Baritone Will Liverman Sets New Album 'The Dunbar/Moore Sessions Vol. II'

On Friday, June 27, 2025, GRAMMY® Award-winning baritone Will Liverman will release the second volume of The Dunbar/Moore Sessions on all digital platforms via Lexicon Classics. The first single, Farewell, is out now, featuring soprano Erin Morley and Liverman on piano. 

Set to the late 19th and early 20th-century poetry of writer/activists Paul Laurence Dunbar and Alice Dunbar-Moore, Liverman’s original songs draw from the full spectrum of sounds and traditions that have shaped Liverman’s musical life —classical, musical theater, gospel, jazz, and more. The album features performances by GRAMMY® winners Isabel Leonard, Erin Morley, and Liverman himself; GRAMMY® nominee and Broadway star Mykal Kilgore; international opera stars Jacqueline Echols, Joshua Blue, Adam Richardson,, and Ann Toomey; violin virtuoso Lady Jess; and cello virtuoso Lindsey Sharpe. 

The songs on this project showcase Liverman’s dynamic vocal talent and his unique approach to songwriting, blending harmony and melody in ways that redefine what classical art songs can be. A second single, Night, featuring vocalist Mykal Kilgore, will be released on May 23.

Volume II follows the October 27, 2023 debut issue of the project, which was nominated for a Libera Award for Best Classical Album. Lexicon Classics will release the Complete Collection: Vol. I & II on limited-edition CD and vinyl on Friday, July 25, 2025.

Liverman shares, “This album is my first full collection of original art song compositions—a personal milestone in my creative journey. In undergrad, I didn’t enjoy singing art songs, but my teacher insisted I learn them. Over time, I came to appreciate the form for its intimacy and emotional focus. Art song, to me, has become a space of creative freedom—one that can embrace multiple forms of expression.

“Though I’ve always loved writing music, I never studied composition and didn’t feel I had permission to create. That changed during the pandemic, when space and stillness invited me to explore. I began writing songs from a deep love of melody, text, and storytelling. I felt most fulfilled when combining those passions.

A special joy in this project has been collaborating from the piano—returning to my first musical love. To shape these pieces from the keyboard, as both composer and performer, has made the experience deeply personal and creatively complete.

This album features settings of poems by Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson and Paul Laurence Dunbar—two writers whose words have inspired so much of this project. Their voices helped me find mine.” Dunbar, a renowned poet, died young, and Moore-Dunbar continued to use his name in her work for women's rights, civil rights, and anti-lynching legislation until her passing in 1935.

About Will Liverman

Liverman has been praised internationally for his versatility in dramatic and comedic operatic roles and his dedication and vision as a composer, artist, and advisor helping to drive forward the evolution of the performing arts industry. He is co-creator of the acclaimed multi-genre soul opera The Factotum which premiered in a sold-out production at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2023.

Recent and upcoming highlights include an appearance with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival, Le nozze di Figaro at Washington National Opera, Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Houston Grand Opera, Messiah with the San Francisco Symphony and Music of the Baroque, Bernstein’s Mass with Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Die Zauberflöte with St. Louis Symphony, and more.