the world and sky are one, 
He shall ride the silver seas,
He shall cut the glittering wave.
I shall sit at home, and rock;
Rise, to heed a neighbor's knock; 
Brew my tea, and snip my thread; 
Bleach the linen for my bed.
They will call him brave.

—Dorothy Parker (American)
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Briana Hunter, mezzo-soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Elena Moon Park, violin
Andie Tanning, viola
Meghan Burke, cello
Mimi Jones, bass

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

Penelope

May you never be enlisted, 
You who have left me crying. 
Married men win battles
Tell me, o foreigner,
Where is this written?
Take the bachelors to war, 
Then the victory will be yours.

—Anonymous (Indian)
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Angel Desai, mezzo-soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Elena Moon Park, violin
Andie Tanning, viola
Meghan Burke, cello
Mimi Jones, bass

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

Punjabi Folk Song

Where are my children now?
What is left to their mother?
One boy to the right and one to the left, 
My right son and my left son,
As they called themselves.
Where are my children now?
One dead and one so far away—

—Kathe Kollwitz (German)
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Jessica Sandidge, soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Meghan Burke, cello

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

Right And Left

When the vision dies in the dust of the market place, 
When the Light is dim,
When you lift up your eyes and cannot behold his face, 
When your heart is far from him,

Know this is your war; in this loneliest hour you ride 
Down the roads he knew;
Though he comes no more,
At night he will kneel at your side,
For comfort to dream with you.

—May Wedderburn Cannan (British)
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Maria Lindsey, soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Elena Moon Park, violin
Andie Tanning, viola
Meghan Burke, cello
Mimi Jones, bass

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

When The Vision Dies

My husband’s in Salonika,
I wonder if he’s dead.
I wonder if he knows he has 
A kid with a foxy head.

And when the war is over
What will the slackers do?
They’ll all be after the soldier boys 
For the loan of a bob or two.

And when the war is over
What will the soldiers do?
They’ll hobble along on a leg and a half
But the slackers will have two.

—Anonymous (Irish)
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Sarah Beckham-Turner, soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Elena Moon Park, violin
Andie Tanning, viola
Meghan Burke, cello
Mimi Jones, bass

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

Salonika

WOMAN 6
Well I’d got this bad throat, you see, 
and the doctor,
he said it was some kind of poisoning. 
Well, you see,
they used a lot of asbestos at Bray’s.

WOMAN 2
Well of course we all had bright yellow faces, you see,
’cos we had no gas masks in those times and all our hair —
The manager used to say, ‘Tuck that hair under!’
So it was all bright ginger, all our front hair, you know.
And all our faces were bright yellow – they used to call us canaries.

WOMAN 5
Well she was ill.
She went to the doctor
and the doctor said that she was under the influence of alcohol
because she was falling about,
couldn’t hold herself up,
she was falling about.
So the doctor told her to come back again when she was sober, he said. 
Well, I said to him, I said,
‘She doesn’t drink.’
He said, ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I think she was under the influence of drink.’ 
And I said she wasn’t.
I said, ‘There’s something wrong with her,’ I said.

WOMAN 3
When I think now, my sister she said
it’s a wonder you and me’s living,
all that asbestos,
’cos all these nozzles and things were made of asbestos, you know. 
It used to lay on the floors.
You could see your footprints in it.

WOMAN 1
You filled up the gains.
Gains were like cartridges but bigger.
You filled them up with this black rock stuff. 
And everyone turned yellow there.
And you washed so that the yellow came off, 
but it was always in your system.

WOMAN 4
And of course she was only 19, she wasn’t 20 —
she died before she was 20.
And so any rate, my landlady sent for a doctor and they took her in the hospital.
She died in terrible agony.
She died in terrible pain.
They reckoned that black powder it burnt the back of her throat away. 
And the continual breathing of this black powder it sort of burnt the back of her throat away.

Used to make you wonder, you see, and we were working with it.
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Maria Lindsey, soprano
Jessica Sandidge, soprano
Sarah Beckham-Turner, soprano
Caitlin McKechney, mezzo-soprano
Briana Hunter, mezzo-soprano
Angel Desai, mezzo-soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Elena Moon Park, violin
Andie Tanning, viola
Meghan Burke, cello
Mimi Jones, bass

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

Bright Yellow Faces

There's the girl who clips your ticket for the train, 
And the girl who speeds the lift from floor to floor, 
There's the girl who does a milk-round in the rain, 
And the girl who calls for orders at your door. 
Strong, sensible, and fit,
They're out to show their grit,
And tackle jobs with energy and knack. 
No longer caged and penned up, 
They're going to keep their end up
Till the khaki soldier boys come marching back.

