Sparks & Wiry Cries SongSlam Competition, Hosted by Ricky Ian Gordon

Name: Sparks & Wiry Cries SongSlam Competition, Hosted by Ricky Ian Gordon
Start: 2026-01-24T20:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-01-24
Location: Seully Hall

Saturday / January 24, 2026 / 8:00 p.m.

Seully Hall

8 Fenway, Floor 4

Boston

02215

United States

(View Map)

Admission

FREE

Drawing of a stick figure playing the piano and another stick figure singing, with a blue background

Boston Conservatory at Berklee is collaborating with Sparks & Wiry Cries to host Boston’s first-ever songSLAM. This engaging community event, hosted by composer Ricky Ian Gordon, provides an opportunity for 12 composer/performer teams to premiere new works and compete for cash prizes by performing a new art song for voice and piano, each no longer than five minutes. The audience will then vote for their favorites, awarding a total of $2,000 in prizes: $1,000 for first place, $600 for second, and $400 for third. Stay after the concert to meet the talented composer-performer teams at a reception featuring light refreshments. For more information, visit www.sparksandwirycries.org/about-songslam.

First premiered in New York City in 2015, the songSLAM has now been presented with regional partners in four countries and 13 different cities around the globe: New York, Toronto, Vancouver, Bloomington, Tallahassee, Rochester, London, Ljubljana, Ann Arbor, Cincinnati, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Waco, with even more growth on the horizon.

Program Information

Repertoire

A Song for Nico
Music and text by Julia Soojin Cavallaro

Julia Soojin Cavallaro, mezzo-soprano
Rodney Lister, piano

Down in the Willow Garden
Music by Owen Olson
Traditional Appalachian | Text Adapted by Owen Olson and Brooklynn Schroeder

Brooklynn Schroeder, soprano
Owen Olson, piano

Arachne
Music by Isaiah Hopper
Text by Cailin Smith

Cailin Smith, mezzo-soprano
Sage Fogle, piano

A Bird, came down the Walk
Music by Matthew Sperling
Poetry by Emily Dickinson

Bianca Rahme, soprano
Shawn Smaldon, piano

Liminal
Music by Max Eidenoff
Text by McKey Monroe

McKey Monroe, contralto
Max Eidenoff, piano

The Answer
Music by Isabella Napoli
Text by Sara Teasdale

Isabella Napoli, soprano
Olivia Pike, piano

To Anthea
Music by Greg Zavracky
Text by Robert Herrick

Greg Zavracky, tenor
Tanya Blaich, piano

Communion
Music and text by Laura Jobin-Acosta

Laura Jobin-Acosta, soprano
Hyungjin Choi, piano

Freefall
Music by Junho Kim
Text by Giuditta Franco

Giuditta Franco, mezzo-soprano
Avi Randall, piano

A Crumb
Music by Jack Frederick
Text by Emily Dickinson

Aneesha Singh, soprano
Anna Park, piano

Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep
Music by Eunji Lee
Text By Clare Harner

Tae Woong An, baritone
Eunji Lee, piano

Lifespan of a sunbeam
Music and text by Regina Stroncek

Jennifer Sgroe, soprano
Yukiko Oba, piano

Texts and Translations

A Song for Nico
Text by Julia Soojin Cavallaro

on the occasion of his fifth birthday

He jumps!
He leaps, he jumps—
He lands.
He leaps!
He jumps, he leaps—
He lands.
Sometimes—
He misses.
I miss him, too.

Down in the Willow Garden
Traditional Appalachian | Text Adapted by Owen Olson and Brooklynn Schroeder

Down in the willow garden where she and her love did meet
There they sat a-courting when she fell off to sleep.
He had a bottle of Burgundy wine of which she did not know.
And there he poisoned that dear little girl down by the banks below,

He drew his sabre through her which was a bloody knife,
He threw her in the river which was an awful sight

His father often told him that money would set him free
Money!
If he would murder that dear little girl,
He would murder that dear little girl,
He would murder that dear little girl!
Whose name Whose name was Rose Connelly

Now he sits by his old cabin door, wiping his tear brimmed eye,
Mourning for his only son out on the scaffold high,
His race is run beneath the sun, the devil is waiting for him,
for he did murder that dear little girl!
Whose name was,
Whose name was,
My name was!
Rose,
Rose,
Rose Connelly!

