EVERY LOVER IS A WARRIOR (2006)
"An innovative composer moved to write for the instrument after encountering a major player…in Every Lover Is a Warrior, the promising young composer Kati Agócs spins folk materials into a powerful, ruminative suite. Add it all up, and calling this a strong contender for the year’s most distinguished debut CD doesn’t seem like an overstatement.”
- TIME OUT NEW YORK, Review of CD Love is Come Again by harpist Bridget Kibbey (Steve Smith)
“The other works on the program [Britten’s Suite for Harp, Carter’s Bariolage, and Hindemith’s Sonata for Harp] are about what the notes say, as opposed to the program’s world premiere, Every Lover is a Warrior, by the 30-year-old composer Kati Agócs, which is more about what the notes suggest. The music itself is like a series of haiku poems, written with an economy that allowed room for the listener to contemplate a multiplicity of meaning as well as the subtle interruptions in symmetry that told you that nothing was what it seemed. With Kibbey’s atmospheric range of articulation, the piece seemed as fine as any around it.”
- THE PHILADELPHIA ENQUIRER, Review of recital by harpist Bridget Kibbey, March 2006 (David Patrick Stearns)
"Sensitively scored...naturally attuned to the harp's evocative qualities"
- THE WASHINGTON POST, Review of recital by Bridget Kibbey, March 2011 (Joe Banno)
“John Riley”, a movement from a work for solo harp called Every Lover is a Warrior, freely adapted an Appalachian song that cycled prettily through a number of decorative variations. Guest artist Ina Zdorovetchi, the coordinator of the Boston Conservatory harp program, played it with an elegant and relaxed virtuosity.
- THE BOSTON MUSICAL INTELLIGENCER, Hub New Music Debuts with “Strength in Fragility”, 24 January 2016 (Brian Schuth)
The virtuosic first movement of Every Lover Is a Warrior, based on the Appalachian ballad “John Riley,” had harpist Ina Zdorovetchi wheeling and tumbling through the octaves, drawing out striking, earthy tones. The solo instrument became a full bluegrass ensemble, both melody and rhythm.
- THE BOSTON GLOBE, Hub New Music Transports with all-Kati Agócs program, 27 January2 016 (Zoë Madonna)
“Otherworldly is Kati Agócs’s John Riley, a kind of bluegrass for the harp based on an Appalachian folk tune, played with a dreamy sense of longing.” - THE HARP COLUMN, Review of “Quest” by Elisabeth Remy Johnson, December 2021 (Alison Young)