—Jessie Pope (British)
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Maria Lindsey, soprano
Jessica Sandidge, soprano
Sarah Beckham-Turner, soprano
Caitlin McKechney, mezzo-soprano
Briana Hunter, mezzo-soprano
Angel Desai, mezzo-soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Elena Moon Park, violin
Andie Tanning, viola
Meghan Burke, cello
Mimi Jones, bass

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

War Girls

I sit and sew — a useless task it seems,
My hands grown tired, my head weighed down with dreams — 
The little useless seam, the idle patch;
Why dream I here beneath my homely thatch,
When there they lie in sodden mud and rain,
Pitifully calling me, the quick ones and the slain?
You need me, Christ! It is no roseate dream
That beckons me—this pretty futile seam,
It stifles me—God, must I sit and sew?

—Alice Dunbar-Nelson (American)
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Briana Hunter, mezzo-soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Elena Moon Park, violin
Andie Tanning, viola
Meghan Burke, cello
Mimi Jones, bass

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

I Sit And Sew

The floors are slippery with blood:
The world gyrates too. God is good That while 
His wind blows out the light 
For those who hourly die for us—
We still can dance, each night.

The music has grown numb with death—
But we will suck their dying breath,
The whispered name they breathed to chance, 
To swell our music, make it loud
That we may dance,—may dance.

We are the dull blind carrion-fly
That dance and batten. Though God die 
Mad from the horror of the light—
the light is mad, too, flecked with blood,— 
We dance, we dance, each night.

—Edith Sitwell (British)
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Caitlin McKechney, mezzo-soprano
Maria Lindsey, soprano
Jessica Sandidge, soprano
Sarah Beckham-Turner, soprano
Briana Hunter, mezzo-soprano
Angel Desai, mezzo-soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Meghan Burke, cello

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

The Dancers

WOMAN 5
Not only an army fights!
A whole nation must actively fight!
We are all in the same boat,
we share the same risks.
Women must take the place of the men
in doing real army work.
Let us be thankful, we still have our two hands. 
Let us be thankful, and use them.

WOMAN 1
We go along a highway of grey stones, through green fields and lines of trees flung out as a screen against the sky.
The very expression of peace —
An immense quiet and serenity —
It is all unspeakably beautiful.
I am going straight into the horror of war.

WOMAN 2
If there is horror here you are not aware of it as horror. 
From the moment the doors close behind you,
you are in another world...
Before these multiplied forms of anguish,
what you feel —
if there is anything of you left to feel —
is not pity, it is so near adoration.
If you are tired of the burden of self,
go into these great wards.
You will find instant release.
Their torment is your peace.

WOMAN 6
I have known every sound of his voice
I have known every line of his face
and every tuft of beard on his chin.
No other measure of time
than the rhythm of his breathing,
no mark or sign of time
than the crescent of his eyelashes.
And I have known these things so long — 
I have known these things so long —
I have known these things so long — 
Like a separate wound in my memory.

WOMAN 3
No one was fond of Rochard:
he had only been there a few hours. He meant nothing to any one there. So Rochard died
a stranger among strangers.
Many people to wait upon him,
but no one there to love him.

ALL
We had 368;
200 seriously wounded —
Bleeding faster than we could cope with it —
200 dangerously wounded, 
We had 368;
We were full up by 2 a.m., a collision up the line,
the line was blocked by dead horses. 
We had 368;
All night we grappled with them.
Two were dying at St. Omer;
without a break we grappled with them. 
We had 368;
Bleeding faster than we could cope with it — 
Two were dying at St. Omer,
But we kept the rest alive
We kept the rest alive
We kept the rest alive to Boulogne.
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Maria Lindsey, soprano
Jessica Sandidge, soprano
Sarah Beckham-Turner, soprano
Caitlin McKechney, mezzo-soprano
Briana Hunter, mezzo-soprano
Angel Desai, mezzo-soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Elena Moon Park, violin
Andie Tanning, viola
Meghan Burke, cello
Mimi Jones, bass

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

Not Only An Army Fights!

My dear Jack,
Everything must be over between us.
Write back as soon as you can to say you forgive me Jack! 
Shall wait impatiently for your answer. 
All at home send their love to you.
Trusting this will find you in the best of health,
I remain,
Very Sincerely Yours
Ivy

—Anonymous (British)
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Maria Lindsey, soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Elena Moon Park, violin
Andie Tanning, viola
Meghan Burke, cello
Mimi Jones, bass

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

Dear Jack

Lo! I have flung to the East and West
Priceless treasures torn from my breast,
And yielded the sons of my stricken womb
To the drum-beats of duty, the sabres of doom.

