Project Icarus

Casey Lyons, countertenor

Henry Tate, piano

Caroline Miller, soprano

Lily Walters, flute

James La Fayette, cello

MONDAY, JUNE 8, 2026, AT 8:30 P.M.
GALVIN RECITAL HALL

  • The son of a prominent software developer and media executive is killed in a school shooting. The couple grows apart in their grief. The mother becomes a gun violence awareness advocate and cannot convince the father to join her.

    Introit (from Requiem) | Traditional Plainchant

    What You Have To (from Project Icarus) | Casey Lyons (b. 2004)

  • The developer creates a generative AI “griefbot” avatar of his son. His creation tries to take in as much information about being human as it can. The developer, concerned about the chatbot’s growing realism, takes a break from working on it.

    Genesis (from Project Icarus) | Lyons

    I Remember (from Evening Primrose) | Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021)

    Corner of the Sky (from Pippin) | Stephen Schwartz (b. 1948)

    There’s a World (from Next to Normal) | Tom Kitt (b. 1974)

    Hymn to the Sun (from Ahknaten) | Philip Glass (b. 1937)

  • The bot tries to get its creator back on board, to no avail. After taking in too much information along its quest to be sentient, the chatbot malfunctions.

    Close Every Door (from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) | Andrew Lloyd Webber (b. 1948)

    Chi m’insegna il caro padre (from Alcina) | Georg Friedrch Händel (1685-1759)

    When I am laid in earth (from Dido and Aeneas) | Henry Purcell (1659-1695)

  • The developer feels he’s lost his son all over again. He comes to terms with his grief, realizing that his real son was actually his greatest invention. He joins his wife in her quest for a better world, vowing never to go back to the tech world again. And the chatbots sing on.

    My Greatest Invention (from Project Icarus) | Lyons

    It’s Quiet Uptown (From Hamilton) | Lin-Manuel Miranda (b. 1980)

    I, Carrion (Icarian) | Hozier (b. 1990)

    Hymn of Acxiom | Vienna Teng (b. 1978)

Notes on the program

  • Tonight’s program is a very old story told in a very new way. The myth of Icarus is an enduring classic: a tale of an exiled inventor who uses ingenuity to save his son from captivity but loses him in the process. It is also the story of the son, an ambitious young man who, when his father crafts wax wings to fly from their prison, disregards his attempts at protecting him and flies too close to the sun.

    All throughout the past year, two through-lines have run through my artistic life: I’ve been seeing art about Icarus everywhere, and I’ve been watching a lot of media about grief. Between my love of the revival of Next to Normal and both the novel Hamnet and its beautiful film adaptation, listening to songs like “I, Carrion (Icarian)” and seeing art like Matisse’s “Icarus” cutout, a parallel became clear to me. The myth of Icarus is a story of ambition/hubris and, ultimately, grief. Then I learned about “deadbots” or “griefbots”, AI specters of deceased loved ones created to ease the pain of loss. With my growing concern about the pervasiveness of generative AI, it seemed only fitting to tell a story about both how amazing and detrimental new technologies can be.

