About

Liza Sobel is a composer and singer who regularly performs both new and standard repertoire, as well as her own music.  Liza frequently performs music by living emerging composers, and many composers have written pieces specifically for her.  In addition, she regularly collaborates with Dr. Walter Hilse, composer, organist, and professor at Manhattan School of Music.  Hilse has composed over seven pieces for Liza, several of which she has premiered over the last two years.  This summer she attended the Castleton Artists Training Seminar festival, founded by the late Maestro Lorin Maazel.

As a composer, her music has been performed at Carnegie Hall; Le Poisson Rouge; Symphony Space; Aldeburgh Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme; Brevard Music Institute; Bowdoin’s International Music Festival; nief-norf Summer Festival; and Chamber Music Institute.  Performers that have played her music include: Cygnus Ensemble; Nouveau Classical Project; Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble; West Point Woodwind Quintet; New Brunswick Chamber Orchestra; Skyros String Quartet; Helix; and Joseph Lin, first violinist of the Juilliard String Quartet.  Liza’s Requiem won the American Prize in the choral division and was a finalist in the BMI Young Composers Award.  Her orchestra piece Tocsin was a finalist in the 2015 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers’ Award. Other awards Liza has won include a Fulbright scholarship, and Cornell’s endorsed candidate and/or finalist for the Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright, and Keasbey scholarships. 
 
This fall 2015, Liza will begin her DMA in composition at Northwestern University.  She previously studied at Rutgers University’ Mason Gross Conservatory (MA); Cornell University (BA with honors from Cornell’s College Scholars honors program), and Manhattan School of Music (exchange student).  Past composition teachers include: Steven Stucky, Richard Danielpour, Tarik O’Regan, Derek Bermel, Robert Aldridge, David Dzubay, and Gerald Chenoweth. Past voice teachers include: Judith Nicosia and Judith Kellock

Music

* = written for Liza Sobel

Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685-1750): “Bete Aber Auch” from Cantata No. 115

Cage, John (1912-1992): “Experiences No. 2”

Copland, Aaron (1900-1990): Tender Land Suite - “Laurie’s Song”
Copland: Twelve Songs of Emily Dickinson - “Going to Heaven”

Duparc, Henri (1848-1933): “Chanson Triste”
Duparc: “Extase”

Faure: Cinq Melodies De Venise – “Mandoline,” “En sourdine,” “Green”

Gershwin, George (1898-1937): Porgy and Bess – “Summertime”

Gordon, Ricky Ian (1956 - ): “Once I Was”

Harbison, John (1938 - ): Mirabai Songs

Hilse, Walter: Psalm 27*
Hilse: Psalm 44*
Hilse: Psalm 47*
Hilse: Psalm 50*
Hilse: Psalm 53*
Hilse: Psalm 148*

Hoiby, Lee (1926-2011): “Winter Song” from Songs for Leontyne

Menotti, Gian Carlo (1911-2007): The Medium - “Monica’s Waltz”

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-1791): Don Giovanni - “Batti, batti”
Mozart: Exsultate Jubilate - “Tu virginum” and “Alleluia”
Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro - “Voi che Sapete”

Paisiello, Giovanni (1740-1816): “Nel Cor Piu Non Mi Sento”

Rogers, Richard (1902-1979)/Hammerstein, Oscar (1895-1960): Sound of Music, role of Mother Abbess

Rossini, Gioachino (1792-1868): La Regata Veneziana

Schoenberg, Arnold (1874-1951): Das Buch Hängenden Gärten

Schubert, Franz (1797-1828): “Lachen und Weinen”

Schumann, Robert (1810-1856): Frauenliebe und Leben
Schumann: Liederkreis - “In der Fremde”

Simon, Lucy (1943 - ): The Secret Garen – “Come to my Garden”

Sobel, Liza (1990 - ): Skin for soprano and piano*

Verdi, Giuseppe (1813-1901): Falstaff - “Sul fil d’un soffio etesio”

Wolf, Hugo (1860-1903): Goethe Lieder – “Auf ein altes Bild,” “Mignon: Kennst du das Land,” “Mignon I: Heiß nicht reden,” and “Mignon II: Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt”
Wolf: Morike Lieder – “Im Frühling” and “Mausfallen”
Wolf: Spanisches Lieder – “In dem Schatten”

Videos

Audio