Arachne
Text by Cailin Smith

They whisper, “Arachne.”

Footsteps clamor and bells thud
Crowds crush forward, behold:
The weaver girl, her insistent fingers,
Weaving gardens and cyclones.

Which fool invoked Athena’s name?
The weaving goddess loomed over.
A deadly contest devised,
And all eyes bear immortal weight.

[Did the Fates laugh
Preparing to cut their iron threads?]
Haunted by her sweetly-chanted “over, under,”
Athena’s pride snapped with her fingers.

A crack through the air
And youthful limbs morphed
Now skeletal, now eight,
Now crawling, now reviled.

Does she cast blame as a curse
With a rainbow now a ghostly pearl?
I wonder if she trembles as the fools do
When they whisper, “Arachnid.”

A Bird, came down the Walk
Poetry by Emily Dickinson

A Bird, came down the Walk—
He did not know I saw—
He bit an Angle Worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw,

And then, he drank a Dew
From a convenient Grass—
And then hopped sidewise to the Wall
To let a Beetle pass—

He glanced with rapid eyes,
That hurried all abroad—
They looked like frightened Beads, I thought,
He stirred his Velvet Head.—

Like one in danger, Cautious,
I offered him a Crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers,
And rowed him softer Home—

Than Oars divide the Ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon,
Leap, plashless as they swim.

Liminal
Text by McKey Monroe

I can pinpoint the moment
You fell out of love,
Like a location on a map,
The destination being solitude.

I don’t understand, however,
That liminal space
Where love met indifference
And indifference met goodbye.

The Answer
Text by Sara Teasdale

When I go back to earth
And all my joyous body
Puts off the red and white
That once had been so proud,
If men should pass above
With false and feeble pity,
My dust will find a voice
To answer them aloud:

“Be still, I am content,
Take back your poor compassion—
Joy was a flame in me
Too steady to destroy.
Lithe as a bending reed
Loving the storm that sways her—
I found more joy in sorrow
Than you could find in joy.”

To Anthea
Text by Robert Herrick

Let’s call for Hymen if agreed thou art —
Delays in love but crucify the heart.
Love’s thorny tapers yet neglected lie;|
Speak thou the word, they’ll kindle by and by.
The nimble hours woo us on to wed,
And Genius waits to have us both to bed.
Behold, for us the naked Graces stay
With maunds of roses for us to strew the way.
Besides, the most religious prophet stands
Ready to join as well our hearts as hands.
June yet smiles; but if she chance to chide,
Ill luck ’twill bode to th’bridegroom and the bride.
Tell me Anthea, dost thou fondly dread
The loss of that we call a maidenhead?
Come, I’ll instruct thee. Know, the vestal fire
Is not by marriage quenched, but flames the higher.

Communion
Text by Laura Jobin-Acosta

I give my life to God,
Whose goodness knows no measure.
From heavenly realms He moves in me
And seeks me as His treasure.

I dreamed that He would send a light
To pierce all shadowed spaces.
From within I feel a flicker rise,
A flame in me He places.

I give You all my mortal will;
I bow to Your pure seeing.
And now my heart has grown too still
To hunger after being.

I need not gold,
I need not gain.
I’ll wait for You to come again;
For Your beauty, born of infinite light,
Will clothe me in communion.

Freefall
Text by Giuditta Franco

Shades of black and grey
Falling into the
deep blue sea.
Gravity calls from down below,
into the dark, black night.
Emerald lines
Drifting slowly toward the light,
as if reaching for the sun.
Grey shadows shape
the restless movement of waves,
finding their way in the atmosphere,
floating across the sky,
blending together,
becoming one another.
Pine green teardrops
dripping into puddled emotions,
taking a step
into freefall beneath the golden light,
beneath what is certain,
leaving space for the unknown.

