About

About the Band

Likeness to Lily is a Brooklyn band, featuring singer-songwriter Susan Oetgen, pianist Tony Melone, bass player Ian M. Riggs and drummer Evan Pazner*. Formed by Susan in 2003 after a ‘blessing-in-disguise’ vocal injury sidetracked her opera career, Likeness to Lily is named in honor of her great-grandmother, and for an old legend which declares that these mythic flowers will bloom out of the dirt wherever a saint sheds her tears.
Distinct for the classic lyricism heard in Susan’s melodies, and for the adroit harmonies and rhythms cultivated by Tony, Ian and Evan, Likeness to Lily’s songs are musical portraits of the world they inhabit, at once intimately confessional and operatically universal, modern and timeless. Susan’s writing is at the core of each composition. Much in the same way that classical composers set poetry to music, Susan translates her words into melody, which in turn becomes the raw material of the band’s collaborative arrangement process. Song arrangements vary from scored parts to conversational, dynamic improvisation, given Susan’s opera background and Tony, Evan and Ian’s shared jazz chops. The end result is a musical alchemy that reflects an ever-expanding circle of influences that range from Baroque opera and 19th C. French melodies, to Tin Pan Alley classics, to Joni Mitchell, Suzanne Vega, and Loreena McKennitt, all the way to Cynthia Hopkins, Jeremiah Lockwood, Howard Fishman, Pyeng Threadgill, Aprille Goodman, Chris Parrello and so many other friends and colleagues in Brooklyn’s thriving indie-music scene. Easy to recognize and hard to define, Likeness to Lily’s music is, above all, true to its own sweet soul.

In March 2008, Likeness to Lily premiered an original multimedia song-cycle entitled Bazm-o-Razm on the Brooklyn Philharmonic’s Music off the Walls series at the Brooklyn Museum, featuring chamber musicians from the Brooklyn Philharmonic, original drawings and projections by artist Justin Waldstein, Iraq War photos by Pulitzer Prize-nominee Alan Chin, and choreography by Sahar Javedani. Bazm-o-Razm was reprised at The Performance Project @ University Settlement in May 2008, at Galapagos Art Space in December 2008, and on the Music on MacDougal Series in January 2009.

The quartet plays regularly in the downtown music clubs of New York City, and occasionally in other East Coast cities from Washington, DC to North Bennington, VT. Releases include Solitude’s Dollhouse (2005), which features the song ‘Jewelia’, as heard on A&E Television’s prime-time reality show, Random 1, and Farewell, Recruit (2008), which contains the complete music of Bazm-o-Razm.

Likeness to Lily is currently developing their first evening-length multimedia music-theater work, with collaborators Justin Waldstein (visual arts) and Alison Fleminger (dramaturg), as Artist-in-Residence at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center in downtown Manhattan.

*In years past, Likeness to Lily has been honored to include David Durst (piano), Ben Herson (drums) and Jeremiah Lockwood (guitar) as regular members. Many additional special guests have contributed their talents to our performances and recordings, including Marlan Barry (cello), Taylor Bergren-Chrisman (bass), John Bollinger (drums), Spencer Cohen (drums), Pete Galub (guitar), Joel Hamilton (sound design), Peter Hess (flute, clarinet), Cynthia Hopkins (accordion), Dana Leong (cello), Andrea LaRose (flute), Kevin Louis (trumpet), Max Moston (violin), Richard Miller (guitar), Franz Nicolay (accordion), Jody Redhage (cello), Philippa Thompson (violin), Jeremy Thal (French horn), and David Wechsler (flute).

For the full discography, see Music.

Critical Acclaim

“Likeness to Lily shows style, taste, and in the lyrics, a delicately honed view of the human condition.” – Randall Woolf, Composer in Residence, Brooklyn Philharmonic

About Bazm-o-Razm: “A beautiful show that wound itself in and through the entire venue, Likeness to Lily crafted an evening unlike any we’ve had.” – Robert Elmes, Director, Galapagos Art Space

“An open-minded rocker that likes to keep certain elements of her music subtle while throwing others wildly in your face, Likeness to Lily tosses catchy melodies and thick grooves” – from the smother.net review of Solitude’s Dollhouse (Editor’s Pick).

Booking and Press Info

• Electronic Press Kit (right click/control click to download a copy):
  • Likeness to Lily Press Kit (PDF, 128K)
• Documents for Bazm-o-Razm song cycle:
  • Bazm-o-Razm Project Description and Critical Acclaim (PDF, 98K)
  • Bazm-o-Razm Tech Specs (PDF, 110K)

For booking or press inquiries, please contact us.