WordSong’s Forum XVI features three new musical settings of William Shakespeare’s “Full fathom five thy father lies” (from The Tempest) by Boston composers Howard Frazin and Tom Schnauber along with Miami composer Lansing McLoskey. These works will be performed by soprano Carley DeFranco, clarinetist Nicholas Davies, and pianist Wesley Ducote.

How WordSong Works

First, we all read a given poem and listeners give their reactions. Then performers play the composers’ settings of the poem; and then listeners, composers, and performers have an open conversation about what we all just heard and felt: a dialogue reflecting various points of view and what they all have in common. In the course of the discussion, each of the pieces is played again. A WordSong forum is all about communal reflection on multiplicity: multiple settings, multiple hearings, multiple meanings. Together, we discover how a single, familiar text can inspire a variety of thoughts and feelings; we explore our perspectives and yours and how they are represented in the various meldings of words, ideas, and music. We hope you will join us in this exploration of and interaction between the familiar and the unfamiliar, this new way to experience new music!

About WordSong

Founded in 2008 by composers Howard Frazin and Tom Schnauber, WordSong is Boston’s premier interactive concert organization. WordSong has created a new concert format focused on public conversation around intuitive musical understanding, aspiring to reconnect musicians and audiences through shared, active artistic experiences. In its 18-year history, WordSong has produced 16 forum series and various other programs based on texts as diverse as William Blake’s “The Tyger” and Langston Hughes’s “Harlem.” More than 100 performances, including more than 70 new works by living composers, have been presented throughout New England, as well as in New York, Minneapolis, and Washington, DC, and as far away as Vancouver and Bulgaria.

Venue Information:

The Multicultural Arts Center is located at 41 Second Street in Cambridge, MA. Please enter at the ground floor entrance and visit the Box Office on your right as you enter.

Once you check in, you will head upstairs to the theater. There is an elevator and staircase for access to the theater.

Seating is general admission. Box Office will open an hour before the show starts, so you are welcome to arrive early. Feel free to visit our gallery before the show begins.

Getting There:

The Multicultural Arts Center is located just a few blocks from the Green line Lechmere MBTA Station.

The East Cambridge Parking Garage is entered off Spring Street, between First & Second Streets, one block away from us, and open 24/7.