Projects

Concept-driven work that goes beyond the recital hall — ideas explored through performance, collaboration, and writing.

Robin McGinness in a red dress on painted capitol steps reading 'You Are So Loved'
Recording Project · November 2026

Civil Words: An American Album

The first commercial recording of Jennifer Higdon's Civil Words, a Civil War song cycle for baritone and piano — recorded at Sono Luminus with pianist John Henderson, alongside Samuel Barber's Three Songs, Op. 10 and Charles Ives's Three Songs of the War.

Three American composers, one unbroken line from the Civil War through World War I, all asking the same question: what does war cost the people who live through it?

Follow the Recording →
Robin McGinness and John Henderson pointing at a Songs of Dissent concert poster on a Baltimore sidewalk
Recital Program · Baritone & Piano

Songs of Dissent

A recital of American song focused on speaking out — from Jennifer Higdon's Civil Words and Ives's World War I songs to Kurt Weill's anti-fascist satire, a setting of Swift's A Modest Proposal, and My Dearest Ruth, written for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Full Program & Notes → Book This Program →
Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface, Apollo 11 — NASA photograph
Song Cycle · Premiered 2011

Apollo

An eleven-song, half-hour cycle built from the transcripts of the Apollo 11 mission — the voices of Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and mission control, set to music.

Written to bring attention to the state of the space program by revisiting the greatest journey ever undertaken. After its premiere, the cycle was recorded and expanded with NASA video footage, premiering at IngenuityFest 2012 in Cleveland.

In movement #5, "Thanksgiving," the piano part contains Morse code rhythms spelling Houston, Tranquility, landing, and Moon separately — converging at the end to encode "Peace."

Watch & Read More →
Recital Program · 50 Minutes · Baritone & Piano

Fantastical Lieder

A recital exploring the different ways German Lieder capture our imaginations — from the ghoulishness of Wolf's Der Feuerreiter to the charming romanticism of Schumann's settings of Eichendorff poetry.

Sample program (PDF) ↗

Book This Program →

From the stage

Velvet Rage, Act 2 — dancing before a bronze statue in a museum court
Velvet Rage, Act 2
Robin McGinness in The Cradle Will Rock (In Series), arms spread at the podium
The Cradle Will Rock — In Series
Robin McGinness in Alceste (In Series), gold lion headdress
Alceste — In Series
More photos & video

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