Pittsburgh Song Collaborative Brings Art Song, Original Poetry to Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’

Members of the University community will have the opportunity to see the Pittsburgh Song Collaborative (PSC) during a special two-part performance of Franz Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise (Winter’s Journey), that will feature original poetry written and read by Pittsburgh artists.

Part one of A Stranger I Arrived, A Stranger I Departed: Winter’s Journey in Poetry and Song will be performed on Tuesday, March 13, from 8 to 10 p.m. at the City of Asylum hall at Alphabet City, located at 40 W. North Avenue in Pittsburgh’s North Side. The second part of the performance will be held on Thursday, March 29, at 8 p.m. at Brillobox located at 4104 Penn Ave. in Lawrenceville.

Winterreise is among the most famous of classic song cycles as well as a central work to the art song canon, according to PSC artistic director and pianist Dr. Benjamin Binder. “It hasn’t been performed prominently in Pittsburgh in the 10 years that I’ve been here,” said Binder, who is chair of musicianship in the Mary Pappert School of Music. “It’s a series of 24 songs set to poetry by Wilhelm Müller that tells the story of a young man who falls in love with a young woman, but is forced to leave town in exile. Feeling spurned in love, he leaves the town in wintertime and goes into the wilderness.”

Six local poets were invited to each write four poems responding to four songs assigned to them from the Winterreise. During each performance of A Stranger I Arrived, A Stranger I Departed, three of the artists will read their poems, one by one, after which the corresponding song will then be performed by Binder on piano and baritone Daniel Teadt.

Poets Lori Jakiela, Sheila Carter-Jones and Adriana E. Ramirez will read poems responding to the first 12 songs at the Alphabet City performance. Sheila Squillante, Jen Ashburn and Don Wentworth will share their poetry reflecting songs 12-24 of Winterreise at Brillobox.

“Winterreise is one of the forerunners of expressionism in the ways that it gets deep into the psyche of the main character’s tortured soul. It’s very contemporary in its themes of alienation and exile,” explained Binder. “That’s what made me reach out to poets to collaborate because I feel that this story and the kinds of vignettes during the journey of this character—they all speak to our current cultural moment in startling and moving ways.”

Both performances are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Binder at binderb@duq.edu.