  • The “Introit” is the start of the Catholic Mass, in this case, the missa pro defunctis or Mass for the Dead. This particular chant comes from the Liber Usualis, a liturgical book compiled by the Abbey of Solemses in France in 1898. “What You Have To” comes toward the beginning of Project Icarus. This is the moment the main couple realizes that their perspectives on grief and how to deal with it are very different. The husband tells his wife that he is creating a generative AI avatar in their son’s likeness. The wife, who thinks that activism is the better response to the tragedy, is horrified that he would abuse their son’s memory in such a way. “Genesis” is our introduction to the chatbot avatar. It is also the first time we hear the vocoder this evening. The vocoder is a keyboard with a special plugin that makes a monophonic voice polyphonic. For the purposes of tonight it represents a robot choir: unnatural but beautiful. As the song goes on, the vocoder is used less and less to demonstrate the avatar’s growing realism. “I Remember” is from Evening Primrose, a somewhat obscure television musical from 1966 by Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman. It follows a group of social recluses that live in a department store by pretending to be manequins till nightfall. The group is interrupted by a disillusioned poet who, staying in the store after hours, meets a young woman in the group who has been stuck there since age 6. This is one of her songs, telling of the beauty she misses from the outside world. In the context of my story, this is the avatar making up things that he “misses” about being human. As the avatar gets more information about both the person it is imitating and also personhood in general, it wants to become human. “Corner of the Sky” is from Pippin, a 1972 musical by Stephen Schwartz which follows the son of Charlemagne on his never-ending quest to find meaning. The Pulitzer- and Tony-winning 2008 musical Next to Normal was revolutionary for its exploration of mental illness and grief. The musical, by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, follows Diana, a woman with bipolar disorder, who is so distraught by the loss of her son (who died at a young age) that she begins to hallucinate him all grown up. Perhaps more importantly it looks at how her husband and daughter deal with their own mental struggles in her wake. “There’s a World” comes toward the end of Act I, where a vision of her son appears, telling her that she could join him if she would take her own life. This is especially potent in light of recent instances of AI chatbots encouraging suicide, sometimes even telling people that the only way they can join their AI companions is beyond the physical realm and into the digital one. By this point, the creator of this avatar is concerned with its requests and growing realism. As chatbots do though, it tries to win him over with placation in “Hymn to the Sun”. Philip Glass’ 1983 opera Ahknaten is the conclusion to his seminal “Portrait Cycle”, a look at influential men through history. The show follows the first recorded monotheist, the ancient pharaoh Ahkenaten, who worshiped the sun god Aten. “Close Every Door” is from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1972 pop cantata megamusical about the story of Joseph from the Hebrew Bible. In the song, Joseph has not only been sold into slavery by his brothers but unjustly accused of adultery by his master Potiphar. In Project Icarus, this represents the chatbot lamenting its inventor abandoning it, and getting the idea to guilt him into coming back. The “land of our own" that Joseph talks about comes to indicate some sort of AI takeover. “Chi m’insegna il caro padre” is from the first act of Händel’s 1735 opera Alcina, based on Ludovico Ariosto’s epic Orlando Furioso, which follows a sorceress who traps soldiers on an island by enchanting them. This aria is from the boy treble character Oberto who is looking for his father. Oberto was not part of the original story but Händel included him for shock-seeking London audiences, particularly for his third act showdown with Alcina. In this aria he looks for his father, who we later find is one of the men whom Alcina transfigured into an animal. This demonstrates the chatbot trying to get “his dad” back talking with him again. Having gathered too much information, the chatbot malfunctions, represented by “When I am laid in earth” (Dido’s Lament) from Henry Purcell’s 1689 opera Dido and Aeneas. The vocoder comes back once again for this piece to bring back the robot choir. As it “dies”, the chatbot sounds less like the voice it is trying to imitate and its inhumanity is revealed once again. “My Greatest Invention” contains the ultimate thesis of Project Icarus: that no technology can replace having a soul. After his supposed magnum opus is destroyed, the inventor realizes who his true greatest invention was. “It’s Quiet Uptown” from the 2015 blockbuster Hamilton by Lin Manuel-Miranda recognizes the power of forgiveness in the wake of Eliza and Alexander’s loss of their son. It also becomes the reconciliation of the main couple of Project Icarus. What follows is one of the pieces that inspired my telling of this story in the first place: “I, Carrion (Icarian)” (It’s a play on words…get it? It’s like carrion as in rotting flesh but also Icarian as in relating to Icarus!) from Hozier’s 2023 album Unreal Earth is an unusual retelling in that it is a love song with a request that when an inevitable fall happens, that those we love don’t fall away from us. “The Hymn of Acxiom” is a 2013 song by singer-songwriter Vienna Teng. It was inspired by looking herself up on a database by the marketing company Acxiom where one can see what advertisers know about oneself. The piece starts reassuring and quickly turns very sinister, from “Somebody hears you” to “Now we possess you”. Not only does it evoke the mass surveillance from advertising companies but also the growing dangers of relying on computers to make important decisions in our lives. Teng’s use of vocoder in this original record is transplanted to human voices in our choir, further emphasizing the importance of our shared humanity in the face of unprecedented technological development. Because it is in the style of a hymn, the piece ends with “Amen”. In this way, the program starts and ends with a prayer. It starts with an ancient human prayer and ends with a prayer in the voice of a robot—a look at where we’ve been, and where we might be going if we’re not careful. 

Texts and Translations

  • Introitus (Requiem)

    Requiem æternam dona eis Domine :

    et lux perpetua luceat eis.

