Poems

Vocal coach and collaborative pianist, Lynn Kompass, joined the faculty of the University of South Carolina in 2002. Currently an associate professor, she provides musical preparation for all productions performed by Opera at USC and teaches courses in song literature and advanced diction for singers.

It is ironic, but also profoundly right, that the words which came silently out of the pen of Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) nowadays are heard frequently in concert halls, and elsewhere too. In 1992, Carlton Lowenberg, in his book Musicians wrestle everywhere: Emily Dickinson and Music, listed no fewer than 1,615 compositions based on her texts, by 276 different composers, from 1896 onwards; according to the musicologist Enrico Maria Polimanti, by 2007 this number had almost doubled.