A Crumb

“We should not mind so small a flower”
Text by Emily Dickinson

We should not mind so small a flower—
Except it quiet bring
Our little garden that we lost
Back to the Lawn again.

So spicy her Carnations nod—
So drunken, reel her Bees—
So silver steal a hundred flutes
From out a hundred trees—

That whoso sees this little flower
By faith may clear behold
The Bobolinks around the throne
And Dandelions gold.

Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep
Text By Clare Harner

Do not stand at my grave and weep 
I am not there; I do not sleep. 
I am a thousand winds that blow, 
I am the diamond glints on snow, 
I am the sun on ripened grain, 
I am the gentle autumn rain. 
When you awaken in the morning's hush 
I am the swift uplifting rush 
Of quiet birds in circled flight. 
I am the soft stars that shine at night. 
Do not stand at my grave and cry, 
I am not there; I did not die.

Additional phrase included in this composition:
Gone from our sight, but never from our hearts.
Forever remembered, forever missed. Rest in peace.

Lifespan of a sunbeam
Text by Regina Stroncek

after 40,000 years
churning in the inferno
of the Sun’s core
the sunbeam spills
onto the surface
and the flash of light
lunges forward
high speed hurtling
to a destination unknown
a blue sphere
grows near
Over
8 minutes
the sunbeam
cuts through the
crowded atmosphere
Re
Fle
Cting
off neighboring windows
And
lands
on the belly of a cat
Mid-nap
warmly absorbed
into its fur.

About the Artists

THE CREATIVE TEAM OF “A SONG FOR NICO”
Julia Soojin Cavallaro is an accomplished mezzo-soprano and composer. She sings with award-winning professional choirs such as Ensemble Altera, the Handel and Haydn Society, and Skylark Ensemble. Cavallaro studied music at Harvard College, voice at Boston University, and is finishing a master’s in composition at Tufts University with John McDonald. Learn more about Cavallaro.

Rodney Lister is a passionate educator, new music advocate, and prolific composer. He teaches composition and theory at the Boston University School of Music—where he also directs the new music ensemble, Time’s Arrow—and the Preparatory School of New England Conservatory, where he codirects the annual contemporary music festival. Learn more about Lister.

THE CREATIVE TEAM OF “DOWN IN THE WILLOW GARDEN”
Owen Olson is a composer currently in his third year as an undergraduate at Boston Conservatory. He is primarily a musical theater composer, lyricist, dramatist, and music director, while also writing choral music, art song, and concert works.

Brooklynn Schroeder, soprano, is a current third-year voice performance major at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, and is loving her time living in Boston. In her free time, she enjoys exploring the city, drinking lots of coffee, and hiking, back in Phoenix.

THE CREATIVE TEAM OF “ARACHNE”
Isaiah Hopper (they/them) is a composer and violist known for their blending of neo-classical form with modern harmonies. Each piece of theirs tells a story for the listener to get lost in. Their current project is diving into electronic music to bring listeners on a mysterious and uneasy journey.

Cailin Smith (she/her) is a soprano whose recent highlights include Miranda (cover) in The Onion, Oberto in Alcina, and First Spirit in The Magic Flute: Retold (MassOpera); Angels of the House (album recording), Morana in The Haunted Palace, and Grackle in The Raven (Ted and Togo Productions). She is cofounder and artistic director of voice of Iris Ensemble.

Sage Fogle (they/them) is a sought-after vocal and instrumental collaborator based in Boston. They are a recitalist with a particular affinity for German lieder. Experienced in standard operatic, choral, and orchestral repertoire, Fogle has recently worked with Boston Opera Collaborative, Harvard University, Handel and Haydn Society, and Brookline Symphony Orchestra.

THE CREATIVE TEAM OF “A BIRD, CAME DOWN THE WALK”
Matthew Sperling (he/him) is a first-year BM in Music Composition and Theory student at Boston University. Currently, he studies with Martin Amlin and composes a variety of contemporary classical works for various instrumentations and voice. He also studies voice with David Guzman, and is pursuing a minor in Spanish language. He thanks his family, friends, and professors for their endless support in his passion.

