Kevin Class’ “From Last Year….” - Four Songs for Soprano & Piano

https://youtu.be/_RUHDDv0ZZo

A setting of poetry by Rebecca Parr, “From Last Year….” is a cycle of four songs and an Interlude described as “ a colored sketch of a portrait of a woman’s life; a journey from muse to reality, and how the world outside changes who you are.” The four poems of the cycle provide glimpses of stages of life and circumstances that shine an awareness on concerns of mental health.

This collaboration of four individuals, in two different hemispheres of the globe, is intended to demonstrate the spirit of working together despite the distance and restrictions imposed by a global pandemic, to utilize technology in the service of artistic partnership, and to illuminate the creative process in bringing a new work to life in performance.

This YouTube Premiere event will feature a short documentary about the work and about the collaboration between Rebecca Parr, Kevin Class (composer and pianist), and Stefanie Quintin-Avila, soprano, and Alegria O. Ferrer, director. The long-distance musical collaboration between Kevin and Stefanie, in workshopping and recording the work, results in an artistic/interpretive film by Alegria O. Ferrer presenting the song cycle in its entirety.

This project is a collaborative effort between the University of the Philippines College of Music and the School of Music of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

L’Atelier Class YouTube channel. Link to view: https://youtu.be/_RUHDDv0ZZo