In the Shadow of Her Locks

An intimate salon concert exploring hair through song, poetry and art, in all its shades of beauty, desire, memory, identity and agency. In the Shadow of Her Locks is an evening of song exploring hair in the work of classical and contemporary poets and composers. Soprano Sarah Jo Kirsch, mezzo-soprano Taryn Plater, and pianist Anna Sagalova move through the erotic, melancholy, humorous, and absurd dimensions of this deeply intimate subject, guided by composer and curator Anna Pidgorna. The journey will start in the 19th century with works by Johannes Brahms, Hugo Wolf, Franz Schubert and Mykola Lysenko, travel through the turn of the 20th century with Claude Debussy and Rita Strohl, pay an homage to Nina Simone, and arrive at the colourful works by contemporary composers Jocelyn Morlock, Emily Doolittle, Libby Larsen and Gloria Xia, exploring hair in all its hues. Presented in an intimate salon setting and surrounded by visual art centred on the same theme, the concert brings music, poetry, and art into conversation around the meanings we attach to hair—and the stories it can tell about beauty, desire, memory, identity, and agency.