THE EDNA PROJECT is a music and mixed media performance inspired by the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay, featuring musicians Liz Queler and Seth Farber. They will be at the Strand for a special afternoon concert in celebration of National Poetry Month.
This might strike you as an unlikely marriage: modern folk and bluegrass music with the words of a Pulitzer Prize-winning lyric poet from the first half of the twentieth century. Queler and her husband, Seth Farber, use Millay’s verse faithfully, allowing the lyrics to flow and speak for themselves. Their acoustic music and sweet vocal harmonies, reminiscent of Emmylou Harris’s Duets, reveal the romance and often bittersweet emotion in Millay’s poetry. The key to their success is that Queler and Farber have not artificially imposed upon the verse. Their music merely helps you see something that was always there, and it’s a beautiful thing.
“Liz Queler and Seth Farber not only created marvelous songs using the lyric poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay, they developed a performance style that illuminates the room and enlightens the audience. This isn't just another group doing just another bunch of tunes. What Queler and Farber denote from the mind of Millay is an emotional experience that sings to the very heart of human connections."- Peter Bergman, Executive Director, Edna St. Vincent Millay Society
This ambitious project has also resulted in a brand new recording on Red Wall records, THE EDNA PROJECT (2010), and is an eclectic, imaginative collection of 21 songs spanning folk, bluegrass, rock and jazz. With an amazing bunch of top-notch musicians on board and the first rate lyrics taken from the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay, it’s really no surprise that their album is such a triumph. Millay was the 20th century poet who was the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, while the musical songwriters here, Queler and Farber have a wonderful musical resume. Over the past 15 years Seth has also recorded and performed with artists Odetta, Billy Joel, Joan Osborne, John Prine, Lucinda Williams, Chip Taylor, Alejandro Escovedo, Little Steven, and many others. Seth has played on and produced the last 3 Odetta CD's, 2 of which were nominated for Grammy Awards, while Liz has won the prestigious Billboard "Songwriting Achievement Award" twice. Other players on the album are notable in their own right, including Shawn Mullins, Larry Campbell (Bob Dylan), Jeff Pevar (Crosby, Still & Nash), and Jimmy Vivino from Conan O’Brien’s band.
MORE ABOUT LIZ AND SETH:
Hailed by Billboard Magazine as “a singer's singer”, Liz Queler (vocals/guitar/mandolin), a native New Yorker and the daughter of renowned opera conductor Eve Queler, has performed on esteemed stages from the Newport Folk Festival to Carnegie Hall. Her voice and compositions have been heard on countless jingles as well as TV and film soundtracks. Seth Farber (keyboards/accordion/vocals) was musical director to the late, great Odetta for the last decade, producing three CDs, two of which were nominated for Grammys. He was also assistant conductor at the Broadway musical "Hairspray" for it's 6 year run. Both Liz and Seth currently tour with Grammy nominated children's rock band "Brady Rymer and the Little Band That Could." Along with their son, Joey, they were featured this year on Rosie O'Donnell's HBO special "A Family is a Family Is A Family."