Scattered like shells on Egyptian sands,
They lie with pale brows and brave, broken hands, 
They are strewn like blossoms mown down by chance 
On the blood-brown meadows of Flanders and France.

When your love shall offer memorial thanks
To the comrades who fought in your dauntless ranks, 
And you honour the deeds of the deathless ones, 
Remember the blood of my martyred sons!

—Sarojini Naidu (Indian)
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Angel Desai, mezzo-soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Elena Moon Park, violin
Andie Tanning, viola
Meghan Burke, cello
Mimi Jones, bass

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

The Gift Of India

Shining pins that dart and click
In the fireside’s sheltered peace
Check the thoughts that cluster thick— 
20 plain and then decrease.

He was brave—well, so was I— 
Keen and merry, but his lip 
Quivered when he said good-bye— 
Purl the seam-stitch, purl and slip.

Never used to living rough, 
Lots of things he’d got to learn; 
Wonder if he’s warm enough— 
Knit 2, catch 2, knit 1, turn.

Wonder if he’s fighting now,
What he’s done an’ where he’s been; 
He’ll come out on top somehow— 
Slip 1, knit 2, purl 14.

—Jessie Pope (British)
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Sarah Beckham-Turner, soprano
Maria Lindsey, soprano
Jessica Sandidge, soprano
Caitlin McKechney, mezzo-soprano
Briana Hunter, mezzo-soprano
Angel Desai, mezzo-soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Elena Moon Park, violin
Andie Tanning, viola
Meghan Burke, cello
Mimi Jones, bass

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

Socks

At Karonga
People perished there, at Karonga. 
Why did they perish? 

At Karonga
People perished there, at Karonga 
Why did people perish 
At Karonga?

Young men died there. 
Why did people die?

—Anonymous (Malawian)
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Briana Hunter, mezzo-soprano
Angel Desai, mezzo-soprano
Maria Lindsey, soprano
Jessica Sandidge, soprano
Sarah Beckham-Turner, soprano
Caitlin McKechney, mezzo-soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Elena Moon Park, violin
Andie Tanning, viola
Meghan Burke, cello
Mimi Jones, bass

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

Folksong, Karonga

Women of Europe, when will your call ring out? 
Summer’s glory was shattered by lightning— 
The lightning of the most frightful of all wars. 
Millions of women’s hearts blaze up in anguish. 
Women of Europe, where is your voice?
Are you only great in patience and suffering?
Women of Europe, where is your voice that should be sowing seeds of peace?

—Chicago: Women’ s Peace Party, 1915 (German)
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Jessica Sandidge, soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Elena Moon Park, violin
Andie Tanning, viola
Meghan Burke, cello
Mimi Jones, bass

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

Women of Europe

We aged a hundred years and this descended
In just one hour, as at a stroke.
The summer had been brief and now was ended; 
The body of the ploughed plains lay in smoke.

The hushed road burst in colors then, a soaring 
Lament rose, ringing silver like a bell.
And so I covered up my face, imploring
God to destroy me before battle fell.

—Anna Akhmatova (Russian)
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Caitlin McKechney, mezzo-soprano
Maria Lindsey, soprano
Briana Hunter, mezzo-soprano
Angel Desai, mezzo-soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Elena Moon Park, violin
Andie Tanning, viola
Meghan Burke, cello
Mimi Jones, bass

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

In Memoriam, July 19, 1914

WOMAN 5: What was your dream?

WOMAN 2: I was standing on the veranda steps, looking down over the fields of the Glen.

WOMAN 6: All at once, far in the distance, I saw a long, silvery, glistening wave. It came nearer and nearer — just a succession of little white waves like those that break on the sandshore.

WOMAN 1: The Glen was being swallowed up. I thought ‘Surely the waves will not come near Ingleside’ — but before I could move or call they were breaking right at my feet.

WOMAN 3: And everything was gone – there was nothing but a waste of stormy water.

WOMAN 4: I tried to draw back – and I saw that the edge of my dress was wet with blood — and I woke — shivering. 

—L.M. Montgomery (Canadian)
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Maria Lindsey, soprano
Jessica Sandidge, soprano
Sarah Beckham-Turner, soprano
Caitlin McKechney, mezzo-soprano
Briana Hunter, mezzo-soprano
Angel Desai, mezzo-soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Elena Moon Park, violin
Andie Tanning, viola
Meghan Burke, cello
Mimi Jones, bass

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

Rilla Of Ingleside

The scent of my country was in an apple.
I have bitten it with eyes fully closed,
To imagine myself standing in a green meadow. 
The shadows of the poplars are long rays.
I heard the sounds of birds filling the hedgerows. 
To eat, with eyes closed, the plump apple
from your meadows, bountiful Normandie— 
Ah! I will never be cured of my country!
And who ever has been cured of her youth?

