Sephardic Art Song

A Musical Legacy of the Sephardic Diaspora

Sunday, March 24th at 1pm

Performers: Lori Şen and Jeremy Lyons

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Tickets to this program include admission to the Museum

In this two-part event, Turkish mezzo-soprano and music scholar Lori Şen will present a lecture on the history, language, and culture of the Sephardim, and elements and stylistic features of Sephardic music. The lecture will be followed by a recital of Sephardic songs performed by Lori Şen and guitarist Jeremy Lyons. The program will feature works by Roberto Pla, Manuel Valls, Lorenzo Palomo, Andrew Zohn, Ulrike Merk, and Matilde Salvador.

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Lori Şen, Turkish mezzo-soprano and music scholar, is known for her versatility in many vocal genres, including opera, art song, musical theatre, and jazz, as well as for her teaching and research interests in vocal literature, voice pedagogy, and voice science. She regularly collaborates with musicians and composers across a variety of genres, and has performed in Turkey, Europe, and the United States. Lori’s more recent performances include solo recitals, jazz performances, Angelina/La Cenerentola with Opera NOVA, and she was featured as the alto soloist in  the Mozart Requiem performance of the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia (SONOVA) in their last season.

Lori is currently a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate in Voice Performance at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she studies with Martha Randall.  Her dissertation, Sephardic Art Song:  A Musical Legacy of the Sephardic Disapora, explores the Sephardic Art Song repertoire from the Western classical perspective. Over the past year, she has introduced this repertoire to audiences through solo recitals, in addition to her lectures on the history, language, and culture of the Sephardim, and elements and stylistic features of Sephardic music. Recently, she presented her research at the 14th Barcelona Festival of Song in Barcelona, Spain.

Lori received her Master of Music in Voice Performance and Pedagogy at Westminster Choir College, in Princeton, NJ, as a Fulbright grantee. She also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, in addition to a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice and a Master of Education degree in Physics Education from Dokuz Eylül University in Izmir, Turkey. For more information: www.lorisen.com.

Jeremy Lyons, guitarist, has been performing in the Baltimore area and beyond for more than ten years. He regularly gives solo recitals and has collaborated with orchestras and chamber ensembles. In addition to solo endeavors, Jeremy is a member of two Baltimore-based contemporary music ensembles: Mind on Fire and the Pique Collective. Additionally, Jeremy applies his extensive background in Renaissance and Baroque music by performing on period instruments such as the Renaissance lute, Baroque guitar, and viola da gamba.  As a composer, Jeremy works on projects that combine music and other artistic mediums such as poetry, theater, and sculpture. Jeremy received a BM in guitar performance from Florida State University, and holds a MM in Guitar Performance and Pedagogy, a MM in Musicology, and a DMA all from the Peabody Conservatory.