“These Distances Between Us: 21st Century Songs of Longing” by Emily Jaworski Koriath, DMA, and her husband, Tad, focuses on 21st century compositions by living composers.Mezzo-soprano Emily Jaworski Koriath, DMA, and her pianist husband, Tad Koriath, have released a new album, and will give a free performance Monday, Sept. 19, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“These Distances Between Us: 21st Century Songs of Longing” features 19 songs and was released on Naxos. Originally intended to be an offering of chamber music, pandemic restrictions made it impossible to gather a group of musicians in one small space to record. Jaworski Koriath and her husband reenvisioned the project for voice and piano, keeping the focus on 21st century compositions by living composers.
“It was not until after we completed recording that I noticed that every piece touches on longing in some way: yearning physically, emotionally or spiritually,” said Koriath, an assistant professor in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Music.
The name is fitting, since the pair first met at a musicians’ conference in 2017, and their long-distance love story began in the summer of 2019, reunited at that same conference, she says.
“We fell in love instantly and deeply,” Koriath said. But after those four days in Denver, Colorado, she returned home to Birmingham, Alabama, and her appointment at UAB. They were married a year later and, because of the pandemic, were able to live under one roof for a year, each working remotely. In August 2021, Tad Koriath returned to in-person work in Colorado, so the couple are still waiting to see how their next chapter will unfold, she says.
Featured on the album are “The Giver of Stars (6 Poems of Amy Lowell),” “2 Letters of Sulpicia (Version for Voice and Electronics),” “4 Songs of John Charles McNeill,” “These Distances Between Us” and “3 Rilke Songs.” The Rilke songs were created by Koriath in collaboration with her faculty colleague Craig Brandwein and premiered at UAB.
The Koriaths will perform together for a Department of Music faculty recital at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 19, at UAB’s Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center. They will perform a selection of 20th and 21st century art songs by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Ralph Vaughn Williams, Rachel DeVore Fogarty and more. They will be joined by Denise Gainey, DMA, on clarinet. Admission is free.
In spring 2023, Koriath is scheduled to perform a faculty recital of 21st century chamber works for mezzo-soprano, with UAB faculty and members of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. The performance is planned for 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24, in the Alys Stephens Center’s Reynolds-Kirschbaum Recital Hall. Admission is free.