Lisa Reagan, former member of the Washington National Opera, has made another unexpected career turn with What We Need Is Here, to be released on August 25 by Stillpoint Records. The new album, which offers ten classic poems by noted authors, including Yeats, Frost, Keats, Wordsworth, and Shakespeare, is set to original music she composed for the project. Lisa worked with Tony-award winning and Grammy-nominated producer/orchestrator Jamshied Sharifi, who had similar involvement in her previous release Shunia, a collaboration with fellow former National Opera alumna Suzanne Jackson. The song “Sa Re Sa Sa” from that album was the Silver Winner in the World Fusion Music category at the 2021 COVR Visionary Awards. To date, Lisa has recorded seven albums.
She titled the new album after a line from “The Wild Geese” by Wendell Berry, for which she received special permission directly from the poet. Lyric excerpt below:
And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here
Lisa describes What We Need Is Here as a “project of the heart,” recalling, “I started with how the poem made me feel. It was like creating a painting that ‘looked’ how the poem felt. I wanted to set a mood, creating a tonal palette for the words. I was so fortunate to be able to hand my songs to Jamshied for the orchestral arrangements and production. He is not only a brilliant musician, but he also felt the same obligation that I did to honor the poets and their muses.”
Beyond the digital realm, the album will be available as a vinyl LP the cover art for which was provided by celebrated portrait artist Paul Wyse whose work is part of both the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian and the Canadian House of Commons collections. His subjects have ranged from Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin to Billy Joel and Harry Connick Jr. to author Toni Morrison. It’s worth noting that Wyse is also a musician who, as a classical pianist, has appeared with such greats as Michael Tilson-Thomas, Vladimir Feltsman and Gloria Estefan.
Lisa Reagan, accompanied by a 14-piece ensemble under the direction of Jamshied Sharifi, will preview the album live in concert in her hometown on Thursday, July 20th. The by-invitation performance, followed by a reception for Lisa and the musicians will take place at the newly restored and refurbished Freede Little Theatre, built in 1937, as part of the Oklahoma City Civic Center.
A native of Oklahoma City, Lisa Reagan has been recording and performing from an early age. She earned a master’s degree in Opera and Vocal Performance from the University of Maryland and joined the Washington National Opera thereafter. She has shared stages with some of the greatest voices of our time, including Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and Renée Fleming. She has performed at the Kennedy Center, the Salzburg Music Festival, and the White House, among hundreds of other venues around the globe. Although Lisa had been recording since she was 16, the untimely passing of her sister triggered feelings that led to a creative outpouring, resulting in her first album of original songs. After spending two decades with the Washington National Opera, she has focused on her own music. Last spring, Lisa taught master classes for opera singers at the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy and will be doing so again this year. Her original composition “A l’infini” was heard on Bravo’s reality series Project Runway.
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