Jonathan Retzlaff, lyric baritone, is Associate Professor of Voice at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. He holds the Bachelor of Music degree from Millikin University, the Master of Music degree from Wichita State University and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Arizona State University. He returns each summer to teach on the voice faculty at the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria. Devoted to both performance and pedagogy, Retzlaff's background includes a rich knowledge of the art song repertoire which serves as foundation for the wealth of literature in Exploring Art Song Lyrics.

Cheri Montgomery, lyric soprano, is a member of the voice faculty at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, where she teaches private voice, English, Italian, German, and French diction. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree and Master of Music degree in vocal performance from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Extensive language studies led her to the authorship and publication of the Lyric Diction Workbook Series. Mrs. Montgomery's texts have been adopted by major universities across the U.S. and in Canada. Her article, The Dynamic Diction Classroom, is published in the September/October 2011 issue of the Journal of Singing.

"Finally! One book containing our standard song repertoire and much more--meticulously transcribed and beautifully translated. This is the book we will keep closest at hand and recommend to our students. Times 750, herein lies linguistic access to the lyricism, pathos and drama that is song." --Margo Garrett, Professor of Collaborative Piano and Vocal Arts, The Juilliard School

"Superior, inclusive, informative, and best of all, very well-organized and easy to use! Exploring Art Song Lyrics has my highest recommendation!" --Warren Jones, Pianist, Faculty, Manhattan School of Music, and The Music Academy of the West

"Exploring Art Song Lyrics by Jonathan Retzlaff and Cheri Montgomery is a valuable resource for voice teachers and students of art song alike. It is the most comprehensive phonetic book on the market and includes over 750 readings of ariette, Lieder and mélodies, many of which have never been previously published. I cannot recommend this book highly enough as ancillary material for any voice studio." --Shirley Close, Associate Professor of Voice, Florida State University

"Retzlaff and Montgomery have provided all singers and teachers a very useful resource. The 750 texts are representative of the standard repertoire and the pronunciation guides are well-conceived. This text should be in the library of all who love the singing art." --Stephen King, Professor of Voice, The Shepherd School of Music, Rice University, Houston Grand Opera Studio