Imagine! Art Song in Focus

This international collaborative project is devoted to the study and promotion of American art song. Whilst there has been much interest, discussion, and debate regarding the many sub-genres of American popular music there has been surprisingly little study of the ever-emergent pool of (and interest in) American art song composition and performance. This project seeks to address this balance, with the aim of affording American art song the attention that it so rightly deserves.

Select musical settings and publications provide an opportunity to observe not only a fascinating evolution of American literary style, both in theme and poetic device, but to also hear some of the finest American art songs of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. This project presents a rare opportunity to explore the ways in which American culture and sensibility is reflected and expressed in literary terms, and how both composer and performer are inspired to then interpret these works through their own artistic filters. In bringing these musical narratives to life, this project seeks to establish a new forum for the way in which we read, hear and perform, and experience American art song.