Sparks & Wiry Cries and National Sawdust Present the Ninth Annual NYC SONGSLAM

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. 

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Event Information:

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
 

Meltdown
Saturday, February 8, 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-presents-meltdown 

Program:
Meltdown by Hai-Ting Chinn, David Cote, and Stefan Weisman (2025) *World Premiere

Artists:
Hai-Ting Chinn, libretto & mezzo-soprano
David Cote, libretto 
Stefan Weisman, composer 
Erika Switzer, music director and piano  
Francesca Anderegg, violin 
Jules Biber, cello 
Kevin Chan, stage director 
Camilla Tassi, projection design

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