Loudoun Lyric Opera

08/13/2025

Thanks to all who’ve signed up for NoVAQWERT! We need around 5
more tenor/bass registrants (both principals and chorus) by the end of this week to make this work. Please consider joining us for this fun event!

Click here to sign up:

A One Day Sing-Through of 5 Gilbert & Sullivan Operas! This form is ONLY for signups for our NovaQWERT event. Looking for our 2025-26' season audition form? Click here: https://forms.gle/D2UnB9LKvViMn18u7 Featuring Trial By Jury The Pirates of Penzance The Mikado The Gondoliers HMS Pinafore Saturday...

07/09/2025

Gilbert & Sullivan returns to LLO with NoVA QWERT, our one-day sing thru of five light operas! Visit our website (LoudounLyricOpera.org) for signups and details

07/08/2025

Attention Singers - Season Auditions are now live!

Join us in auditioning for our 2025/26 season. With two MainStage productions, outreach concerts, benefit performances, and more, the season is packed with exciting opportunities! Visit our audition form for more information. https://forms.gle/j38sS4FQ9gJ8XGHS8

05/12/2025

Thank you to everyone who attended May 3rd's LLO Presents: Change of the Season featuring baritone Chris Fotis and Music Director Mark Irchai.
The thunderstorm outside that evening added another dimension of drama to our recital, fittingly complemented the cohesive repertoire that featured art songs with themes on the inextricable associations between seasons, nature, and life.

04/25/2025

Just 8 days away!
Join us next Saturday for an unforgettable evening of music at LLO Presents: Change of the Season.
Experience the powerful live performances of baritone Chris Fotis and music director/pianist Mark Irchai as they bring the seasons to life through sound.

Don't miss out — reserve your seats today!

04/23/2025

Join us at LLO Presents: Change of the Season, the latest installment in our "LLO Presents" recital series! Through this special concert, LLO proudly continues its mission of uplifting and showcasing the next generation of vocal talent.

This performance features the return of baritone Chris Fotis, who captivated audiences as Papageno in our 2024 production of "The Magic Flute". Accompanying him on piano is none other than our Artistic & General Director, Mark Irchai.

Don't miss this beautiful evening of music and artistry. See you on May 3rd!

Tickets: https://givebutter.com/aujfmq

04/21/2025

“À Chloris” is the title of one of the most beautiful French melodies ever composed, in this case under the pen of Reynaldo Hahn, on a poem by French Baroque poet Théophile de Viau. In Greek mythology, Chloris (from khloros, meaning “greenish-yellow”, “pale green”, “pale”, “pallid”, or “fresh”) was a nymph/goddess who was associated with spring, flowers and new growth, believed to have dwelt in the Elysian Fields. The imagery of the poem is lush, almost mythological—“ambrosia,” “kings,” “heavenly bliss.” It connects Chloris' love with notions of the divine, elevating the speaker’s feelings to a celestial plane. Come and experience this heavenly melody performed by baritone Chris Fotis at LLO’s “Change of the Season” on May 3rd!

Tickets: https://givebutter.com/aujfmq

04/18/2025

Reynaldo Hahn (1874 –1947) is one of the composers whose work will be featured at our May 3 recital LLO Presents: Change of the Season. Hahn was a Venezuelan-born French composer, conductor, music critic, and singer, remembered chiefly for his art songs. Hahn went to Paris as a child and later studied at the Conservatoire under Jules Massenet. Hahn was a prolific composer. His vocal works include secular and sacred pieces, lyric scenes, cantatas, oratorios, operas, comic operas, and operettas. He sang as well as played his own songs, and made recordings as a soloist and accompanying other performers. Hahn’s music is melodious and graceful. His memoirs are valuable sources for the musical and literary life of the time.

Tickets: https://givebutter.com/aujfmq

04/17/2025

Lee Hoiby’s "Where the Music Comes From" is more than a song—it’s a spiritual invitation. Set to a poem that sees music not just as sound but as a feeling, a presence, a place, it draws us into a world where music is lived. With imagery steeped in nature — “early morning,” “sunlight,” “snow,” “river,” “breezes,” and “garden,” this piece paints a serene, almost utopian landscape of harmony and connection to the earth.

We invite you to step into that world. Come be where the music comes from—experience peace, beauty, and renewal through a stunning evening of music at LLO's "Change of the Season" on May 3rd.

Tickets: https://givebutter.com/aujfmq

04/15/2025

Lee Hoiby is one of the composers whose work will be featured at our May 3 recital “Change of the Season”. Hoiby, born in Madison, Wisconsin on February 17, 1926, was one of America's most prominent composers of works for the lyric stage. His rich catalog of works encompasses operas, oratorios, choral works, concerti, chamber works, song cycles, and more than 100 songs, many of them championed by such singers as Leontyne Price, Federica von Stade, and Marilyn Horne, among many others. Hoiby's setting of Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke (with libretto by Lanford Wilson) was declared "the finest American opera to date" following its world premiere. Hoiby spoke about his long life of composing: "For me, composing music bears some likeness to archeology. It requires patient digging, searching for the treasure; the ability to distinguish between a treasure and the rock next to it and recognizing when you're digging in the wrong place. The archeologist takes a soft brush and brushes away a half teaspoon at a time. Musically, that would be a few notes, or a chord. Sometimes the brushing reveals an especially lovely thing, buried there for so long."

Tickets: https://givebutter.com/aujfmq

04/12/2025

William Bolcom’s “Villanelle”, set to Richard Tillinghast’s poignant poem “If You Love the Body”, delves into the complexities of love and the ephemeral nature of beauty. Tillinghast uses natural imagery — like winter rain, blooming flowers, and stone — to symbolize the tension between temporary beauty and what is eternal.
Through this song setting, Bolcom invites the listener to reflect on love's deeper, more intrinsic qualities that transcend the surface. It’s a bittersweet acknowledgment that external beauty fades, but something lasting—something inherent within us—endures.
Don’t miss the chance to experience this beautiful, evocative work live when Chris Fotis performs at “Change of the Season” on May 3rd.

Tickets: https://givebutter.com/aujfmq

04/09/2025

Join us in wishing our board member, Scott Hetz Clark, a happy birthday! From all of us at LLO, we hope you have a great time singing and celebrating!