Ellen Rissinger
So Lit Song Lit Creator & Co-Host
Appears in 51 Episodes
Zenobia Powell Perry: Songs
Zenobia Powell Perry (1908-2004) decided to become a classical pianist when she heard Hazel Harrison (the first Black musician to perform with the Berlin Philharmonic)...
Howard Swanson: Songs
Howard Swanson (1907-1978) studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music and went on to study at Fontainebleau with Nadia Boulanger. He was close with poet Langston Hugh...
Undine Smith Moore: Songs
Undine Smith Moore (1904-1989) was a classical pianist who trained at several prestigious universities, and despite her professors urging her to become a professional,...
Florence Price: Songs
Known as a symphonic composer, Florence Price was the first African-American female to have one of her composition performed by a major orchestra in the US. Her music ...
William Grant Still: Songs of Separation (ft. Lester Lynch, M. Roger Holland, II)
William Grant Still (1895-1978) was the first African-American to have a symphony performed by a major US orchestra (Symphony No. 1-"Afro-American" in 1931), to have a...
R. Nathaniel Dett & Hall Johnson: Songs
R. Nathaniel Dett was a Canadian-American composer and concert pianist with a degree from Oberlin College. His arrangements of spirituals use the piano to great effect...
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Songs
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was a British composer and conductor with strong ties to the United States. His songs have a very "salon-music" feel to them, romantic and acce...
Harry Thacker Burleigh: Songs of Laurence Hope (ft. Kenneth Overton)
Harry Thacker Burleigh was the first Black composer to have a major influence on classical music, both by his own compositions and by his influence on Antonín Dvořak. ...
Season 3 Trailer
Season 3 drops starting August 20th, this time on Tuesdays! This season, Toni Marie and Ellen focus on Black composers, with an incredible array of guest hosts and per...
Craig Bohmler: Quatre petites chansons pour le petit déjeuner
American composer Craig Bohmler has an extensive list of musicals as well as operas, art songs, concerti, etc. He has at least ten song cycles to his credit, and his m...
Louise Talma: Terre de France
Another student of Nadia Boulanger, Louise Talma was an American composer who taught at the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau as well as Hunter College. She was t...
Laura Kaminsky: Songs
Laura Kaminsky is the composer of the opera As One, which has become one of the most performed operas since it premiered in 2014. Her music is many-faceted, with disso...
Peggy Glanville-Hicks: 5 Songs
Australian composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks studied composition with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Nadia Boulanger, among other teachers. In addition to songs, she also co...
Augusta Holmès: Mélodies
Augusta Holmès was a French composer of Irish descent in the 19th century. Her music was received negatively by many famous male composers of the time as being "too vi...
David del Tredici: Songs for Baritone and Piano
American composer David del Tredici is considered a pioneer of neo-Romanticism, and his art songs definitely show that. With many art songs, song cycles, vocal chamber...
Juliusz Wertheim: Songs
Juliusz Wertheim was a Polish composer, pianist, and conductor from the turn of the last century who was close friends with Arthur Rubinstein. His songs are lovely and...
Ingolf Dahl: A Cycle of Sonnets/3 Songs to Poems of Albert Ehrismann
Ingolf Dahl was a German-born, naturalized American composer, who was well-connected throughout the entire entertainment industry as well as in classical music. His ar...
Hans Werner Henze: Fünf Neapolitanische Lieder/Three Auden Songs
Hans Werner Henze was a German composer who grew up during the time period of the Hitler Youth and went on to become a communist, leaving Germany because of his politi...
NewMusicShelf Anthology of New Music: Trans and Non-Binary Voices
NewMusicShelf is a website dedicated to the production and distribution of scores by living composers. Their Anthology of New Music Series includes a volume of Trans &...
Jennifer Higdon: Songs
Composer Jennifer Higdon has won a Pulitzer Prize and THREE Grammy awards! With a long list of prizes and commissions to her credit, she has a substantial output of s...
Isabella Leonarda: Motets
One of the most prolific female composers of the 17th century, Isabella Leonarda, was also a high-ranking nun in an Ursuline convent, fulfilling all of her duties as a...
Mathilde von Kralik: Lieder
Mathilde von Kralik was an Austrian composer with an extensive list of art songs in a very Romantic style. Shout-outs to tenor Donald George for sending us her name an...
Henriëtte Bosmans: 10 Mélodies
Dutch composer Henriëtte Bosmans survived the war-torn Netherlands through both WWI and WWII, saving her mother from a concentration camp. She composed Dix Mélodies st...
Ethel Smyth: Songs and Lieder
Dame Ethel Smyth was a leader of the British women's suffragette movement in the early 20th century, and the first woman composer to have her opera, Der Wald, performe...
Karol Szymanowski: Songs (Polish and German)
Karol Szymanowski was a notable Polish composer, with a vast repertoire of song literature in many languages. His musical styles span from late German Romanticism to i...
Gian Carlo Menotti: Canti della lontananza/Five Songs
Most of us probably know of Gian Carlo Menotti as an opera composer, with 25 operas to his credit, but he also had a small output of art songs to his own texts. His so...
Siegfried Wagner: Lieder
Siegfried Wagner, the oldest son of Richard Wagner, was surrounded by some of the most important musicians in Europe (including his grandfather, Franz Liszt), and his ...
Henri Sauguet: Mélodies
Better known in his home country of France than in the United States, Henri Sauguet has over 200 Mélodies, many of which have not yet been recorded. His music is chara...
Charles T. Griffes: Songs and Lieder
Charles Tomlinson Griffes is best known for his song "The Lament of Ian the Proud", but he has many more art songs and German Lieder to his credit. Having studied with...
Season 2 Trailer
Season 2 drops starting August 17th! This season Toni Marie and Ellen are focusing on queer composers, with guest host Zachary Dean Smith. Make sure to subscribe and t...