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Stories   >   Lisa Reagan's 'What We Need Is Here' is epic music using pieces by some of the world's most inspiring poets / The JW Vibe

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Lisa Reagan's 'What We Need Is Here' is epic music using pieces by some of the world's most inspiring poets / The JW Vibe

Posted: October 19, 2023

The JW Vibe's Jonathan Widran writes….As far as career accolades go, Lisa Reagan’s 20 year run with the Washington National Opera will no doubt always be at the top of the list – but for the multi-talented spinto soprano, veteran voice educator and all around creative expressive, it was merely a foundation for the ever-evolving artistry that has driven her career as a songwriter and recording artist over since the early 2000s.

After a series of acclaimed classical crossover albums, the singer’s eclectic output over the past six years has been particularly fascinating. Enlisting fellow National Opera alumni Suzanne Jackson, Lisa’s duo Shunia – named for the state of being meaning stillness (of power, not passivity) and receptivity (quiet, present alert) was a new age/global music project merging chant, opera and polycultural rhythms into a fresh sonic fusion. The two have manifested their desire for the music to bring healing and connection over the course of two acclaimed albums, Ascend (2017) and the self-titled follow-up (2021).

Loyal fans who wondered what surprising realm the muse would take Lisa next have been amply rewarded with what can best be described as a soul-transportive event rather than simply another standout album among many. Fueled by her lifelong passion for poetry, What We Need Is Here is an epic collection pairing Lisa’s transcendent vocal prowess and engaging melodic and rhythmic composing skills with classic pieces by some of the world’s most renowned, inspiring and quoted poets.

Though the 10 pieces all started out as rough piano and vocal demos in Lisa’s studio, they all came to magical, dynamic and sweeping life via the sonic imagination of Tony Award winning and Grammy nominated producer and orchestrator Jamshied Sharifi. Lisa tapped him to help bring her visions to life on the heels of the powerful production he created for Shunia. Reflecting the expansive scope of the collection, Lisa’s performances soar above a 14-piece string section (eight violins, three viola, three cello) and an ensemble featuring oboe, French horn, bass clarinet, bassoon, and ethnic instruments like the Uillean pipes, Irish drums and didgeridoo.  

“Once I felt that the music I wrote matched up with how the words made me feel, I emailed Jamshied, remembering the great work we had done previously,” says Lisa. “He was busy with his usual Broadway and film projects when I first wrote him, but the down time during the pandemic allowed him an opening to work on my poetry songs. I sent him rough demos of what I had, he made comments, and we talked back and forth about how to complete bridges and other parts of certain tunes. Then he made synth mock-ups of his arrangements and how he envisioned the production. It became a full-blown collaborative effort. Once Jamshied came on board, I knew this would be a viable recording project.”  

Considering the fresh musical poetry concept and enormity of musical details ultimately involved, one might be inclined to think Lisa started out with a grand vision for What We Need Is Here – yet the truth is much more organic. Knowing she was a poetry fan, Jake Johnson, her friend, colleague and Professor of Musicology at Oklahoma City University’s Wanda Bass School of Music (where Lisa is a Professor of Voice), introduced her to the works of poet Wendell Berry and gave her a copy of his volume This Day: Collected and New Sabbath Poems.

This metaphor stuck with Lisa as she read Berry’s poetry. “Most of the poems in that collection gave me a feeling of closeness to the earth,” she says. “Berry talks about the intelligence of nature and the planet we live on, how it’s all around us and all we have to do is open our eyes and pay attention. When we walk in the forest, we should just be quiet and listen to what it’s saying and even allow ourselves to smell the scents underneath us. He spoke eloquently of the aliveness of the planet and took me there in my emotions.”

Unlike most track-by-track discussions, this collection is perhaps best experienced poet by poet. Lisa’s fond high school remembrance of Robert Frost’s most famous poems manifests beautifully on the back to back bundling of “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “The Road Not Taken.” Her and Jamshied’s dreamy and ethereal yet subtly melancholy approach to the first piece was inspired by the atmospheric aesthetic of one of Lisa’s favorite contemporary composers, Iceland based Olafur Arnalds. At first the poem struck her as a happy poem but when she considered it another way, she tapped into the inherent sadness of “the woods are lovely dark and deep” and took this darker direction.
 

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