For her debut album on PARMA recordings, SHE, Emily Sternfeld-Dunn serves as the voice of two of history's strongest female characters. The poetic musings in the lyrics soar with Sternfeld-Dunn's unmistakable soprano under the current of the tender, delicate melodies performed by pianist Amanda Pfenninger. Split into two mini-albums, SHE serves as a definitive recording that both showcases Sternfeld abilities as a vocalist and preserves the compositions for educational use. The first collection, titled "Too Few the Mornings Be (Eleven Songs for Soprano and Piano)," is composed by Ricky Ian Gordon. Gordon complimented his compositions with the poems of Emily Dickinson. Despite the relatively short run-times of these tracks, Sternfeld-Dunn takes the poet's philosophical themes and wraps them in raw emotion as though pleading for answers to life's biggest questions. The second half of this album "Eve-Song" features music by Jake Heggie and text by Philip Littell. Here, Heggie creates a moving soundtrack to Littell's poems about the biblical Eve. The composition is a monodrama. The longer compositions allows Sternfeld-Dunn to truly harness the character of Eve. She employs her vocal melodies like ancient chants exploring moods and feelings of wonderment, yearning, and even humor. The power of SHE comes from the strength of it's female performers. Sternfeld-Dunn and Pfenninger play off each other well to give life to these historically-renowned women, and translate their quests for life and purpose into a grand, new meaning.

Tracklist:

Too Few The Mornings Be: No. 1, Too Few The Mornings Be
Too Few The Mornings Be: No. 2, If All The Griefs I Am To Have
Too Few The Mornings Be: No. 3, The Bustle In A House
Too Few The Mornings Be: No. 4, This Is My Letter To The World
Too Few The Mornings Be: No. 5, You Cannot Put A Fire Out
Too Few The Mornings Be: No. 6, Bee! I'm Expecting You!
Too Few The Mornings Be: No. 7, Poor Little Heart!
Too Few The Mornings Be: No. 8, I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
Too Few The Mornings Be: No. 9, How Happy Is The Little Stone
Too Few The Mornings Be: No. 10, Estranged From Beauty
Too Few The Mornings Be: No. 11, Will There Really Be A Morning?
Eve-Song: No. 1, My Name
Eve-Song: No. 2, Even
Eve-Song: No. 3, Good
Eve-Song: No. 4, Listen
Eve-Song: No. 5, Snake
Eve-Song: No. 6, Woe To Man
Eve-Song: No. 7, The Wound
Eve-Song: No. 8, The Farm

UPC: 896931004503
Label: Navona
Release Date: 4.13.18
Format: CD

Gordon / Dunn / Littell - She (CD)