Composer | Librettist | Artist
Selection from Sauntering Songs: a concert-length cantata on the theme of walking, commissioned by Skylark Vocal Ensemble.
Performance score available for purchase. Please direct inquiries to Nell Shaw Cohen at nell@nellshawcohen.com.
NEW! Seeking repertoire for your choir or vocal ensemble? Check out my programming guide for choral directors.
Selection from Sauntering Songs: a concert-length cantata on the theme of walking, commissioned by Skylark Vocal Ensemble.
Lyrics by Nell Shaw Cohen.
Performance score available for purchase. Please direct inquiries to Nell Shaw Cohen at nell@nellshawcohen.com.
NEW! Seeking repertoire for your choir or vocal ensemble? Check out my programming guide for choral directors.
Commissioned by Skylark Vocal Ensemble.
Read the liner notes with essays and lyrics.
Skylark Vocal Ensemble’s World Premiere live recording of Sauntering Songs (paired with Transform the World with Beauty) is available NOW on all major streaming music platforms (including Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, and Tidal). The physical CD is available for purchase from Skylark. Read the liner notes with essays and lyrics.
Watch the trailer:
A love letter to wanderlust, Sauntering Songs weaves together art songs, choral music, and literature into an expansive cantata on the theme of walking.
Influences from rock, folk, and musical theater shine in a lyrical and evocative score by composer/librettist Nell Shaw Cohen, marrying the voices of three-time GRAMMY®-nominee Skylark with an instrumental quartet comprised of guitarist James Moore and musicians from Juventas New Music Ensemble.
From Walt Whitman to the present day, Sauntering Songs celebrates diverse characters who search for freedom and fulfillment through subversive journeys on foot.
Perusal score available on request. Performance score available for purchase. Please direct inquiries to Nell Shaw Cohen at nell@nellshawcohen.com.
Selections available for standalone performance (click titles for details and perusal scores):
Music & Libretto by Nell Shaw Cohen
With texts by John Clare, Megan Cohen, Mashuq Mushtaq Deen, John Francis, John Muir, Nan Shepherd, Walt Whitman, and Virginia Woolf
Dramaturg: Megan Cohen (Website)
Sensitivity Consultant for song “Best Friend”: Laura Elliott (Twitter)
Sensitivity Consultant for song “Rare Bird”: Dr. Kassandra Ford (Website)
Skylark Vocal Ensemble (Matthew Guard, Artistic Director), Juventas New Music Ensemble, and James Moore, guitar; Falmouth Academy, Falmouth, MA, 4/20/23.
Skylark Vocal Ensemble (Matthew Guard, Artistic Director), Juventas New Music Ensemble, and James Moore, guitar; Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill, MA, 4/21/23
Skylark Vocal Ensemble (Matthew Guard, Artistic Director), Juventas New Music Ensemble, and James Moore, guitar; St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Newburyport, MA, 4/22/23.
Commissioned by Skylark Vocal Ensemble.
Hear Skylark Vocal Ensemble’s studio recording of It’s a Long Way, featured as the title track of their GRAMMY-nominated album! Available for purchase directly from Skylark and streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.
Watch a concert film of It’s a Long Way performed by Skylark Vocal Ensemble.
Watch a performance by the Massachusetts Music Educators Association Southeastern District (SEMMEA) Senior Festival Choir of 2021:
Performance score is available for purchase. Please direct inquiries to Nell Shaw Cohen at nell@nellshawcohen.com.
NEW! Seeking repertoire for your choir or vocal ensemble? Check out my programming guide for choral directors.
Lyrics by Mashuq Mushtaq Deen.
Arrangement for large ensemble included in Sauntering Songs: a concert-length cantata on the theme of walking, commissioned by Skylark Vocal Ensemble.
View perusal score (baritone and piano version).
Performance score available for purchase. Please direct inquiries to Nell Shaw Cohen at nell@nellshawcohen.com.
Version for solo voice and piano also available as part of NewMusicShelf Anthology of New Music: Trans & Nonbinary Voices, Vol. 1. May be transposed to any key.
The first version of Fallen Star was written in 2017 during the New Dramatists Composer-Librettist Studio, an intensive laboratory for music-theater collaborations directed by Nautilus Music-Theater.
Mashuq Mushtaq Deen and I created Fallen Star in response to a prompt from baritone Joshua Hinck to write a song with themes from Classical mythology. In doing so, Deen also incorporated our shared love of the American West, and the transcendent night skies of Northern New Mexico, into his brilliant lyric.
Fallen Star was later arranged and incorporated into Sauntering Songs: a concert-length cantata on the theme of walking, commissioned by Skylark Vocal Ensemble.
Related Content
Performance History
Voice and piano version:
Nashua Pride Festival, Melina Jaharis, mezzo-soprano. Nashua Community Music School, Nashua, NH, 6/25/22.
New Dramatists, version for three voices presented as part of music-theater workshop. Blake Friedman, Nicole Mitchell, and Camille Harris, vocalists, with Charity Wicks, piano. New York NY, 4/19/18.
New Dramatists, version for three voices presented as part of public working session at culmination of the New Dramatists Composer-Librettist Studio. Joshua Hinck, Mallory Hawks, and Lucia Rodrique, vocalists, with Roger Ames, piano. New York NY, 02/03/17.
Large ensemble version:
Visit the Sauntering Songs page for performance history.
Soprano and piano version commissioned by Laura Strickling for The 40@40 Project.
Mezzo-soprano, cello, and piano version excerpted from Sauntering Songs: a concert-length cantata on the theme of walking, commissioned by Skylark Vocal Ensemble.
Lyrics by Megan Cohen.
The World Premiere recording of Woman Walking is featured on 40@40 released by soprano Laura Strickling (Bright Shiny Things). Available for purchase and for streaming on all major platforms. Nominated for a 2024 GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.
View perusal score for soprano and piano version.
View persual score for mezzo-soprano, cello, and piano version.
Performance scores available for purchase. Please direct inquiries to Nell Shaw Cohen at nell@nellshawcohen.com.
A portrait of a solitary woman and present-day flâneuse as she saunters on city streets, taking it all in and going nowhere in particular. Originally commissioned by Laura Strickling in a version for soprano and piano, this song was later arranged and incorporated into Sauntering Songs: a concert-length cantata on the theme of walking, commissioned by Skylark Vocal Ensemble.
Related Content
Soprano and piano version:
Mezzo-soprano, cello, and piano version:
Visit the Sauntering Songs page for performance history.