Pittsburgh Song Collaborative Returns with Valentine’s Day Performance

The Pittsburgh Song Collaborative of the Mary Pappert School of Music returns with Insatiable Love: Songs for Valentine’s Day on Friday, Feb. 14, at 7:30 p.m. in the PNC Recital Hall of the Mary Pappert School of Music.

Founded in 2010 by Dr. Benjamin Binder, assistant professor of music, this marks the second performance of the collaborative as a Duquesne ensemble.

Insatiable Love will explore the ups and downs of love—jealousy, flirtation, intrigue and more—with performers including pianist Binder, soprano Laura Knoop Very, tenor Joseph Gaines and pianist Karen Roethlisberger Verm.

“We’ve chosen a program that, by and large, features poems about love and relationships but from all different angles—not just celebrating the stereotypical aspects of love and chocolate boxes and roses,” said Binder. “This will include jealousy, intrigue, flirtation, first love, the frustrations that can come with love such as betrayals. The performance will even address newlyweds and married life.”

The repertoire for the performance will feature Benjamin Britten’s Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, op. 22 and On This Island, op. 11; selections from Hugo Wolf’s Mörike-Lieder; and Robert Schumann’s Duets for Tenor and Soprano, op. 34.

According to Binder, it was a challenge to narrow down the selections of songs for the performance. “There are so many songs about love and relationships,” said Binder. “There is some very romantic material there, but I also wanted to put some music and poems in there that look at love from a more realistic perspective.”

The Pittsburgh Song Collaborative focuses on art song, which is the musical setting of a poem for piano and voice. During the performance, the lyrics of the poems will be projected onto the stage in both English and each work’s original language.

A donation of $10 is suggested for admission. For more information, call 412.396.6083.