Sparks & Wiry Cries and National Sawdust Present the Ninth Annual NYC songSLAM In February

Sparks & Wiry Cries, led by Co-Founders and Directors Martha Guth and Erika Switzer, together with National Sawdust hosts the ninth annual songSLAM on Friday, February 7, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. at National Sawdust.

The songSLAM event features 15 songSLAM teams made up of composers, singers, and pianists premiering songs for a voting audience, culminating in a cash prize and a performance by the 2024 songSLAM Commission Prize Winner, Songs of the Prince by Jonathan Wyatt.

Fashioned after traditional poetry slams and storytelling events like The Moth, Sparks & Wiry Cries's songSLAMs give teams of composers and performers a chance to present world premieres of art songs and compete for audience-awarded cash prizes totaling up to $2,000. Every year Sparks & Wiry Cries awards a songSLAM commission prize to one of the composers from the previous NYC songSLAM. This year's winning commission, to be performed on February 7 following the songSLAM, will be the world premiere of Songs of the Prince by composer Jonathan Wyatt, performed by tenor (and the work's poet) James Danner and pianist Danny Zelibor.

Sparks & Wiry Cries's flagship NYC songSLAM continues to expand its global reach. First premiered in NYC in 2015, the songSLAM has now been or will be co-presented with regional partners in four countries and 10 different cities around the globe: NYC, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Ljubljana, Ann Arbor, Cincinnati, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Waco, with even more growth on the horizon.

The following evening on Saturday, February 8, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. at National Sawdust, Sparks & Wiry Cries and Vital Opera present the world premiere of Meltdown, a one-act dramatic work for mezzo-soprano and piano trio — grounded in scientific practice — that explores the intertwined dynamics of grief over the climate crisis, sexual harassment and violence, and the exploitation of people and land. Composed by Stefan Weisman with a libretto by David Cote and Hai-Ting Chinn, the story follows a glaciologist, played by mezzo-soprano and co-librettist Hai-Ting Chinn, as her lecture on the impact of climate change on ice sheet mass loss evolves into a study of how prejudice against women in the scientific field springs from the same exploitative impulse that has so affected the environment.

Augmented by video captured on Greenland's ice sheet during recent expeditions, Meltdown is rooted in science and lived experience. The project's science advisor is Dr. Åsa Rennermalm, a leader of expeditions to Greenland. Through interviews with Rennermalm and research about structural sexism in science, the librettists have devised a narrative that blends fact, fiction, and lyrical reflection. The 65-minute piece begins as a lecture that opens up into a psychological landscape, a symbolic ice sheet where the Glaciologist explains exactly what's at stake. 

Ninth Annual NYC songSLAM

Friday, February 7, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.

National Sawdust | 80 N 6th St | Brooklyn NY, 11249

Tickets: $32.27 - $37.27 including fees 

Link: https://www.nationalsawdust.org/event/sparks-wiry-cries-songslam 

Program:

songSLAM compositions

Jonathan Wyatt – Songs of the Prince with poetry by James Danner (2024) *World Premiere

2025 NYC songSLAM Teams:

• Team 1: 

Corporate Life ● Zachary Sloan

Team Members: Victoria Popritkin, soprano, Neill Campbell, pianist & Zachary Sloan, composer & poet

• Team 2: 

Shift ● Joshua Bornfield

Team Members: Michael Manganiello, baritone, Stephanie Baird, pianist, Joshua Bornfield, composer & Tom Haviv, poet

• Team 3: 

The First Bluebird ● Braden Allison with text by James Whitcomb Riley

Team Members: Ann McDonald Weible, soprano & Braden Allison, composer & pianist

• Team 4: 

Laundry Day ● Meg Huskin

Team Members: Elisheva Pront, soprano, Jialiang Li, pianist, Meg Huskin, composer & poet

• Team 5: 

Glass Delusion ● Elizabeth Gartman

Team Members: Laura Whittenberger, soprano, Austin Philemon, pianist, Elizabeth Gartman, composer & Susan Bywaters, poet

• Team 6: 

Sea Song ● Leigha Amick with text by Katherine Mansfield

Team Members: Katie Trigg, mezzo soprano, Reese Revak, pianist, Leigha Amick, composer

• Team 7: 

Kitsune ● Kristen Baum

Team Members: Alexandria McNeely, soprano, Chun-Hsin (Cynthia) Liu, pianist, Kristen Baum, composer, & Sarah Ann Winn, poet

• Team 8: 

My Brick House ● Laura Nevitt

Team Members: Juan Suarez, baritone & poet, Jacob LyteHaven, pianist & Laura Nevitt, composer

• Team 9: 

The Banned-Book Tango ● Jordan Rutter-Covatto

Team Members: Sydney Anderson, soprano Mila Henry, pianist, Jordan Rutter-Covatto, composer & Fred Sauter, poet

• Team 10: 

Horror Movie ● Marcus DeLoach with text by Howard Moss

Team Members: Marcus DeLoach, baritone & composer & Grant Loehnig, pianist

• Team 11: 

遂光而飛 "Soaring into the light" ● Justin (YukWing) Cheung

Team Members: Hana Yiu, contralto, Leona Cheung, piano, Justin (YukWing) Cheung, composer & Olivia Lai, poet

• Team 12: 

Mother of Earth and Sky from MOTHERS OF RAGNARÖK ● Erik Franklin

Team Members: Claire Galloway, soprano, John Henderson, pianist & Erik Franklin, composer & poet

• Team 13: 

Changing is Existing ● Anthony Gatto with text by Gertrude Stein

Team Members: Gelsey Bell, vocalist, David Friend, pianist & Anthony Gatto, composer

• Team 14: 

Poems of Catullus ● Deborah Mason

Team Members: Paul Max Tipton, bass-baritone, Molly Morkoski, pianist, Deborah Mason composer, with Catullus, poet & Robert Scotto, translator

• Team 15: 

Alone ● Patrick Michael Wickham with text by Edgar Allen Poe 

Team Members: Hilary Baboukis, mezzo-soprano, Mark Wagner, pianist, Patrick Michael Wickham, composer & co-poet