The opening to Albert Giraud’s poem L’Alphabet describes the career of Claire Delbos, pseudonym for the wife of Olivier Messiaen, whose music was unheard and unrecognized during her career because of her gender. Susan Narucki, soprano and Donald Berman, piano, offer her music alongside modern composers Georgina Derbez (Mexico), Judith Weir (Great Britain ), Sharon Huang (China), and Marti Epstein (US), with music that poses questions about the meaning of gestures, from a piece probing how we make sense of learning (“The Art of Touching the Keyboard”), to how we escape oppression (“The Intelligence of Flowers,”), how we reconcile longing for home in a new land (“A Flowing Brook in Hunan”) to Derbez’ settings of Emily Dickinson and Giraud, which question language fragmented into utterance.

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MAIN STAGE: L’Alphabet | Donald Berman, piano, and Susan Narucki, soprano | Faculty Artist Recital

Longy School of Music of Bard College

The program features one of Mexico's most distinctive composers, Georgina Derbez who has written a remarkable group of songs to late poems of Emily Dickinson (Dickinson's "Envelope Poems") which have been translated into Spanish by the eminent Dickinson scholar Juan Carlos Calvillo. In Derbez' hands, the transcendent poetry is transformed into music that is by turns, ecstatic and intimate.  

Susan Narucki, soprano with Donald Berman, piano

University of California San Diego

Susan Narucki and Donald Berman present a recital of works that evoke memories of other places and times, hidden mysteries wrapped in song. The longtime collaborators perform Samuel Barber’s iconic Knoxville: Summer of 1915, as well as the world premiere of Alex Taylor’s Agee Songs, songs that offer a reflection on Barber’s work, utilizing portions of Agee’s iconic prose poem which Barber did not set. In addition, the duo performs Scott Wheeler’s Wasting the Night, a cycle of songs set to poetry by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The works vacillate between the poets’ acerbic wit and unflinching lyricism, in musical language that is playful, succinct and devastatingly understated. Tania Leóns’ Atwood Songs (2018), a cycle of five songs written to poems celebrated feminist writer Margaret Atwood, characterized by rhythmic vitality, bold use of instrumental timbre and color, and searingly expressive writing for the voice, complete the program.

Susan Narucki

Events

Past events

Sep 19, 2025

MAIN STAGE: L’Alphabet | Donald Berman, piano, and Susan Narucki, soprano | Faculty Artist Recital · Longy School of Music of Bard College

Apr 28, 2024

Susan Narucki, soprano with Donald Berman, piano · University of California, San Diego Department of Music

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