Shawn Smaldon is a sophomore music education major at Boston University, concentrating in piano in Dr. Victor Cayres’s studio. Outside of the conservatory setting, Smaldon is the pianist for the BU Big Band as well as one of the BU jazz combos. He also has experience playing pit keyboard in various musical theater productions, along with experience accompanying vocalists, instrumentalists, and choirs throughout his career thus far.

Bianca Rahme is a second-year BM in Vocal Performance student at Boston University. She currently studies voice with Thomas Cannon. She is focused on classical voice, but also performs musical theater and pop music. She is grateful for the opportunity to sing here!

THE CREATIVE TEAM OF “LIMINAL”
Max Eidinoff is a composer, improviser, and educator whose music is marked by creative audacity and dramatic flair. His love of many popular and avant-garde styles creates a blend of influences resulting in soundscapes characterized as both absurd and surreal. It is through a body of work which prioritizes storytelling and engages with ironic subtext that he aims to convey the complex adversities of the world we live in.

McKey Monroe is a contralto who received their master’s in vocal performance and pedagogy from the Peabody Institute. Monroe has had the opportunity to sing the roles of Maurya in Riders to the Sea by Vaughan Williams, and Ljubica in Svadba by Ana Sokolovic. In addition to their operatic work, they have also performed many contemporary works, being a part of six world premieres.

THE CREATIVE TEAM OF “THE ANSWER”
Isabella Napoli is an operatic soprano studying for her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance, Opera Emphasis (‘26) at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She studies voice with Kerry Deal, and recently began studying composition under the mentorship of Steven Halloran. Recently, she performed in Fenway Opera Club’s scenes program as Valeria in Tom Cipullo’s Mayo, and looks forward to her senior recital in the spring.

Olivia Pike, soprano, is originally from New Zealand and recently graduated with a Graduate Performance Diploma in Voice Performance from Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she now works as a staff pianist for the Vocal Arts Department. She holds a BM and MM from the University of Otago. She had extensive competition wins and placings while in New Zealand, and performed regularly across a variety of vocal genres and settings, both as a singer and a pianist.

THE CREATIVE TEAM OF “TO ANTHEA”
Gregory Zavracky has composed numerous art songs and song cycles, including four cycles on his recently released album, Chant in a Wail. He endeavors to craft lyrical melodies underscored by intriguing, evocative harmonies and textures. He is an assistant professor of voice at Boston Conservatory and an actively performing tenor.

Tanya Blaich is a pianist with particular sensitivity for and expertise in the song and collaborative piano repertoire. A faculty member at New England Conservatory since 2006, Blaich has been praised for her “unfailingly expressive and finely judged” playing (The Guardian) and her “distinct and refined palette and textures” and “unwaveringly attentive” ensemble (Opera Today).

THE CREATIVE TEAM OF “COMMUNION”

Laura Jobin-Acosta is a composer and soprano whose multicultural background shapes her musical expression. She bridges singing and composition, reimagining tradition to inspire love for music. Her work has premiered at the Kennedy Center and National Sawdust; she is composer in residence with Choral Chameleon and studied voice and composition at Denver University and SUNY Purchase.

Hyungjin Choi is a New York–based classical and jazz pianist and composer who performs and records internationally. She serves as assistant music director and organist at Calvary-St. George’s Episcopal Church, maintains a private teaching studio, and studied at the New School and Manhattan School of Music, where she is currently a staff pianist.

THE CREATIVE TEAM OF “FREEFALL”
Junho Kim is a Korean composer specializing in contemporary and traditional music. Based in Boston and currently studying at NEC, he has been recognized by the UK International Music Competition, APS Symphonia, the Hwaum Chamber Orchestra, and the National Gugak Center. His works have been performed internationally, including at the Berlin Philharmonie and Sofia Music Festival. He has officially released original Korean art songs and children’s music, highlighting his lyrical and wide-ranging musical vision.