—Lucie Delarue-Mardrus (French)
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Maria Lindsey, soprano
Sarah Beckham-Turner, soprano
Briana Hunter, mezzo-soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Elena Moon Park, violin
Andie Tanning, viola
Meghan Burke, cello
Mimi Jones, bass

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

L'Odeur de Mon Pays

WOMAN 3: Dear Alice... 

WOMAN 4: My dear Father, I must write you a few lines... 

WOMAN 3: Dear Alice... WOMAN 4: ...even though I could drop with weariness. 

WOMAN 2: My beloved Paul, 
Take care of yourself so that nothing will happen to you... 

WOMAN 4: Dear family, 
The devastated country is much more strange and fantastic on a sunny day... 

WOMAN 5: Memories will ever crowd the mind and cause the eye to kindle... 

WOMAN 1: Charles, Yesterday Sunday I was at Meaux, hoping always to see you arrive... 

WOMAN 3: Dear Alice... 

WOMAN 1: ...disappointed hope. I was forced to go away, it was bad luck that you were not able to come. 

WOMAN 6: Dear Father, this is Kishan Devi. We were really scared after receiving your letter... 

WOMAN 3: If you could see me in my dirty clothes dashing around doing errands, scrubbing, you would not think me the model heroine. 

WOMAN 4: I understand too well how strongly you feel about the fate of our fatherland. Only our patients, in their awful agony, yearn for one thing, peace—
 
WOMAN 1: The luck of there being such an adventure left in the world! and you there to have it— 

WOMAN 6: Father, I shall read all your letters. I do not fight with anyone. My heart is yours... 

WOMAN 5: To represent the womanhood of our race in America — these fine mothers, wives, sisters and friends who gave the flower of their young manhood to the ravages of war. 

WOMAN 3: The light on the piles of bricks, the half standing houses, the stretches of bleak fields full of trenches and wires — 

WOMAN 1: Violet passed on news from George: He said that up to date it had all been the most glorious fun. 

WOMAN 6: Dear Father, please take leave and come to meet us. Please do come. We repeat again and again. We do not have any more envelopes. 

WOMAN 2: How I would like to be able to go and find you and bring you back with me... when will this war end which causes so many tears. 

Things are hopping in Paris. The women are rebelling. Let’s hope that will do some good and above all bring the end — 

WOMAN 4: Why then the sacrifice of all these lives? Father, father can this truly be the will of God? 
--
Music by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland
In development with The American Opera Project [https://www.aopopera.org/letters]
Music Direction by Mila Henry

Maria Lindsey, soprano
Jessica Sandidge, soprano
Sarah Beckham-Turner, soprano
Caitlin McKechney, mezzo-soprano
Briana Hunter, mezzo-soprano
Angel Desai, mezzo-soprano
Melissa Tong, violin
Elena Moon Park, violin
Andie Tanning, viola
Meghan Burke, cello
Mimi Jones, bass

Audio above is from the July 2020 at-home recording workshop.
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio recording by Chris Comfort

Dear Alice

Lullabies for the End of the World

Commissioned by Beyond the Bounds
for Megan Koch and Naomi Steckman
inspired by photography by Julia Cumes
for two cellos
2021
12 minutes

I. Ashes to Ashes
II. Warming Currents
III. Whirling Winds
IV. Dust to Dust (Water Is Life)

Volness - Lullabies - IV. Dust to Dust (Water Is Life)

Volness - Lullabies - III. Whirling Winds

Volness - Lullabies - II. Warming Currents

Volness - Lullabies - I. Ashes to Ashes

DUO Stephanie and Saar
world premiere performance
March 2, 2023
Dranoff Foundation
Coral Gables, FL

Ghosts of Cascadia

Commissioned and performed by Experiential Orchestra
World premiere performance 10/5/18 at Katzen Arts Center, American University, Washington DC

Volness - Sin Sin Sin - III. Gluttony

Volness - Sin Sin Sin - II. Pride

Volness - Sin Sin Sin - I. Wrath

Smart, transcendent, and immersive, Kirsten Volness’ emotive soundscapes integrate electronics and modern composition techniques with jazz and pop influences. “Irresistible” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “nothing short of gorgeous.” (New York Arts), each of her compositions reveals “an exquisite sound world” (New Classic LA) inspired by nature, myth, spirituality, and environmental and sociopolitical issues. With commissions from the World
Future Council Foundation, ASCAP/SEAMUS, BMI Foundation, and The American Opera Project, Volness received MacColl Johnson and RISCA Fellowships. She holds composition degrees from the Universities of Michigan and Minnesota, and has taught at Reed College and the University of Rhode Island.

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