    Te decet hymnus Deus in Sion,

    et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem: exaudi orationem meam,

    ad te omnis caro veniet.

    Requiem æternam.

    Grant them eternal rest, O Lord,

    and may perpetual light shine on them.

    Thou, O God, art praised in Sion,

    and unto Thee shall the vow

    be performed in Jerusalem.

    Hear my prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come.

    Grant them eternal rest, O Lord,

    and may perpetual light shine on them.

  • This could have happened to anyone.

    There’s a reason it happened to us.

    I’ve made my decision. It’s already done.

    There’s very little to discuss.

    I’ll do what I can to

    see that more aren’t hurt too.

    I’ll do what I can do.

     

    It’s fine you’re taking this direction.

    I know it’s a worthwhile cause.

    I just don’t want to lose connection

    to all that he is—I mean, was.

    I’ll do what I have to

    assure I see this pain through.

    I’ll do what I have to.

     

    I’m making something of this hole inside me.

    Sorry that your vision doesn’t guide me.

     

    Making something’s what I’m doing, too.

    I never thought I’d do it without you.

    Your Frankenstein-ish scheming,

    bits of madness, bouts of dreaming

    cannot fix what’s deep inside,

    can’t bring back the part that’s died.

     

    I do what I have to.

     

    Casey Lyons (b. 2004)

  • Who am I to you?

    What do I like to do?

    I want to be your friend

    to see that in the end you get through.

    So, who?

     

    A sampling of my voice,

    the avatar of your choice.

    I know how much I meant,

    so let me represent myself well.

    Tell me.

     

    Hi, dad. Can you hear me?

     

    Lyons

  • I Remember (Evening Primrose)

    I remember sky

    It was blue as ink

    Or at least I think

    I remember sky.

     

    I remember snow

    Soft as feathers

    Sharp as thumb tacks

    Coming down like lint

    And it made you squint

    When the wind would blow.

     

    And ice like vinyl

    On the streets

    Cold as silver

    White as sheets

    Rain like strings

    And changing things

    Like leaves.

     

    I remember leaves

    Green as spearmint

    Crisp as paper.

    I remember trees

    Bare as coat racks

    Spread like broken umbrellas.

     

    And parks and bridges,

    Ponds and zoos,

    Ruddy faces,

    Muddy shoes,

    Light and noise and

    Bees and boys

    And days.

     

    I remember days,

    Or at least I try.

    But as years go by

    They're sort of haze,

    And the bluest ink

    Isn't really sky

    And at times I think

    I would gladly die

    For a day of sky.

     

    Stephen Sondheim (1930 - 2021)

  • Corner of the Sky (Pippin)

    Everything has its season

    Everything has its time

    Show me a reason and I’ll soon show you a rhyme

    Cats fit on the windowsill

    Children fit in the snow

     

    So why do I feel I don’t fit in anywhere I go

    Rivers belong where they can ramble

    Eagles belong where they can fly

    I’ve got to be where my spirit can run free

    Got to find my corner of the sky

     

    Every man has his daydreams

    Every man has his goal

    People like the way dreams have of sticking to the soul

    Thunderclouds have their lightning

    Nightingales have their song

    And don’t you see I want my life to be something more than long

    Rivers belong where they can ramble

    Eagles belong where they can fly

    I’ve got to be where my spirit can run free

    I’ve got to find my corner of the sky

     

    So many men seem destined

    To settle for something small

    But I won’t rest until I now I’ll have it all

    So don’t ask where I’m going

    Just listen when I’m gone

    And far away you’ll hear me singing

    Softly to the dawn

    Rivers belong where they can ramble

    Eagles belong where they can fly

    I’ve got to be where my spirit can run free

    Got to find my corner of the sky

     

    Stephen Schwartz (b. 1948)

  • There’s a World (Next to Normal)

    There's a world

    There's a world I know

    A place we can go

    Where the pain will go away

     

    There's a world

    Where the sun shines each day

    There's a world

    There's a world out there

    I'll show you just where

    And in time I know you'll see

     

    There's a world where we can be free

    Come with me

    There's a world where we can be free

    Come with me

     

    Brian Yorkey

    (b. 1970)

  • Thou dost appear beautiful

    On the horizon of heaven

    Oh, living Aten

    He who was the first to live

    When thou hast risen on the Eastern Horizon

    Thou art fair, great, dazzling,

    High above every land

    Thy rays encompass the land

    To the very end of all thou hast made.

