Founded in 1996 by Rosemary Hyler Ritter, SongFest is a unique program that focuses on the art of song. Participants from all over the world, ranging in age from high school students to working professionals, gather each summer for an intense program to learn from experts in the field of classical art song. SongFest boasts the best collection of faculty in the world, including pianists Margo Garrett, Graham Johnson, Martin Katz, and Roger Vignoles. SongFest also champions American music and every summer invites composers-in-residence to work directly with SongFest participants in master classes and private coachings. Over the past 17 years, SongFest has engaged American composers Jake Heggie, John Harbison, John Musto, Libby Larsen, Ben Moore, Tom Cipullo, Lori Laitman, Ricky Ian Gordon, among many others. SongFest alumni currently sing at all the major opera houses in the United States and abroad and hold faculty positions at leading American universities.
Graham Johnson joins 2012 Faculty!
Experience the art of SONG...
SongFest 2012
“Breaking the Song Barrier”
June 3-28 - The Colburn School
Los Angeles, CA
“I learned more in four weeks at SongFest than I had the entire previous year.”
-2011 Young Artist Singer
“There is nothing in America today that even comes close to this program. The composers, pianists/collaborators and singers who are engaged at SongFest are truly unmatched in any similar program anywhere.”
-Baritone William Sharp
SongFest Faculty
“The legendary faculty SongFest hires is unparalleled in most other summer programs, which consequently brings in extremely talented participants.”
- 2011 Professional Pianist
Photography by Ron Hall
SONGFEST is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, The Marc and Eva Stern Foundation, The Colburn School, The Sorel Organization, The Bertha and John Garabedian Charitable Foundation, The Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Flora L. Thornton Foundation, ArtsWave, and the generosity of many individual contributors.
