In The Poet Sings, composer John Harbison (artistic co-director of Token Creek Chamber Music) engages in profound musical conversation with some of the most distinctive poetic voices of the past and present. Harbison’s new song cycles, completed this year and presented here in their first performances, reflect his enduring fascination with the rhythm, texture, and emotional resonance of language, and especially the meaning behind the words.
Spanning ancient lyric (Sappho), modernist abstraction (Wallace Stevens), and the introspective clarity of contemporary poets such as Louise Glück, Michael Fried, and Czesław Miłosz, the program traces an arc through different poetic sensibilities. Harbison’s settings reveal the musical possibilities embedded in the spoken word—drawing out both its innate structure and its expressive ambiguity in his characteristically vivid word painting.
Whether illuminating the spare elegance of Glück, the philosophical complexity of Stevens, or the timeless intensity of Sappho, Harbison’s music invites listeners into a world where poetry is not merely set, but sung into being.
These new cycles exemplify the vitality of modern art song—intimate, reflective, and richly attuned to the interplay between voice and verse that has animated Harbison’s vocal music over his long and distinguished career.
World premieres of new and newly restored song cycles of John Harbison.
SARAH BRAILEY, soprano | CLARA OSOWSI, mezzo soprano | TOMASZ LIS, piano
“In my practice, texts will arrive, unsought, at the right moment. The essential ‘opening of the curtain’ occurs when a lived experience links up insistently with a writer’s words, which then seem ready, even destined for a new role.”
—John Harbison
On John Harbison’s song settings
Whether with orchestra, chamber group, or with piano, Harbison’s songs have attracted expansive praise from many of our best music commentators, writing to his deep engagement across a vast array of texts:
John Harbison has been bringing radiant and illuminating music to the written word with powerful and unforgettable results for his entire career. — Lloyd Schwartz
Harbison's music is astonishingly responsive to each word and image in the text, often with very literal text-painting, but it also catches the whole, sometimes even before the singer has sung a word. The “accompaniment”– whether piano or chamber group or orchestra – is equal partner with the singer and poet, often introducing or commenting on the emotional content of the text. — David St. George
No composer today has a finer ear for the nuances of poetry nor quicker responsiveness to the ambiguities of poetic argument than Harbison. — David St. George
Not every composer is good at this. Not every composer loves poetry. But John Harbison is; and does. For more than [fifty] years, he’s been an inspired setter of great poetic texts— poems often exploring the shadowy ambiguities and uncertainties of emotional, spiritual, ethical, and even political questions, and the very nature and function of art itself. — Lloyd Schwartz
For Harbison, music with words has been an abiding concern…His choice of texts, from ancient and modern, and the intensity of his settings, often speak eloquently to social, ecological, and interpersonal concerns. — David St. George
John Harbison has always been astutely attuned to language; he was recognized for poetry as well as for music at Harvard, and his compositional output—along with symphonies, concertos, and a wide variety of solo and chamber works—has vocal music at its core. — Robert Kirzinger
Program highlights
MIŁOSZ SONGS (2006; 2025) / texts by Czeslaw Milosz (US PREMIERE of the newly restored complete edition)
Harbison’s intensely moving cycle, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for Dawn Upshaw, on poems of poet laureate Czesław Miłosz, whose words drew Harbison not just for their content, but also for their essential musical qualities. The lyrics are fragmentary; the melodies are elusive; and everyday images have dissonant elements. Harbison’s lucid and precisely wrought music complements Miłosz's gripping words…in audible textures and essentially tonal harmonic language. “A significant new work,” wrote the The New York Times. The piano version of Miłosz Songs originally included only six of the eleven poems; the new version restores the cycle to completion. Polish pianists Tomasz Lis brings to this reading a sensitivity only possible through his nationalistic affiliation. (Scroll down for detailed program notes)
STAZIONE dei TERMINI (2025) / texts by Michael Fried (WORLD PREMIERE)
Bach’s cantatas are, in the main, about death. After a lifetime living in the world of Bach cantatas—studying, conducting, performing—this setting of twelve of Michael Fried’s poems is Harbison’s own “Bach cantata,” a form that increasingly absorbs him.
SONGS AFTER SAPPHO (2025) / texts by Sappho-Carman (WORLD PREMIERE)
A CLEAR DAY AND NO MEMORIES (2025) / texts by Wallace Stevens (WORLD PREMIERE)
THE COUPLE IN THE PARK (2025) / late words of Louise Glück (WORLD PREMIERE)
The Artists
Sarah Brailey, soprano
A native of Wisconsin, GRAMMY Award-winning soprano Sarah Brailey enjoys a versatile career that defies categorization. Praised by The New York Times for her “radiant, liquid tone,” and “exquisitely phrased” singing, and by Opera UK for “a sound of remarkable purity,” she is a prolific vocal soloist, cellist, ensemble singer, recording artist, and educator.
