Featuring three world premiere song cycles and the premiere of three scenes from the opera Two Soldiers.
The Diversions label is thrilled to announce a showcase of the vocal music of Chicago-based composer Doug Lofstrom with baritone Ryan De Ryke, soprano Kim Jones, tenor Ryan Townsend Strand, and pianist Daniel Schlosberg for release on12 September 2025.
Composer Doug Lofstrom first met Ryan De Ryke and Daniel Schlosberg in 2014 when they gave a lecture about setting words to music for his composition class at Columbia College Chicago. After their presentation, Lofstrom immediately suggested they work together, resulting in these recordings of the song cycles, Three Sandburg Songs, All Must End, and finally the ambitious cycle Myths and Accidents.
It was after the completion of the recordings of these song cycles that Lofstrom decided he had was ready for the first recordings of scenes from his opera, Two Soldiers. Two Soldiers began in 1989 as a collaboration with librettist Al Day and was supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council, and premiered in 1990 by the Free Street Theater at the University of Illinois, Chicago. In 2020, COVID provided Lofstrom with a window for a full-scale revision with a new vocal score, full orchestra, and all-new video technology. These recordings serve as a launch point for the next step in the life of this new work.
Set against a backdrop of world conflagration in the 1940s, Two Soldiers explores the themes of destiny and choice, of survival and enlightenment. It follows two very different soldiers, one Russian and one German, through their wartime experiences. Throughout, Two Soldiers employs sweeping historical perspective in a grand opera style. The full opera features a large cast, chorus, and orchestra, and projections of WWII documentary film. In this recording, we are treated to the voices of Ryan de Ryke, soprano Kim Jones, and tenor Ryan Townsend Strand along with the pianist Daniel Schlosberg and a session chamber orchestra.
Track List:
Myths and Accidents (Alan Robert Day, librettist)
All Must End
Three Sandburg Songs
Three Scenes from the opera Two Soldiers
1. Act I, Scene V: Dark Clouds Above
2. Act II, Scene I: Duo Soliloquy
3. Act III, Scene VII: Dream Sequence
About Doug Lofstrom
Bassist and composer Doug Lofstrom has been performing and composing since the 1970’s, and his diverse scores and recordings reflect his ongoing involvement in jazz, folk, theater, dance and symphonic music. In the 1990’s, he was composer-in-residence for the Metropolis Symphony Orchestra and during the 80’s, musical director of Chicago’s Free Street Theatre. His works have been performed by the St. Louis, Atlanta and Oregon Symphony Orchestras, and the Present Music and CUBE chamber ensembles.
Highlights of his work include scores for the Pittsburgh Ballet, Midwest Ballet and Natya Dance Theatres. Commissions include three concertinos for the New Philharmonic Orchestra and three works for the Evansville, IN “musictelling” group Tales and Scales. In 2001, Lofstrom formed The New Quartet, a versatile chamber ensemble which performs his original music and arrangements of modern classics, jazz and world music. He has been on the music faculty of Columbia College Chicago since 1986, and founded and directed their New Music Ensemble from 2000 until 2016.
Many of his more recent works involve voices – either as soloists or chorus – including the music represented on this album. Other music has been composed or arranged for specific ensembles: Columbia’s New Music Ensemble, Doug Lofstrom and the New Quartet, and most recently the jazz/spoken word group The Last Word. Lofstrom feels keenly the need for his music to be performed and has spent much of his career creating opportunities for that to happen.
No matter its origins, genre or presentation, Lofstrom’s music strives for clarity, rhythmic vitality and directness of expression. His music – whether performed live or recorded – exists to create a bridge between himself and his audience, where communication can flourish on many levels.
About Ryan de Ryke
Ryan de Ryke (baritone) is an artist whose versatility and unique musical presence have endeared him to audiences in the worlds of song, musical theater, early music, oratorio, and concert music. He has performed at many of the leading international music festivals including the Aldeburgh and Edinburgh Festivals in the UK and the summer festival at Aix-en-Provence in France, garnering significant acclaim as both a recitalist and singing actor. Ryan studied at the Peabody Conservatory with John Shirley Quirk, the Royal Academy of Music in London with Ian Partridge, and at the National Conservatory of Luxembourg with Georges Backes. He is also an alumnus of the Britten-Pears Institute in the UK and the Schubert Institute in Austria where he worked with great artists of the song world such as Elly Ameling, Wolfgang Holzmair, Julius Drake, Rudolf Jansen, and Helmut Deutsch.
Although Ryan’s first love is song, he is also known for his work in the Early Music community. His performances with Haymarket Opera have been heralded by the Chicago Tribune among their top 5 list, and his interpretations of oratorio are enthusiastically received. Ryan is also an accomplished recording artist who rose to attention with his first CD, “A Wanderer’s Guitar,” on which he collaborates with guitarist Brandon Acker to present Schubert songs. He also appears on the CD “Final Fantasy, Distant Worlds,” conducted by Arnie Roth of Mannheim Steamroller.
During the pandemic, Ryan starred as the eponymous role in a film of Handel’s “Apollo and Dafne” which was streamed by The Metropolitan Opera and The Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Ryan is particularly proud of his latest CD released by Naxos with pianist Eva Mengelkoch of songs by Albrecht Mendelssohn. The American Record Guide hails his “warm and expressive” singing on this album while Fanfare declares that the songs from “Des Knaben Wunderhorn,” “fit the baritone like a glove.”
About Daniel Schlosberg
Pianist Daniel Schlosberg leads a kaleidoscopic musical life. He has appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in numerous chamber music and new music concerts, and also as featured soloist in subscription performances of Messiaen’s “Trois Petites Liturgies.” He has a passion for contemporary music, was a founding member of Yarn/Wire, and has given the world premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’s “Starlight Ribbons” for solo piano and the US premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Calices with violinist Austin Wulliman. He has recorded for the Albany, Bridge, Bright Shiny Things, Centaur, Navona, New World, Nimbus, Jacaranda and Permelia labels.
In the art song realm, he was on staff at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute and was the founder of the Baltimore Lieder Weekend. His release with soprano Laura Strickling, 40@40, reached #1 on the Billboard charts and garnered the duo a GRAMMY® nomination. Other recent projects include Mahler/Zemlinsky: Symphony No 6 (arr. 4-hands) at the National Gallery of Art and Ravinia, and multiple appearances at Bargemusic in Brooklyn. His most recent release is “Mere Mortals” with violinist Caitlin Edwards.
Based in Chicago, he is on faculty at the University of Notre Dame, where he is also advisor to the student Table Tennis Club. danielschlosberg.com
