My beloved friend and collaborator Chun-Hsin Cynthia Liu and I are teaming up once again! Our friendship began at Eastman during our graduate studies and predates our musical collaboration, which began the day that we learned that we were paired up for SongStudio at Carnegie Hall in January 2022. It’s an honor to be awarded as Recipients of the “SongFest 2024 Graham Johnson Art Song Prize XXI” alongside Cynthia, who is not only a fantastically talented and conscientious musician, but also one of the kindest people I’ve ever met.

This thrilling opportunity will allow us to have personal coachings with the one-and-only Graham Johnson. Mr. Johnson’s work has greatly inspired me personally, especially his wonderful book Gabriel Fauré: The Songs and Their Poets. My doctoral lecture recital focused on Fauré’s masterful song cycle La chanson d’Ève. My research and performance were influenced by Mr. Johnson’s extensive writing on both the song cycle and his experience performing it. For his incredible book alone, I want to shake his hand! The fact that Cynthia and I will be coaching “Paradis,” the first song in the cycle and the longest song Fauré ever wrote, with Graham Johnson at SongFest is an absolute dream.

More to come — stay tuned!

Kyrsten