PARTING GIFT: THE SONGS OF GERALD GINSBURG Out Now

PS Classics has released Parting Gift: The Songs of Gerald Ginsburg on streaming and digital formats today, Friday, June 21. The CD edition will be released on Friday, July 12.

Shereen Ahmed, Mikaela Bennett, Philip Chaffin, Will Chase, Victoria Clark, Jason Danieley, Adrienne Danrich, Jordan Donica, Colin Donnell, Telly Leung, Paul Lincoln, Patti Murin, Kelli O'Hara, Elena Shaddow, Nathaniel Stampley, Elizabeth Stanley, and Lauren Worsham come together to record some of the most beautiful music never before heard on disc. The collection highlights the composer's lifelong work, a style he dubbed “theater lieder.” Two dozen musical settings of poetry by such luminaries as W. B. Yeats, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and e. e. cummings are being unveiled for the first time. The songs are orchestrated by Jonathan Tunick, Doug Besterman, Larry Hochman, Michael Starobin, Chris Jahnke, and John Baxindine, among others, and performed by an orchestra of 17 under the baton of Richard Carsey. The album is produced by Tommy Krasker and Bart Migal.

Gerald Ginsburg — born in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1932 — attended Oberlin College and the Manhattan School of Music before embarking on a career as a composer. But after a lauded debut at Carnegie Hall in 1974, self-doubt led Ginsburg to keep much of his music to himself, although he continued to compose for the remainder of his life. When he died in 2019, the full evidence of his years of solitary work was revealed: an archive of highly lyrical, emotionally moving and entertaining songs. PS Classics is proud to present Parting Gift: The Songs of Gerald Ginsburg, the legacy of an under-recognized composer who channeled his emotions into the intersection of poetry and music — and left behind something glorious.

Tommy Krasker, co-founder of PS Classics and a 12-time Grammy Award nominee, comments: “I received a call last summer from the estate of Gerald Ginsburg. The name, I confess, meant nothing to me. They wanted to make an album, and sent me a sampling of his songs — I listened, and I couldn't get them out of my head. I found him an extraordinary talent. I decided to come out of producorial retirement to oversee the album personally. I started by approaching some of the artists who've meant the most to me over the last 30 years and see if they would come aboard for one or two numbers that we'd orchestrate especially for them. Remarkably, pretty much every performer I contacted — after hearing the songs — said yes. They heard what I did. Then I started to approach artists I didn't know, whom I admired but had never worked with — and they said yes too. And then I started reaching out to orchestrators, and every one of them, once they heard the material, signed on. It was the most incredible combination of talents in the recording studio, making absolutely remarkable music. Everyone poured their hearts into this project. You think that after 35 years in the business, you're unlikely to find another project that fills you with the sense of wonder you felt when you first started. But for me, this one did.”

Parting Gift: The Songs of Gerald Ginsburg – Track Listing

1. A Single Song – Kelli O'Hara – Poem (“Compensation”) by Sara Teasdale

2. The Coolin – Will Chase – Poem by James Stephens

3. I Want to Die While You Love Me – Jordan Donica – Poem by Georgia Douglas Johnson

4. Parting Gift – Elena Shaddow – Poem by Elinor Wylie

5. Brown Penny – Philip Chaffin – Poem by William Butler Yeats

6. If There Were Dreams to Sell – Patti Murin – Poem (excerpt of “Dream-Pedlary”) by Thomas Lovell Beddoes

7. Little Boy Blue – Colin Donnell – Poem by Eugene Field

8. Breath of a Rose – Elena Shaddow – Poem by Langston Hughes

9. When We Two Parted – Jason Danieley – Poem by George Gordon Byron

10. At Tea – Elizabeth Stanley – Poem by Thomas Hardy

11. Will Ever – Telly Leung – Poem by Walter de la Mare

12. What Lips My Lips Have Kissed – Victoria Clark – Poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay

13. Spring is like a perhaps hand – Philip Chaffin – Poem by e. e. cummings

14. There Will Come Soft Rains – Mikaela Bennett – Poem by Sara Teasdale 

15. Bells in the Rain – Adrienne Danrich – Poem by Elinor Wylie

16. Birth/Lonely Nocturne – Nathaniel Stampley – Poems by Langston Hughes

17. I Am Cherry Alive – Lauren Worsham – Poem by Delmore Schwartz

18. The Road to Avrillé – Elizabeth Stanley – Poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay

19. Parting – Jordan Donica – Poem (“The Gardener LXI: Peace, My Heart”) by Rabindranath Tagore

20. i carry your heart with me – Patti Murin & Colin Donnell – Poem (“[i carry your heart with me (i carry it in]”) by e. e. cummings

21. Love's Philosophy – Paul Lincoln – Poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley

22. i thank you God – Jason Danieley – Poem (“i thank You God for this amazing”) by e. e. cummings

23. Velvet Shoes – Shereen Ahmed – Poem by Elinor Wylie