This year's Deep Water Literary Festival launches with an exploration of transformation—where poetry becomes music, grief becomes art, and memory becomes a bridge between worlds. Experience the luminous poetry of Marie Howe (New York Poet Laureate 2012-2016) reimagined as song in this special collaborative performance. Composer Ricky Ian Gordon—whose music has been hailed as "caviar for a world gorging on pizza" (The New York Times)—transforms Howe’s verses, written in the wake of her brother’s death, into soaring vocal songs. Soprano Jennifer Zetlan, praised as "a tour de force" (The Wall Street Journal), brings these librettos to life with her radiant voice, interwoven with readings of Howe’s poetry.
The evening culminates with Grammy-winning pianist Kevin Hays’ improvisatory riff on Philip Glass’s Metamorphosis.
Date
Jun 20, 7:00pm to 8:00pm
Featuring
Ricky Ian Gordon
Acclaimed composer Ricky Ian Gordon creates vibrant vocal music that bridges art song, opera, and musical theater. His work, praised by The New York Times as “caviar for a world gorging on pizza,” has been performed by Renée Fleming, Audra McDonald, and Kristin Chenoweth, among others. Notable operas include Intimate Apparel (Met/Lincoln Center Theater), The Grapes of Wrath (Minnesota Opera), and 27 (Opera Theatre of St. Louis). A prolific collaborator, Gordon’s upcoming This House (2025) celebrates Opera Theatre of St. Louis’ 50th season. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed memoir, Seeing Through: A Chronicle of Sex, Drugs, and Opera.
Jennifer Zetlan
Soprano Jennifer Zetlan is celebrated for her dynamic stage presence and versatility in opera, concert, and Broadway performances. She made her European debut at the Staatstheater Stuttgart in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, created the title role in the world premiere of Jane Eyre by Louis Karchin with Center for Contemporary Opera, (studio recorded for Naxos), and concluded a run of Fiddler on the Roof (directed by Bartlett Sher) on Broadway. This season, she stars in Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Grand Rapids Opera) and premieres new works with American Lyric Theater and the Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra. Recent highlights include Orpheus & Erica (Victory Hall Opera), Tribute to the Angels (Talea Ensemble), and Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (Riverside Orchestra).
Kevin Hays
Grammy-winning jazz pianist/composer Kevin Hays has collaborated with legends like Sonny Rollins, John Scofield, and Brad Mehldau. A versatile artist, Hays blends jazz with singer-songwriter depth and cross-genre innovation. He co-wrote Grammy-winning tracks for Steve Gadd Band and won an Independent Music Award for Circles of the Mind (2020). His 2021 trio album All Things Are features Billy Hart and Ben Street. “A true original.” – Brad Mehldau
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