We're wrapping up 2025 by bringing Cincinnati Song Initiative's podcast hosts together for our annual Holiday Party! Join us in looking back on a wonderful year with peaks and pits from all of our hosts, then test your knowledge with games like "Guess that Song" and "Two Truths and a Lie: Composer Edition." Which composer walked the streets of Paris with a hammer in his suit pocket? Which composers did - and didn't - study with Nadia Boulanger? (Spoiler: even our hosts get stumped plenty of times!)

Thanks for a great year of song, and here's to a musically rewarding 2026!

Follow Song Cycle with Sam Martin and Laura Strickling here.
Follow So Lit Song Lit with Ellen Rissinger and Toni Marie Palmertree here.

Follow the Lieder is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about their network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.

Rebecca Clarke was many things (violist, composer, chamber musician, lecturer, prankster(!), fashionista) and it's not hard to see why she has earned her place as one of the most important composers of the 20th century. In this episode we discuss Clarke's life from birth up though 1913 and we are joined by her great-nephew Christopher Johnson to discuss Clarke's legacy and her song The Seal Man with guest artists Joanna Harries and Natalie Burch.

All quotes from today's episode are taken from Christopher's not yet published book on Rebecca Clarke. The other source I consulted for this episode was the book Quartet by Dr. Leah Broad.

For more information please see Christopher's website rebeccaclarkecomposer.com
Click here to watch Joanna and Natalie perform on YouTube
Click here to read John Masefield's short story The Seal Man from his collection A Mainsail Haul.

Follow the Lieder is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about their network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.

Part 2 of our exploration of Gustav Mahler's transcendental work Kindertotenlieder. With baritone Samuel Kidd and Christina Lalog Seal.

Follow the Lieder is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about their network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.

What happens when poetry born of unbearable grief meets a composer haunted by death? In this episode, we cover the first two songs of Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, uncovering how Rückert’s words and Mahler’s music fuse into an unflinching meditation on loss, memory, grief, and love. With baritone Samuel Kidd and pianist Christina Lalog Seal.

Follow the Lieder is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about their network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.

From her electrifying performances on the world’s great stages to her influential years as a teacher in the United States, Lotte Lehmann’s legacy shines through in equal parts passion, vulnerability, and uncompromising musical truth. Featuring archival recordings of Schubert's Erlkönig and An die Musik with Lehmann's long-time pianist Paul Ulanowsky.

Follow the Lieder is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about their network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.

Today we cover Five Songs of Laurence Hope by H.T. Burleigh with tenor Matthew Corcoran. Recorded live at the Fellowship of the Song 2025 Fellows Closing Concert with pianist Barbie Noyes.

Follow the Lieder is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about their network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.

Today we cover not one, not two, but THREE Swedish songs with special guest co-host Michael Sikich. Guest vocalists include soprano Sofie Asplund, mezzo-soprano Ann-Kristin Jones, and baritone Luthando Qave.

Follow the Lieder is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about their network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.

What makes a home? Is it a person, a feeling, a place? The lonely voice of Schubert’s wanderer, wondering at the moon where his place in the world might be, resonates with the voices of today as we hear from friends of the podcast.

Ways to help the refugee crisis:

https://www.unrefugees.org/
https://humanrightsfirst.org/
https://www.globalrefuge.org/news/5-ways-to-help-refugees-immigrants-in-2025/
https://www.rescue.org
https://refugeerights.org/

Letters from refugee children
https://www.unicef.org/eca/stories/letters-from-syrian-refugee-children

Letter by Andrew Lam
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/refugee-american-experience_b_2295293

Follow the Lieder is a production of Cincinnati Song Initiative. You can learn more about their network of podcasts at cincinnatisonginitiative.org/podcasts.