The Lola Williams Recording Project

Sarah Moulton Faux, soprano; Ted Taylor, piano
with Heather Johnson, Laura Krumm, mezzo-sopranos; Nicholas Tamagna, countertenor

Growing up in the South in the first half of the 20th century, Lola Williams (1913-2013) exhibited great musical talent at a time when women rarely were encouraged to compose, and those who did struggled to hear their works performed publicly. Williams was a serious Shakespearean scholar as well as music educator, but it was not until her retirement that she was able to fully dedicate herself to writing and composition.

The resulting program demonstrates Williams’s felicitous pairing of text and music, matching Shakespeare’s inimitable wit and profound verse to painterly/illustrative melodies that are fortunately preserved.

This world-premiere recording features texts from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Love’s Labor’s Lost, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, and Hamlet, as well as Sonnet 116. A rarity is a setting of Shakespeare’s only surviving allegorical poem, The Phoenix and the Turtle.

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Sarah Moulton Faux is stunning. Recorded in beautiful sound and accompanied by an extensive, scholarly booklet note, this is a major release… a true treasure trove. －Fanfare

“Where Should This Music Be? Songs of Lola Williams” was released on September 13, 2019 by New World Records and is available through New World Records, Amazon Music, and Gumroad.