I had a fantastic time making my Brooklyn Art Song Society debut, singing Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Kaija Saariaho, Hannah Kendall and Benjamin Attahir. Huge thanks to Michael Brofman for inviting me to join the program, and to Alexa Stier for her gorgeous piano playing and collaboration on this challenging program.
“Her voice was bright, with a rapier-like intonation. The bookends of the set were songs reacting to nature while full of foreboding about the future, and the shining quality of her singing balanced the music on the point between stability and disaster. Kendall’s dream-like setting was a complex psychodrama of landscape, myth, and death. This was intense, literary music, and while the narrative may not have connected to all listeners, one admired Finnegan’s strength and control.”
“Finnegan and Stier returned with Attahir’s De l’ineffable. This was a vocalise, and no less expressive than the previous works. Finnegan’s soprano sound was compelling, siren-like, and her technique and intonation were excellent. The brightness of her sound was a fine fit for this music, which is lovely but with unsettling undercurrents, moving from a flowing opening section to a much darker, stentorian, dramatic second section.
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