Liza Sobel Crane
Composer and Soprano
Listen to the world premiere of Liza's opera, I DID, DID I?
The video of I DID, DID I? is now online! Liza composed the music, and the libretto is by Gina Elia and Liza Sobel Crane. Liza also sang the role of Woman 2. I DID, DID I? was commissioned by the Zafa Collective and premiered at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago. Please note that the opera discusses sexual assault, which may be triggering for some.
Performers: Christina Pecce (Woman 1), Liza Sobel Crane (Woman 2), Suzanne Hannau (flutes), Nico Chona (clarinets), Josh Graham (percussion), Louise Chan (piano), Hannah Christiansen (violin), Kelly Quesada (cello), and Maurice Cohn (conductor)
News
October 2026
Liza co-directs and performs in Kurtág@100 Chicago Festival of György Kurtág
Click here to learn more about the festival
Liza and Dan Galat are co-directing a three part concert festival celebrating the 100th birthday of the Hungarian composer György Kurtág. Bringing together leading performers from Chicago and around the country, the festival will offer an expansive look at Kurtág’s extraordinary body of work.
Across the three programs, audiences will encounter the remarkable variety of Kurtág’s music, from intimate miniatures to expansive chamber works, unusual instrumental combinations, and virtuosic performance techniques. The festival features more than 300 minutes of music, including works that are rarely heard together and rarely performed in the United States.
In addition as part of the festival, Liza and Dan will perform Kurtág's Kafka Fragments for voice and violin in the second concert on October 18th. Kafka Fragments is a 70 minute monumental work. Part song cycle, a diary for Kurtag, and even sometimes a musical theater work with staging instructions. Kurtág brings to life Kafka's writings through his unique use of the voice and violin.
The festival is a collaboration among Fulcrum Point Music, New Music Chicago, Constellation, Experimental Sound Studio, and Bridgeport Music Collective, with support from the Tulipán Foundation’s Cultural Connection Award and Illinois Arts Council.
Festival Performances:
Concert 1 link - Sunday, October 11th, 8:30pm at Constellation
Concert 2 link - Sunday, October 18th, 8:30pm at Constellation
Concert 3 link - Tuesday, October 20th, 7:30pm at Experimental Sound Studio
Liza's composition featured on PBS special
Click here to watch the episode
Liza's composition Soaring is featured on a PBS special, Songs About Buildings and Moods. It pairs new music inspired by architecture. Soaring was inspired by the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago. It featured in Season 2, Episode 5. The show will be broadcast on local PBS stations around the country over the next few months.