Career highlights include appearing as a soloist with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah, serenading the Mona Lisa with John Zorn’s Madrigals at the Louvre Museum in Paris, and performing with Kanye West and GRAMMY Award-winning alternative-classical vocal band Roomful of Teeth at the Hollywood Bowl. Other memorable engagements include Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Colorado Symphony, recording cello and vocal soundscapes for the Fog x FLO public art installation in Boston’s Emerald Necklace; and inhabiting the role of The Soul in the world premiere recording of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison, for which she received the 2020 GRAMMY for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. Notable recent and upcoming projects include Julia Wolfe’s Her Story with the Lorelei Ensemble and the Boston, Chicago, Nashville, National, and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras; John Zorn works with Barbara Hannigan at the Elbphilharmonie; David Lang’s Song of Songs at the Barbican Centre; and the role of Prinze Ozia in Alessandro Scarlatti’s La Giuditta with Haymarket Opera.
Sarah is a featured soloist on several GRAMMY-nominated albums, including New York Polyphony’s Sing Thee Nowell, Wild Up’s recording of Christopher Cerrone’s The Branch Will not Break, The Clarion Choir’s recording of the Rachmaninoff All-Night Vigil, Alexander Kastalsky’s Memory Eternal to the Fallen Heroes, and Maximilian Steinberg’s Passion Week, as well as the world premiere recording of Du Yun’s Angel’s Bone, winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Music. She sang the role of the impish fairy Verveine on the world premiere recording of Le Dernier Sorcier by Pauline Viardot, also featuring mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton and bass-baritone Eric Owens. Additional discography includes multiple world premiere recordings with the Lorelei Ensemble: David Lang’s love fail, Scott Ordway’s North Woods, James Kallembach’s Antigone, and Jessica Meyer’s I long and seek after.
Sarah maintains a private voice studio and has conducted master classes and artist residencies at institutions around the United States, including the Peabody Conservatory, Ithaca College, Harvard University, Duke University, Cornell University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among others. She has served on the summer faculties of the St. Thomas Fifth Avenue Girl Chorister Course in New York City, the Madison Bach Musicians, the Northwestern Bach Academy, and the Nashotah House Seminary. She currently teaches on the voice faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is the Director of Vocal Studies at the University of Chicago.
Dedicated to building artistic communities and opportunities for young artists, Sarah is a co-founder of Just Bach, a monthly concert series in Madison, Wisconsin where she is also the Artistic Director of the Handel Aria Competition, a showcase for emerging professional singers dedicated to highlighting Handel’s extensive vocal repertoire.
Sarah is a member of Beyond Artists, a coalition of artists that donates a percentage of their concert fee to organizations they care about. Sarah supports NRDC, the Animal Welfare Institute, and Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness.
https://sarahbrailey.com/about/
Tomasz Lis, piano
Tomasz Lis, pianist and chamber musician originally from Poland now residing in London, has played concerts in Wigmore Hall, Barbican Centre, St. John's Smith Square, LSO St. Luke's, The Warehouse, and the Chopin Society in London. He has played recitals at Cheltenham Music Festival, Mostly Mozart Festival, Chelsea Schubert Festival, and London Festival of American Music, and is the first pianist associated with the Felicja Blumental Artist Legacy. Lis has played concerts at the Schubert Society, 1901 ArtsClub, Pushkin House, Walton-on-Thames, and Cheltenham. At the Purcell Room (South Bank Centre in London) he presented a program of three generations of American composers, and has been a lecturer and recitalist at SongFest in Los Angeles. Lis is a frequent guest of BBC Radio 3.
In Poland, Lis performed with the Amadeus Polish Radio Chamber Orchestra conducted by Agnieszka Duczmal and the Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor Grzegorz Nowak. His debut album, the Impromptus by Schubert, Chopin, and Fauré, was released on the Rondeau Production label in 2014.
A sensitive and deeply attuned collaborator, Lis was the driving force behind the European premiere of John Harbison's song cycle on poems by Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz, one of the most respected figures in 20th-century Polish literature, and one of the most respected contemporary poets in the world. Lis opened the Stotsenberg Recital Series in Malibu with sopranos Katie van Kooten and Emily Albrink, and he performed at the 75th anniversary gala of the Banff summer festival in Canada, accompanying Canadian vocalist Tracy Dahl and clarinetist Chen Halevi.
