Established composers mentoring emerging composers is a notable thing and something to be celebrated. We commend Lori Laitman and Tom Cipullo for their generous work in encouraging the flourishing of new art song composition through the National Association of Teachers of Singing Mentoring Program for Composers and the Cincinnati Song Initiative. The NATS Art Song Composition Awards, generously funded by Laitman, also promotes the creation of new art song. 

Described by Fanfare Magazine as “one of the most talented and intriguing of living composers,” LORI LAITMAN has composed operas, choral works, and hundreds of songs setting texts by classical and contemporary poets, including those who perished in the Holocaust. Her music is widely performed throughout the world and has generated substantial critical acclaim. The Journal of Singing wrote “One cannot help but be astounded by the endless reserves of Laitman’s musical imagination as well as her unerring instincts for setting texts with sensitivity and grace.” http://artsongs.com

TOM CIPULLO has been hailed by the American Academy of Art & Letters for music that displays “inexhaustible imagination, wit, expressive range and originality,” and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has called him “an expert in writing for the voice.” He is composer of song, opera, choral and instrumental works, and perhaps best known for Glory Denied (2007). With over 40 productions, it is one of the most frequently performed operas of the 21st-century. Opera News called the piece “intimate in its presentation…and epic in its scope and effect,” citing the work as “tense, nervous, and gripping theater.” https://tomcipullo.net