Giuditta Franco is an Italian jazz vocalist and composer. Trained in Europe and the US, she has won major awards with her quintet Ària and performed at top festivals. Currently studying at New England Conservatory in Boston, she is developing her debut album under the mentorship of Jason Moran.

Avi Randall is a pianist, composer, educator, and improviser based in Boston. As a bandleader, they led Saltare, a modern ensemble that combined world music, jazz, and classical. Randall has written for piano quartets, string quartets, orchestras, electronics, and wind quintets in styles ranging from Romantic to modern. Randall also writes children's musicals at the Charles River Creative Arts Program, and directs musicals at the Colleges of the Fenways.

THE CREATIVE TEAM OF “A CRUMB”
Jack Frederick is a current student at the New England Conservatory, where he studies with Michael Gandolfi. In 2025, Frederick was named a winner of the CWU New Music Festival Call for Scores; and he was twice a winner of the Phasma-Music call for scores.

Aneesha Singh is a soprano studying with Michael Meraw at New England Conservatory of Music. Singh has studied with notable singers and institutions, such as Emma Kirkby and the Oberlin Conservatory, Eastman School of Music and College Conservatory of Music. She has placed in MTNA, NVMTA and NATS competitions.

Anna Sunmin Park was born in Seoul, South Korea and is currently pursuing her second master’s degree in collaborative piano at New England Conservatory with Cameron Stowe. Park has a great interest in contemporary music. She premiered the piano concerto “Zauberlehring” by Sunghyun Lee, and also often participates in contemporary music projects.

THE CREATIVE TEAM OF “DO NOT STAND AT MY GRAVE AND WEEP”
Tae Woong An is a baritone from South Korea and a Master of Music in Voice Performance student at Boston University, where he studies with James Demler. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Voice from Kyung Hee University in Seoul, where he studied under Andrea Shin, and continues to develop his artistry through recital performances and opera scene work.

Eunji Lee is a South Korean composer and pianist whose music features delicate textures, intricate layering, and vibrant energy. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from Ewha Womans University and a Master of Music in Composition from Indiana University, and is currently pursuing her doctoral degree at Boston University.

THE CREATIVE TEAM OF “LIFESPAN OF A SUNBEAM”
Jennifer Sgroe, soprano, has performed across the US, Finland, England, and Austria in venues such as Jordan Hall, Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall, Mechanics Hall, Dartington Hall, the Society for Ethical Culture, and the United Nations. A Boston-based singer, she is a Boston Conservatory alumna and has served on the teaching faculties of New England Conservatory, Dean College, Boston University, Emerson College, New York University, and others. She is a proponent of new vocal works, especially by underrepresented composers, most recently commissioning new works by women composers. Her team placed third in the 2023 Sparks & Wiry Cries SongSlam. Learn more about Sgroe.

Yukiko Oba, piano, is a Boston-based artist known for her abilities as both a collaborative and concert pianist. Serving as a senior member of the music staff at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Oba has collaborated with many young singers who now sing professionally at major opera houses in the US and abroad. She is also an affiliate artist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has served as a staff and audition pianist for Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Opera Collaborative, the Beth Morrison Project, Odyssey Opera, Boston Modern Opera Project, and many others.

Regina Stroncek is a versatile soprano, teaching artist, researcher, and composer who connects with diverse audiences through language and music. She is an avid recitalist with a deep-seated passion for art song, and has participated in the Barcelona Festival of Song and Source Song Festival. An advocate for new music, Stroncek has sung world and regional premieres of art song and chamber music by living composers in the United States and Brazil. Her art song and choral compositions have recently been performed by Boston Singers’ Resource, Nightingale Vocal Ensemble, and Lilith Vocal Ensemble. Learn more about Stroncek.

Concert Services Staff

Assistant Director, Concert Services – Luis Herrera
Coordinator, Concert Services – Matthew Carey
Concert Production Manager – Kendall Floyd
Performance Technology Technicians – Sara Pagiaro, Goran Daskalov

Boston Conservatory thanks audience members for viewing this program information online. This paperless program saved 130 sheets of paper, 14 gallons of water, and 12 pounds of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions.