Lori Laitman Seed of Dreams European Premiere April 2008

By Jona Rapoport Artist Manager/Publicist March 24, 2008 "The Seed of Dream", Lori Laitman's song cycle for baritone, cello and piano, will have its overseas premiere at The Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum in Vilna, Lithuania. The powerful song cycle is based on five poems written by Abraham Sutzkever during his imprisonment in the Vilna Ghetto, and stand witness to the transcendent power of art in the face of unimaginable cruelty and brutality. Commissioned by Music of Remembrance, a Seattle-based organization dedicated to remembering Holocaust musicians through their art, the cycle saw its premiere performance in May of 2005 at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington. A recording of the song cycle will be released in April 2008 on the Naxos label. A recent review of the cycle from the Journal of Singing is quoted as saying: "The American song composer, Lori Laitman, has been lauded by reviewers as one of the most extraordinary song composers working today, likening her to Ned Rorem. She has an innate ability to capture the essence of textual meaning, a keen perception of vocal nuance, and a lavish intellectual and musical vocabulary that she uses with a facile ease. It was with all of these extraordinary skills that she created a magnificent song cycle called The Seed of Dream..." The concert, which will also include works by Brahms and Ulmann, takes place on April 29, 2008 in Vilna, with baritone Stein Skjervold, accompanied by pianist Rokas Subovas and cellist Mindaugas Backus. --------------------------30----------- Contact: Jona Rapoport Jona Rapoport Artist Management jonarapoport@gmail.com www.jonarapoport.com