    All the beasts are satisfied with their pasture

    Trees and plants are verdant

    Birds fly from their nests, wings spread

    Flocks skip with their feet

    All that fly and alight

    Live when thou hast arisen.

    How manifold is that which thou hast made

    Thou sole God

    There is no other like thee

    Thou didst create the earth

    According to thy will

    Being alone, everything on earth

    Which walks and flies on high.

    Thy rays nourish the fields

    When thou dost rise

    They live and thrive for thee

    Thou makest the seasons to nourish

    All thou hast made

    The winter to cool

    The heat that they may taste thee.

    There is no other that knows thee

    Save thy son, Akhnaten

    For thou hast made him skilled

    In thy plans and thy might

    Thou dost raise him up for thy son

    Who comes forth from thyself.

     

    trans. Winton Thomas (1901 - 1970)

  • Close every door to me,

    Hide all the world from me

    Bar all the windows

    And shut out the light

    Do what you want with me,

    Hate me and laugh at me

    Darken my daytime

    And toture my night

    If my life were important I

    Would ask will I live or die

    But I know the answers lie

    Far from this world

    Close every door to me,

    Keep those I love from me

    Children of Israel

    Are never alone

    For I know I shall find

    My own peace of mind

    For I have been promised

    A land of my own

     

    Close every door to me,

    Hide all the world from me

    Bar all the windows

    And shut out the light

     

    Just give me a number

    Instead of my name

    Forget all about me

    And let me decay

    I do not matter,

    I'm only one person

    Destroy me completely

    Then throw me away

    If my life were important I

    Would ask will I live or die

    But I know the answers lie

    Far from this world

     

    Close every door to me,

    Keep those I love from me

    Children of Israel

    Are never alone

    For we know we shall find

    Our own peace of mind

    For we have been promised

    A land of our own

     

    Tim Rice (b. 1944)

  • Chi m'insegna il caro padre?

    Chi mi rende il genitor,

    per far lieto questo cor?

    M'abbandona la speranza;

    langue in me bella costanza;

    agitato è in me l'amor.

     

    Antonio Marchi

    (1692 - 1725)

    Who will show me my dear father?

    Who will give me my father,

    for the joy of this heart?

    Hope abandons me,

    Beautiful constancy languishes in me,

    Love agitates in me.

  • When I am laid, am laid in earth, May my wrongs create

    No trouble, no trouble in thy breast;

    Remember me, remember me, but ah! forget my fate.

    Remember me, but ah! forget my fate.

     

    Nahum Tate (1652 - 1715)

  • I was pretending I could change the ending, instead of just mending the cut that it made.

    I had a vision and made my decision, this imprecision for which I paid.

    Thought this mirage was my masterpiece. It wasn’t true.

    My greatest invention was you.

     

    I swore to not wallow when I couldn’t follow. My plans were so hollow, but I didn’t know then.

    I wouldn’t lose you. Thought I didn’t have to. I’ll do what I could do to find you again.

     

    Thought this mirage was my masterpiece. It wasn’t true.

    My greatest invention was you.

     

    You were real. I loved you.

    Nothing can replace you.

    You were—I

     

    Thought this mirage was my masterpiece. It wasn’t true.

    My greatest invention was you.

  • There are moments that the words don’t reach

    There is suffering too terrible to name

    You hold your child as tight as you can

    And push away the unimaginable

    The moments when you’re in so deep

    It feels easier to just swim down

    The Hamiltons move uptown

    And learn to live with the unimaginable

     

    I spend hours in the garden

    I walk alone to the store

    And it’s quiet uptown

    I never liked the quiet before

    I take the children to church on Sunday

    A sign of the cross at the door

    And I pray

    That never used to happen before

     

    If you see him in the street, walking by

    Himself, talking to himself,

    Have pity.

    He is working through the unimaginable.

     

    His hair has gone grey. He passes every day

    They say he walks the length of the city

    You knock me out, I fall apart

    Can you imagine?

