NOTES ON THE ALBUM

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Will Liverman's The Dunbar / Moore Sessions: Volume I is the internationally acclaimed operatic baritone's first EP of originally composed art song. Set to the poetry of Paul Dunbar and Alice Moore, the works combine Liverman's love of singing, composition, piano, and poetry. Having grown up in the gospel church and taken classical piano lessons from an early age, Liverman has long been interested in mixing multiple styles of music. His opera The Factotum, a co-creation with DJ King Rico that premiered earlier this year at Chicago Lyric, features elements of hip-hop, R&B, and barbershop quartet writing. This collection takes his writing to a more intimate space, allowing for the exploration of the human voice from its fullest form to its most vulnerable and everything in between, fusing classical technique together with R&B and gospel performance practices. Liverman, who has a deep connection with the piano and often refers to it as his first love, plays as well as sings throughout the EP.
 

The collection opens with two songs exploring themes of renewal and rebirth: Morning, sung by Liverman, and A Golden Day, sung by soprano Lauren Snouffer. The Lesson features Liverman in duet with tenor Martin Clark and was inspired by Liverman's mother, Terry Liverman, who teaches singing and "uses her gifts to help others," according to Liverman. Life's Tragedy is the collection's longest song and was written in a time of deep introspection and was influenced by Ralph Vaughn William's Songs of Travel. The piece confronts the human impulse to dwell on life's imperfections rather than being grateful for what we have. Snouffer returns to sing A Prayer, which pays tribute to Liverman's history with the gospel church and was compositionally inspired by the simplicity of Reynaldo Hahn's À Chloris. Sonnet introduces the writing of Alice Moore and features Lady Jess on the violin.
 

The Dunbar / Moore Sessions is rooted in the spirit of collaboration and first began when Snouffer commissioned A Golden Day. This collaboration led Liverman to study the works of Paul Dunbar and Alice Moore intensively and resulted in the creation of five additional songs, heard on this EP, and several more, to be released in 2024 in a second volume.

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