“Ginsburg's pairing of poetry with his musical compositions is magical and moving. The recording session was a breath of fresh artistic air to sing and to record for Tommy Krasker and all the good people at PS Classics. This type of music doesn't get as much attention as I wish it would. Hopefully with a cast and orchestra like this, more people will be drawn to the same beauty I hear and feel.” –Jason Danieley


“With material like this, it’s easy to discover little nuances every time you do it, and to find that synergy with other live musicians and a conductor is always true magic. No greater feeling in the world for me.” –Jordan Donica


“I loved this project so very much. It was really a treat to sing this music, and in collaboration with such fine artists." – Elizabeth Stanley

Parting Gift: the Songs of Gerald Ginsburg 

A constellation of stars from the worlds of Broadway and opera come together – for the first time – to record some of the most beautiful music never before collected on an album. Parting Gift: the Songs of Gerald Ginsburg – featuring Shereen Ahmed, Mikaela Bennett, Philip Chaffin, Will Chase, Victoria Clark, Jason Danieley, Adrienne Danrich, Jordan Donica, Colin Donnell, Telly Leung, Paul Lincoln, Patti Murin, Kelli O’Hara, Elena Shaddow, Nathaniel Stampley, Elizabeth Stanley and Lauren Worsham – highlights the composer’s lifelong work at the intersection of musical theatre and art song, a style he dubbed “theater lieder.” Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1932, Ginsburg attended Oberlin and the Manhattan School of Music before embarking on a career as a composer. But after a lauded debut at Carnegie Hall in 1974, self-doubt led Ginsburg to keep much of his music to himself, although he continued to compose for the remainder of his life. When he died, in 2019, the full evidence of his years of solitary work was revealed – an archive of highly lyrical, emotionally moving, and entertaining songs. Now, two dozen musical settings of poetry by such luminaries as W. B. Yeats, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Langston Hughes and E. E. Cummings – scored by Tony-winners Jonathan Tunick, Doug Besterman, Larry Hochman and Michael Starobin, among others, and performed by an orchestra of 17 under the baton of Richard Carsey – are unveiled for the first time. PS Classics is proud to present Parting Gift: the Songs of Gerald Ginsburg, the legacy of an under-recognized composer who channeled his emotions into the intersection of poetry and music – and left behind something glorious.