Licity Collins grew up in the cello section of the Washington DC Youth Orchestra and hears all music like a symphony. When her cranky cello teacher yelled at her, “What do you want to play, saxophone?” she took up the saxophone, then at 40, she bought a guitar. Licity continues to play with recorder and piano, which she learned in elementary school and at home. Licity has sung all her life, solo and in choral ensemble, singing in eight different languages by the time she was in eighth grade, embracing parts from First Soprano to Tenor, from Fauré to Sondheim.
Licity is currently serving as the inaugural Music Fellow at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. Passionate about classical music of all flavors, Licity engages as enthusiastically with Early Music as she does with New Classical, and everything in between. Her commentary "Beethoven's Fifth" (audio below) was featured on Public Radio International. From 2020-2022 she sat on the BRAVO Community and Education Committee of the prestigious Ojai Music Festival (reflection below). She was commissioned to write music for the North Pole Studio gala.
Licity was recently awarded a $74,000 Creative Heights grant from the Oregon Community Foundation to premiere her genre-expanding spoken-sung chamber opera about death and grief, ONE DEATH IN SEVEN DOORWAYS.
PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR LICITY'S OFFICIAL COMPOSER SAMPLES PAGE
Recorded during a 2-week residency of 8 musicians and 1 visual artist, at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, invited by Licity as part of her Music Fellowship, this album features 2 volumes:
Volume 1: EVOLUTION is a suite of new classical chamber music composed for the residency by Licity. Inspired by a personal experience in the forests of Oregon, Evolution ponders the changes in ourselves through the dialogue of trees, the exhilarating flow of water, the sweetness of walking in love, and even explores silence as permanently transformed by tinnitus.
Volume 2: TRUST kicks off with an energetic instrumental collaboratively written by Licity, violinist Meghan Coil, and the entire ensemble. Followed by a handpicked few of Licity's deepest original songs arranged for this SynchroLicity Collective ensemble. This volume wraps up with a “lullaby that wakes you up," a rousing version of one of Licity's favorite traditional Scottish folk tunes featuring early music specialist, Laura Kuhlman on bagpipes.
(MP3) • Vol 1. EVOLUTION: New Classical • Vol 2. TRUST: Songs
is a spoken-sung opera about grief and an ongoing relationship with the dead.
This video is a sample of the opening overture during the workshopping process.
RECENTLY AWARDED A $74,000 “CREATIVE HEIGHTS” GRANT
FROM THE OREGON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
