Dear friends!
I hope to see many to most to all of you next week, because next week starts the parade or marathon of my music happening in the new year! As I am close to turning 33, I am so grateful to feel the momentum of work and relationships begin to build -- this spring is replete with performances of music I've written and it's really the best feeling on earth to know that what I've created speaks to others enough for them to want to spend the time to rehearse and perform it. I hope you'll celebrate this new year of my life next week either in-person or virtually, but there are so many other ways to tune in, if you want to!
2/22/23 - 33rd Birthday Concert: WE RETELL LEGENDS: Classic stories, new music for Soprano & Viola | Wednesday, February 22, 2023, 7pm EST @ An Die Musik LIVE! (409 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD, 21201) Next week! A concert of vocal music for soprano and viola written by living and recent composers that recast works of literature and legend into song. The program will feature the world premiere of composer my immense song cycle “Temptress Helen,” a retelling of the Iliad using texts by Christian Bök that only employ the vowel “e”. Starring soprano Katie Procell and composer/violist Christopher Lowry. The concert will take place at An Die Musik LIVE! (409 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD, 21201) on Wednesday, February 22, 2023 at 7pm. The program presents several of the best-known works of literature and legend and in the form of song: The Weird Sisters’s scene from Macbeth (composed by Alison Bauld) and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s beloved “How Do I Love Thee?”. The concert will also feature the world premiere of Christopher Lowry’s solo viola piece “from a social distance”, the beginning of legend-making of the historic events of our own lifetime. Seating is limited to 65 people; masking is strongly encouraged; the venue is not wheelchair accessible. The concert is also accessible through ticketed livestream.
3/10/23 VIRTUAL Album Release Event: All in the Sound: New Vocal Music by Peter Dayton | 7pm EST @ YouTube
The virtual release event for the second album from the summer 2021 recording sessions! I am so excited to share this second installment with you, featuring a brilliant cast of performers. Like last year's virtual album release, the video will feature previews of album tracks, hand-painted India ink illustrations of the musicians done during the recordings and rehearsals by Douglas Johnson, and interview excerpts about the album! I hope you will enjoy it!
From the liner notes, by Dr. Ryan Koons: "Following his 2022 release, STORIES OUT OF CHERRY STEMS, this latest collection of vocal music by Baltimore-based composer Peter Dayton reinforces his establishment as a mature and formidable talent in the world of art song. ALL IN THE SOUND captures the heart of the genre: duet between voice and accompaniment. Characteristically and integrally, Dayton’s songs exhibit internal compositional logics of pervasive rhythmic patterns and intervallic relationships that create music that still viscerally satisfies. The album takes listeners on a captivating journey through physical, emotional, and abstract imagery. Triumphantly, Dayton’s music realizes the poignancies possible in the duet that is art song."
You can set yourself a reminder on youtube (and view the video on the release date!) here!
3/11/23 In-Person Album Release Concert | 5:30pm EST @ Clifton Mansion (2701 St. Lo Dr., Baltimore, MD 21213)
Join us at Clifton Mansion for the release party for composer Peter Dayton's album "All in the Sound: New Vocal Music by Peter Dayton", starring a host of Baltimore artists performing Peter's art songs from the past 8 years. The album release event will feature limited-print physical CDs.
This concert event is supported by a generous Creativity Grant from the Maryland State Arts Council. https://www.msac.org/ In acknowledgment of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. Masks are required while indoors during the concert event. Seating is limited for this event and tickets must be purchased in advance. Reserve tickets here!
3/26/23 SongSLAM Chicago | 7:30pm CST/8:30pm EST, Music Institute of Chicago @ Nichols Concert Hall (1490 Chicago Ave, Evanston, IL 60201-4768)
An exciting and fun challenge, I'm teaming up with Soprano Rachel Hanauer, who performed my settings of Gertrude Stein in Rhode Island last summer, to compete in SongSLAM Chicago 2023. Hosted by Fourth Coast Ensemble and Sparks & Wiry Cries, this event showcases the world premieres of new art songs, with teams competing for prize money. The live and virtual audience vote for their favorite pieces/teams, and the top 3 teams will win $2,000! Peter and Rachel will premiere Peter's new song Night (text by Hilda Doolittle), written specially for this event! Only audience members can vote, so get your tickets here!
3/28/23 Benefit Concert by James M. Brown | 7:30pm EST, Vino Theater (274 Morgan Ave Suite 201, Brooklyn, NY 11211)
Countertenor James M. Brown will be giving a concert at the Vino Theater in Brooklyn to benefit the Connecticut-based LGBT Charity True Colors, Inc. -- I had the honor of working with James when we premiered my Walt Whitman song cycle The Need of Comrades: A Gay Cantata at my 30th birthday concert in Baltimore. Now, James will be mounting the work as part of their benefit concert. Since I will still be in Chicago, I very much wish I could be there and wish James all the best! If you're NYC local, you should go! More ticketing information will be available soon!
4/15/23 Charlotte House Series | 3:30pm CST (location TBA, Kansas City, MO)
The brilliant M2 Duo, featuring saxophonist Nick May and pianist Maya Tuylieva, will be performing at a house concert in Kansas City, Missouri. Their performance will include the world premiere of my Sonata (in one movement) for Soprano Saxophone & Piano, which I composed form them. M2 has been described as "...two incredible musicians, who perform as one voice," concertizing across the country, including recent and notable performances at Carnegie Hall. I am so very excited to work with this incredible duo and to have this freshly-composed piece (completed November 2022) brought to life so soon! Tickets will be available starting in March on this page.
4/21/23 Amid the Noise & Haste: Songs of Life's Joys and Struggles for Soprano, Saxophone & Piano | 7:00pm EST @ An Die Musik LIVE! (409 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD, 21201)
I'm teaming up with some of my stalwart collaborators, soprano Katie Procell, saxophonist Kyle Blake Jones, and pianist Valerie Hsu, to present a program of songs that examine philosophies of life and embodiments of our experience. With a concert lineup that intermingles works by myself, one of my former teacher's Carl Smith, Frank Ticheli, Jessica Rudman, André Previn, Dorothy Chang, and fellow Maryland-based composer Lori Laitman, it will be an experience alternately powerful, humorous, and meditative. Katie and Kyle will give another gorgeous performance of my Desiderata setting to end the concert. More information when tickets become available. As with all An Die Musik LIVE! shows, the concert will be in-person as well as available virtually through a ticketed livestream.
4/29/23 Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbia Chalice Concert Series: An Evening of Song | 7:00pm EST @ Owen Brown Interfaith Center (7246 Cradlerock Way, Columbia MD 21045)
Another privileged chance to work with Katie Procell and Valerie Hsu! This time they are joined by soprano Arianna Arnold, another frequent collaborator to present an evening of song as part of the Chalice Concert Series. The first half of the program features settings of American female poets, including Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and my own settings of Gertrude Stein. The second half will feature famous arias and duets from opera repertoire. More information will be available soon!
It is dizzying and exhilarating to have all of these performances upcoming! There may be more as well and there are more to come in the early summer! I hope you will come to some of these events, starting next week!
Best,
-Peter