Kelly Krebs: Whiteout
Kelly Krebs: Whiteout
Composer: Kelly Krebs
Poet: Robert Hedin
Voicing: Tenor & Piano
Date: 2017
Duration: 4:30
About: A haunting song that looks at the transitory nature of life and relationships that appear and slowly fade away over the course of our lives.
Composer Notes
Text / Lyrics
Here on this ridge
The only color
Left is you,
And soon
You too will fade.
The spruce have long
Returned to birch,
And the birch,
Are quietly,
Turning to snow.
-Robert Hedin
Source Notes
“Whiteout” was commissioned as part of the 2018 Source SongBook, celebrating the festival’s 5th anniversary. It was premiered on August 5th, 2018 at Westminster Hall in Minneapolis, MN by Jacob Christopher, tenor & Mark Bilyeu, piano.
Performer Notes
The piano part is very string quartet-like. I let the bass guide the momentum, and the right hand violin part creates color. it was a great opener for the concert, and Kelly’s writing is always so generous to the voice. -MB
Composer Info
Whether it’s musical theater, art song, or opera - Kelly Krebs is a composer who loves writing for the voice. After a 20-year creative hiatus, Krebs returned to composing in 2015. He was selected as a composer for the MNSong Program at the 2017 Source Song Festival and in 2018, he was part of the Composer-Librettist Studio with Nautilus Music-Theater. He was a participant in the 2019-20 VocalEssence Re-Mix composer mentorship program. He’s currently working on a musical theater piece based on the life of Tchaikovsky.
Poet Info
Robert Hedin is the author, translator, and editor of more than two-dozen volumes of poetry and prose.
Born and raised in Red Wing, Minnesota, he has lived in Alaska, Iowa, North Carolina, and France. He is co-founder (with his wife, Carolyn) and former Executive Director of the Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, a residential artist retreat in Red Wing, and served as editor of the literary journal, Great River Review, from 1997-2015.