photo Karen Pearson
GILDA LYONS, (b. 1975), composer, vocalist, and visual artist, combines elements of renaissance, neo-baroque, spectral, folk, agitprop Music Theater, and extended vocalism to create works of uncompromising emotional honesty and melodic beauty.
The premiere of A New Kind of Fallout—Lyons’ mainstage opera inspired by the life and work of environmentalist Rachel Carson, written with librettist Tammy Ryan, and commissioned by Opera Theater of Pittsburgh—was described as “powerfully effective” (Pittsburgh Stage Magazine), “haunting” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) and “spot-on at re-creating the atmosphere of the early '60s” (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review).
As composer and vocalist Lyons’ works and performances are available on the Clarion, GPR, Naxos, New Dynamic, New Focus, Roven Records, and Yarlung Records labels. Upcoming recordings slated for release on Naxos in 2024-25 include her Momotombo for SATB Choir (Musica Viva New York; Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez, conductor) and her Cenizas for wind ensemble (commissioned by the Mid-American Conference Band Directors Association; recorded by the Hartt Wind Ensemble, James Jackson, conductor). Recent recording projects include the Naxos release of her internationally performed wind ensemble work la flor más linda, which will receive its orchestral-version premiere in summer 2024 with the Wintergreen Music Festival Orchestra, Miguel Harth Bedoya, conductor; and her The Transcendence of Time (Makrokosmos 50 Project, Nic Gerpe, piano). Laura Strickling’s Grammy-nominated release of Lyons’ Songs of Lament and Praise (Yarlung) was described by Opera News as “plaintive… florid… quietly devastating.” Other recording projects as composer include the release of Lyons’ works by Quince (Motherland); and entelechron (The Folk Tune Project); Lindsey Goodman and Robert Frankenberry's tour de force performance of Lyons' Chrysalis (reach through the sky); and Sing for Hope’s release of Lyons' Hold On (An AIDS Quilt Songbook).
An active vocalist and fierce advocate of contemporary music, Lyons has commissioned, premiered, and workshopped new vocal works by dozens of composers; this season she stars in Daron Hagen’s operafilm 9/10: Love Before the Fall for which she has won Paris Film Awards’ Best Actress in an Indie Feature Film; and Best Actress (Diamond Award) in a Feature Film, Mindfest Film Festival-Albuquerque; her ensemble work in the film won Best Ensemble Cast in the Cannes World Film Festival and AltFF Alternative Film Festival. Of her work as vocalist, Opera News describes Lyons’ collaboration with Laura Ward (Lyric Fest/Naxos) as “winning delivery, full of character.” Of her performance in Hagen’s Shining Brow (Buffalo Philharmonic/Falletta/Naxos), David Shengold of Opera, UK writes “Gilda Lyons's clear soprano compels admiration.”
Current projects as composer include new works for Teatro Esperanza, Haven Trio, 534 Productions, Wintergreen Music, and soprano Laura Strickling; and consortia commissions for University of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory and ASPIRE. Recent premieres include commissions by Brooklyn Art Song Society, Lyric Fest, Mid-American Conference Band Directors Association, Musica Viva NY, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Quince, and Resonance Works.
Lyons currently serves as Co-Chair of the Composition Program at Wintergreen Music Academy and as Program Chair and Assistant Professor of Composition at The Hartt School. She is the Executive Director of the Richard P. Garmany Chamber Music Series, Founding Director of The Phoenix Concerts, New York's "intrepid Upper West Side new-music series" (The New Yorker), and serves on the Board of Advisors of Composers Now, the Steven R. Gerber Trust, and Sparks & Wiry Cries. Lyons served as Composer-in-Residence of Chautauqua Opera in the 2019 season. In 2023, she serves as composer-in-residence for Quince Ensemble’s Summer Vocal Institute in Seattle. In 2024, Lyons returns as composition faculty for Connecticut Summerfest.
Restoring Darkness - “Gilda Lyons performs this new work composed with Daron Hagen for solo voice, exploring a poem by Walt Whitman with techniques ranging from vocal polyphony, to musical improvisation, to site-specific performance. In a single unedited take, filmmaker H. Paul Moon captures this evocative meditation on ‘Youth, Day, Old Age and Night’ from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.”
“Her music is hair-raising, yet elegant [with] slides, dips, yips and yelps amid ceremonial intensity.”
“It’s fresh and fun and sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before.”
Past commissions include works for The ASCAP Foundation / Charles Kingsford Fund, American Opera Projects, Amy Pivar Dances, Beijing New Music Ensemble, Caitlin Lynch, Carrie Koffman, Chautauqua Opera, ComposersCollaborative Inc., Lyric Fest, entelechron, Fort Greene Park Conservancy, Yumi Korosawa, Kyo-Shin-An Arts, Mirror Visions Ensemble, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, Panic Duo, Paul Sperry, Seraphim, Resonance Works, Trio Triumphatrix, The Walt Whitman Project, Wintergreen Music, and 5 Borough Music Festival, among others.
“Lyons’ command of varied musical textures is masterly.”
Lyons’ music is published by Schott, E.C. Schirmer, and Burning Sled. She received her Ph.D. in Music Composition from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Bard College. Lyons made her professional debut as composer and vocalist with the American Symphony Chamber Orchestra in 1997, performing the world premiere of her orchestral song cycle Feis.