Tomasz Lis studied with Krystyna Filipowska in Poznań, Poland, followed by work at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Martin Roscoe, and with Ronan O'Hora and Graham Johnson at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he received the Master of Arts degree. He polished his skills in further study and collaborations with musicians including Martin Katz, Malcolm Martineau, Rudolf Jansen, Stephen Hough, Alexiey Lubimova, and Robert Levin.
An advocate for music of our time, Lis for many years has included in his concerts works by modern composers including John Harbison, Peter Lieberson, Sven Ingo Koch, John Musto, William Bolcom, André Previn, PeterChilds, Libby Larsen, and Maciej Zieliński.
https://tomasz-lis.com/
Clara Osowski, mezzo
Mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski, who sings "from inside the music with unaffected purity and sincerity" (UK Telegraph), is an active soloist and chamber musician hailed for her "rich and radiant voice" (UrbanDial Milwaukee). She was a Metropolitan Opera National Council Upper-Midwest Regional Finalist, the winner of several competitions including Bel Canto Chorus Regional Artists Competition of Milwaukee, the Houston Saengerbund Competition, several time runner-up in The Schubert Club Bruce P. Carlson Scholarship Competition, and third place in the Madison Handel Aria Competition. Recognized for her excellence in Minnesota, Clara was a recipient of the prestigious 2018-2019 McKnight Artist Fellowships for Musicians administered by MacPhail Center for Music.
In international competition with pianist Tyler Wottrich, in March of 2017, Clara became the first ever American prize winner when she placed second at Thomas Quasthoff's International Das Lied Competition in Heidelberg, Germany. Later that year, the duo was also one of four to reach the finals in the very prestigious Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation Song Competition in London, and Clara was awarded the Richard Tauber Prize for the best interpretation of Schubert Lieder. She recently won the Radio-Canada People’s Choice Award and third place in the song division at the 2018 Concours Musical International de Montréal.
Recent performance highlights include her debut with Minnesota Opera as Mrs. Herring in Britten’s Albert Herring, and active as a recitalist, she stepped in for Susanna Philips in The Schubert Club International Artist Series Recital with Eric Owens. She has also been a feature recitalist at the Enlightenment Festival of Seraphic Fire, The Pablo Center of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, The Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, and several universities. She has collaborated with many chamber musicians, including pianist Wu Han, The Lydian String Quartet, VocalEssence Ensemble Singers, the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, Accordo, and Dark Horse Consort. Clara’s passion for contemporary music is exhibited in the song-cycles and chamber music she has premiered or commissioned by numerous composers including James Kallembach, Libby Larsen, David Evan Thomas, Linda Kachelmeier, Reinaldo Moya, Carol Barnett, and Juliana Hall.
Orchestral performance highlights include her soloist debuts of Bach's St. Matthew Passion with the Bel Canto Chorus of Milwaukee, B Minor Mass with the Back Bay Chorale of Boston, Christmas Oratorio with Bach Society of Minnesota, Mozart’s Requiem with Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with Tulsa Signature Symphony, Bernstein’s Jeremiah with Mid-Columbia Symphony, and Dominick Argento's orchestral song cycles Casa Guidi and A few words about Chekhov with the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra of Minneapolis.
Active also as an educator, Clara has enjoyed giving masterclasses and convocations at several universities, including Syracuse University, Muhlenberg College, Seattle University, Concordia College (Moorhead), and North Dakota State University. She was also the guest artist in residence at Indiana State University's 50th Contemporary Music Festival celebrating the music of Libby Larsen. Clara also served on the faculty at the Aspen Music Festival's Professional Choral Institute in partnership with Seraphic Fire, and has been a panelist for SongFest and the Lakes Area Music Festival.
Previous season highlights include her Wigmore Hall debut recital with Julius Drake, debuts with Kansas City Symphony and Handel and Haydn Society, a premiere oratorio with the National Lutheran Choir by Steve Heitzig, and a premiere orchestral song cycle by Carol Barnett with the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. Please visit the schedule for more information.
In addition to performing, Clara serves as the Artistic Director of Source Song Festival, a week-long art song festival in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This festival strives to create and perform new art song, and cultivate an educational environment for students of song, including composers, vocalists, and collaborative pianists. In addition to her solo work, she participates in a number of ensembles, including Lumina Women’s Ensemble, Lorelei Ensemble, and Seraphic Fire.
www.claraosowski.com
Program Notes
MIŁOSZ SONGS (2006; 2025) / texts by Czesław Miłosz
John Harbison’s powerful and intensely moving Miłosz Songs was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for soprano Dawn Upshaw, Harbison’s fourth work written expressly for her (including the role of Daisy in The Great Gatsby).