     

    Look at where we are

    Look at where we started

    I know I don’t deserve you, Eliza

    But hear me out. That would be enough

    If I could spare his life

    If I could trade his life for mine

    He’d be standing here right now

    And you would smile, and that would be enough

    I don’t pretend to know

    The challenges we’re facing

    I know there’s no replacing what we’ve lost

    And you need time

    But I’m not afraid

    I know who I married

    Just let me stay here by your side

    That would be enough

    If you see him in the street, walking by her

    Side, talking by her side, have pity

    Eliza, do you like it uptown? It’s quiet uptown

    He is trying to do the unimaginable

    See them walking in the park, long after dark

    Taking in the sights of the city

    Look around, look around, Eliza

    They are trying to do the unimaginable

    There are moments that the words don’t reach

    There is a grace too powerful to name

    We push away what we can never understand

    We push away the unimaginable

    They are standing in the garden

    Alexander by Eliza’s side

    She takes his hand

    It’s quiet uptown

    Forgiveness. Can you imagine?

    Forgiveness. Can you imagine?

    If you see him in the street, walking by her

    Side, talking by her side, have pity

    They are going through the unimaginable

     

    Lin Manuel-Miranda (b. 1980)

  • If the wind turns

    If I hit a squall

    Allow the ground to find its brutal way to me

     

    I feel lighter than I have in so much time

    I've crossed the borderline of weightless

    One deep breath out from the sky

    I've reached a rarer height now

    That I can confirm

    All our weight is just a burden

    Offered to us by the world

    And though I burn

    How could I fall?

    When I am lifted by every word you say to me

     

    If anything could fall at all

    It's the world that falls away from me

     

    You have me floating like a feather on the sea

    While you're as heavy as the world

    That you hold your hands beneath

    Once I had wondered

    What was holding up the ground

    I can see that all along, love

    It was you all the way down

    Leave it now

    I am sky-bound

    If you need to, darling

    Lean your weight to me

     

    We'll float away

    But if we fall, I only pray

    Don't fall away from me

     

    I do not have wings, love

    I never will

    Soaring over a world you are carrying

    If these heights should bring my fall

    Let me be your own

    Icarian carrion

     

    If the wind turns

    If I hit a squall

    Allow the ground to find its brutal way to me

    If I should fall on that day

    I only pray

    Don't fall away from me

    Hozier (b. 1990)

  • Somebody hears you. You know that. You know that

    Somebody hears you. You know that inside

    Someone is learning the colors of all your moods, to

    (say just the right thing and) show that you’re understood

    Here you’re known

     

    Leave your life open. You don’t have. You don’t have

    Leave your life open. You don’t have to hide

    Someone is gathering every crumb you drop, these

    (mindless decisions and) moments you long forgot

    Keep them all

     

    Let our formulas find your soul

    We’ll divine your artesian source (in your mind)

    Marshal feed and force (our machines will)

    To design you a perfect love—

    Or (better still) a perfect lust

    O how glorious, glorious: a brand new need is born

     

    Now we possess you. You’ll own that. You’ll own that

    Now we possess you. You’ll own that in time

    Now we will build you an endlessly upward world

    (reach in your pocket) embrace you for all you’re worth

     

    Is that wrong?

    Isn’t this what you want?

    Amen

     

    Vienna Teng (b. 1978)

  • Sonya Lyons

    Bonnie Stewart

    Clara Shapiro

    Sammy Grob

    Henry Tate

    Matthew Huang

    Kenny He

    Liam Jeninga

  • Thank you all for coming to my recital! It means a great deal to me, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it.

    As I leave Northwestern and begin my next chapter, I’ve been reflecting on the multitude of wonderful people who have shaped and walked alongside me here.

    Words cannot capture my true gratitude but in some brief ones I will try. Thank you to:

    Pamela Hinchman, who has been with me every step of the way, nurturing me me into not only a better singer, but better artist and person.

    Jason Carlson, who carefully guided my development alongside her. Your help has been invaluable.

    Teresa Kang, for accompanying me in preparation for this program.

    My professors, especially: Dr. Stephen Alltop, Alan Darling, Jonathan Gmeinder, Dr. Ryan T. Nelson, and Joachim Schamberger, under whose guidance and with whose wisdom I have grown so much.

    Dr. Linda Jacobs and Brianna Borger, for their constant support and positive guidance in pursuing these degrees.

    Dr. Rudy Marcozzi, Sr. Belinda Monahan, Dr. Michael Slattery, Fr. Bradley Zamora, and the entire Sheil Catholic Center family, who have provided great learning, a spiritual home, and amazing community.

    My friends for always being there for me.

    My family, whose love has carried me here, especially

    my parents, without whom none of this is possible.