“In my many years of a long career of touring as a composer and as a collaborative pianist with my wife Joan Morris, as a professor of composition at the University of Michigan, as composer of three operas for Lyric Opera of Chicago, and as a resident of many festivals worldwide – I think one of the absolute prime experiences has been our two-week residency at SongFest.
After a long flight, we hit the ground running and it was like that for our whole high-adrenaline stint there. The singers and pianists, professionals and students alike, were consistently at the top of their form.

What was paramount was the positive attitude, the de-emphasis on competition in favor of a great deal of collaboration (not found everywhere!!), and the friendly atmosphere SongFest generates. In a time when it is often said that non-commercial music is in the doldrums (which is far from true), SongFest is living proof of the vitality of art music and song and the growing
versatility of young singers and collaborative pianists being developed there.
Long may it wave!”

“[SongFest is] beautifully tiered [with] full-program masterclasses, group-specific masterclasses, and private coachings and lessons. When you’re not at any of those, there are other classes to be at that are held in a variety of media, whether it’s in preparation for a themed concert or just for fun. When you’re not at a class, perhaps you’re at any of the plethora of concerts held here during the month, whether it’s a guest artist recital, a faculty artist recital, a CD release event, an alumni concert, or of course a student concert. When you’re not doing any of that, perhaps you’re hanging out in your extremely spacious Blaisdell Hall private single room. Sure, all of that sounds pretty great, but it doesn’t even take into account the best thing about the program.

At the price point of this program, one would expect a program with the kind of structure and perks listed above to have maybe fifteen really solid teachers and a few guest artists for the 60+ singers and 15 pianists studying here. Instead, there are 22 faculty members and several guest artists encompassing names like Thomas Hampson, John Harbison, Peter Sellars, Graham Johnson, Jake Heggie, John Musto, and many more. Faculty members come from all of the most respected places - from Juilliard to Eastman to CCM to San Francisco Conservatory to Mannes to New England Conservatory to the University of Michigan and more. All of the students here are honestly baffled that Rosemary got all of these incredible people to be in the same place with each other. SongFest really must be the greatest gathering of vocal educators for the purpose of teaching in the country.”