SKU: A0.1081918

LETTERS FROM A POET IN ITALY is a song cycle for soprano and soprano. This site includes of all four songs: 1. Eighteen in Italy 2. Caregiver 3. Colosseum 4. DAVID The cycle is my setting of poems by Jerry McElveen, my friend and an awesome poet and professor at Richland College. Jerry wrote several poems during a tour of Italy made up of a group of faculty and spouses. On our last day in Rome...he surprised everyone by performing his new works. The minute he started reading I knew this would be a great text to set to music. This cycle has been performed often in the DFW Tx. area...first by Marsha Anderson, my colleague at North Lake College and later by the young soprano Erin Acorn. Marsha earned a living in Italy for over 20 years as an opera singer and taught me lots of valuable details about the substiles of composing for this vocal style. You can hear her beautiful voice on recordings we made at a performance in the concert hall at UTA Arlington. In retrospect, I like the tempos to relax more than these recordings, so the vocal lines have more time to breath. The cycle also received a positive review by the famous music critic for the Dallas Morning News, Scott Cantrell. Thank you to Scott! I kept the vocal lines away from extreme high and low pitches...and several singers have told me the voice lines are very comfortable for them. Singable by professionals AND young sopranos.