Aoife O'donovan Bull Frogs Croon

Back in 2015, Aoife was commissioned to create a piece of music for the Britt Festival Symphony in Southern Oregon with conductor Teddy Abrams and Jeremy Kittel. While researching material, she came across the work of the poet Peter Sears (who, unbeknownst to me was, at that time, the poet laureate of Oregon).She was immediately mesmerized by his poem Small Talk. And then I found Night Fishing. It was the opening line that drew Aoife in: The water is a glaze like loneliness at ease with itself. The idea of loneliness at ease with itself was something that really struck a chord. Through continued reading, she also found two other poems, The Darkness and Valentine. There was something that told a story across the three poems, all penned in different years. Together, they became the foundation for the song cycle, Bull Frogs Croon. In October 2019, Aoife asked Jeremy Kittel to arrange the piece for a string quartet and co-produce a recording of the Bull Frogs Croon song cycle. They also recorded two additional songs, Lakes of Pontchartrain and Pretty Bir