Lee Hoiby’s immense contribution to the American song repertoire is widely recognized, his style elegantly and convincingly bridging the lyrical worlds of Verdi and Gershwin, Schubert and Sondheim. Whether profoundly moving or smoothly good-humored, setting texts of great literary and civic value by William Blake, Lewis Carroll, Walt Whitman, Wallace Stevens, Marguerite Duras or his own lyrics, Hoiby’s songs speak with emotional immediacy. The interplay between the clear, eloquent beauty of his vocal lines and frequently virtuosic piano accompaniments marks him as a composer of distinction.