Baritone Will Liverman Signs Publishing Deal with Just a Theory Press

Baritone Will Liverman has signed a publishing deal with Just a Theory Press. The contract begins with the release of three works in four editions, available now in print and as PDF downloads.

The centerpiece is "Collected Songs," published in two separate volumes: one for high/medium voice and piano, one for medium/low voice and piano. The collection includes original works, among them "Love Song," new arrangements of spirituals, and selections from The Dunbar/Moore Sessions.

How did a singer without composition training end up here?

Liverman began composing during the pandemic. His first song was a setting of Paul Laurence Dunbar's "A Golden Day," commissioned by soprano Lauren Snouffer. From there he was drawn deeper into Dunbar's poetry and into the writing of Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Dunbar's former wife.

In a statement, Liverman addressed the unusual path directly. "Though I've always loved writing music, I never studied composition and didn't feel I had permission to create," he said. "That changed during the pandemic, when space and stillness invited me to explore."

He added: "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."

What do the two volumes actually contain?

The volumes overlap but do not duplicate each other. They share several songs, many of them offered in a choice of two keys, and each volume includes songs the other does not.

• The high/medium volume includes a duet setting of "There Is a Balm in Gilead."
• The medium/low volume includes "A Tribute to Mr. JFK" and "Birmingham Sunday."
• Both volumes draw on The Dunbar/Moore Sessions and new spiritual arrangements.

The two-key option matters for working singers. It signals that these editions are built for the recital and studio market, not merely for the archive — a practical choice that self-taught composer-performers often make first.

What does this change for Liverman's profile?

The move reframes a singer known primarily on the opera stage as a published composer with a catalog other singers can program. Liverman's own account stresses the point: he shaped the pieces "as both composer and performer," which he calls "deeply personal and creatively complete."

The claim deserves a caveat, as claims do. A first publishing deal with three works does not establish a compositional career on its own; reception, performances by other artists, and future output will decide that. What it does establish is distribution — print and PDF, in editions spanning voice types, from a press now handling the business side.

What that means concretely: singers at any fach can now buy and program Liverman's songs immediately. Whether they do, and how often, is the question the next few seasons will answer.