Meet SSF MNSong Participants 2025

2025 Festival Faculty

Plus Online Content Featuring


Photo by Steven Garcia, August 2022 in Westminster Hall

“I couldn’t have been happier with my experience with MNSong. The workshops and presentations were consistently helpful, and the opportunity to work with Libby Larsen was a highlight of my career to date... I left feeling inspired to create more songs!
— MNSong Participant

What Composers in the MNSong Program Receive:

Workshop includes:

  • Song-cycle premiere performance in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and professional recording in August 2026

  • Workshop, experimental situation with industry professionals

  • Collaboration and coaching, of your submitted work by local professionals (2025)

  • Two individual composition lessons per year with Libby Larsen and continuing mentorship checkpoints between festival appearances

  • Masterclass with Arlene Shrut on how to present your music and lectures on text-setting by Libby Larsen

  • Access to in-person festival masterclasses with MNDuo Faculty

  • Access to Online Resources, including:

    • A panel discussion on writing for the voice, featuring Libby Larsen, David Evan Thomas, Will Liverman & Susanne Mentzer

    • A panel discussion on writing for the piano, featuring Libby Larsen, David Evan Thomas, Lydia Brown, and Warren Jones

    • A lecture on writing about songs from David Evan Thomas

 
 
 
The passion that each member of this festival (the coordinators, guest artists, duos, composers, and audience!) brings to their art is so raw, so vital, so unconditional, and so...human. The effect of creativity, at such a high concentration, in one short week, makes me want to...go out and create something from nothing.
— 2016 Participant