The 2006 cycle sets poems of the Polish‐Lithuanian Nobel Laureate Czesław Miłosz, whose words drew Harbison not just for their content, but also for their essential musical qualities. The lyrics are fragmentary; the melodies are elusive; and everyday images have dissonant elements. Harbison’s lucid and precisely wrought music complements Miłosz’s gripping words…in audible textures and essentially tonal harmonic language. “A significant new work,” wrote The New York Times.
After the London premiere of the piano version of the cycle (2006), Harbison withdrew five of the eleven poems of the original Miłosz Songs, deeming the reduction of the complex orchestra score too fiendishly difficult for even the best pianists. It was published, and has become known, widely circulated, and often performed in this short version.
But on October 9th at Token Creek, soprano Sarah Brailey and pianist Tomasz Lis will give the North American premiere of the complete cycle, newly restored. A Polish national now residing in London, Lis brings to this reading a sensitivity only possible through his nationalistic affiliation.
“This is music full of playfulness and wonder set against a backdrop of the darker realities of the world Miłosz came from, behind the Iron Curtain,” wrote David McDade (MusicWeb International). Miłosz’s words are difficult— difficult when they were written, and unfortunately relevant once again in our own times. Harbison’s setting balances lyrical beauty with darker, more turbulent undercurrents—often using essentially tonal harmonies and transparent orchestration, pulling in dissonant touches and vivid tone‐painting, especially in texts that demand moral or historical weight. The piece asks deep engagement of listener and performers.
At about 30 minutes in duration, the work is structured with a prologue, eight distinct movements, and culminating epilogue + post‐epilogue. Harbison surrounds the soprano with a “concertino group” of six instruments (three flutes, vibraphone, harp, and celesta) that act like “satellites revolving around the path of the singer.”
Beautiful and haunting, Miłosz Songs has been met with respect and admiration. Anthony Tommasini (New York Times) observed that Harbison’s “lucid and precisely wrought music complements Miłosz’s gripping words.” Another reviewer praised the orchestration for its “diaphanous shimmer” and the vivid tone painting of the rhetorical urgency of the texts. Night After Night characterized the cycle as “rich, strongly crafted,” noting the “ripple of dissonance even in seemingly mundane observations” from Milosz that Harbison renders in music.
In the 2021 recording (with Dawn Upshaw and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project under Gil Rose), Miłosz Songs takes on a renewed vitality that many critics judged to be among its finest realizations. Jonathan Blumhofer (The Arts Fuse) wrote that BMOP “delivered incandescent accounts” of Harbison’s delicate orchestral balancing, noting vivid moments such as the dance‑like “When the Moon,” the blazing brass in “What Once Was Great,” and the glowing contrasts between percussion and flute trio in “Rays of Dazzling Light.” Upshaw’s interpretations affirm the deep connection between singer and composer, borne of their long association, offering both clarity of line and emotional weight.
Miłosz Songs has become a piece with a recorded legacy and a stage presence that continues to yield fresh emotional impact. The work continues to reveal itself as a delicate balancing act between light and shadow, lyricism and dissonance, in which the soprano and the “satellite” concertino orbit each other in subtly shifting textures.
The work is a rich, moving musical meditation on Miłosz’s themes of witness, memory, wonder, suffering, and moral reflection. This elegant score, quietly expressive with flashes of sharp poignancy, is a work that rewards repeated hearings.
Listen to a sample: Post-Epilogue: Rays of Dazzling Light
Dawn Upshaw, soprano | Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose, conductor | BMOP/sound No. 1083
In this final movement, in a mood of quiet reflection, “the incantatory bells find music as transformative as Miłosz’s verse in search of healing the pain of the human condition” (David McDade).
Light off metal shaken,
Lucid dew of heaven,
Bless each and every one
To whom the earth is given.
Its essence was always hidden
Behind a distant curtain.
We chased it all our lives
Bidden and unbidden.
Knowing the hunt would end,
That then what had been rent
Would be at last made whole:
Poor body and the soul.
SONGS AFTER SAPPHO (2025) / Sappho renderings by Bliss Carman
STAZIONE DEI TERMINI (2025) / poems by Michael Fried
A CLEAR DAY AND NO MEMORIES (2025) / poems by Wallace Stevens
THE COUPLE IN THE PARK (2025) / late words of Louise Glück