Sparks & Wiry Cries presents the first of its sparksLIVE events for 2027: The world premiere performance of Slow Disclosure for Soprano, Mezzo soprano and Piano. This project, funded by a Legacy Grant from the Sorel Organization which sought to support women in classical music, features Sparks & Wiry Cries Co-Founders Martha Guth (soprano), Erika Switzer (pianist) in a program that centers the world premiere of Slow Disclosure by composer Cecilia Livingston. Her piece examines 8 paintings by Portuguese/British Painter Paula Rego through 5 new songs, with newly written poetry by Duncan MacFarlane. Motifs in this cycle and thus in the program include different life stages of women, from girlhood to old age; insight, foresight, seeing beyond, remembering the future; and hidden trauma/violence.  Other composers on this program include Gilda Lyons, Gabriel Faure, Ned Rorem, and more.

On Paula Rego: 

“An artist of uncompromising vision and a peerless storyteller, Paula Rego (1935–2022) brought immense psychological insight and imaginative power to the genre of figurative art. Drawing upon details of her own extraordinary life, on politics and art history, on literature, folk legends, myths and fairytales, Rego’s work at its heart is an exploration of human relationships, her piercing eye trained on the established order and the codes, structures and dynamics of power that embolden or repress the characters she depicts. Often turning hierarchies on their heads, her tableaux, whether tender or tragic, consider the complexities of human experience and the experience of women in particular. She is especially celebrated for works that forcibly address aspects of female agency and resolve, suffering and survival.”