Joan Reinthaler
Washington Post

The jagged first movement (it's titled ``Crags'' - each movement depicts a kind of landscape) has the instruments imitating each other, sometimes wildly, as if in a competitive improvisation. The slow ``Slopes'' movement brings to mind images of a lazy summer afternoon, the two musical lines gently intertwining, with the clarinet going off on occasional flights of fancy. And in the finale, ``Bumps,'' the instruments do mock battle in a joyful cat-and-mouse game. Who wins? The listener."

T.J. Medrek
Boston Herald

River of Love, a celebration of Shaker music

…premiere of a new work crafted around Shaker themes by Eric Sawyer, called The Humble Heart …a cantata based on traditional texts from the American Shakers, centering on community rites of humility and mystical experience. [Sawyer] scores parts of the work for children, both singing and playing instruments, to highlight the role of children in Shaker communities as well as to echo the attitude of simplicity and playfulness present in many of his chosen texts.

Clifton J. Noble Jr.
Springfield Examiner

Boston , Massachusetts

Richard Buell
The Boston Globe

Our American Cousin, Amherst Gazette

"...The music is so beautiful and so startling that it really expresses the essence of [Lincoln], of the event and the wrenching change of the times, ...There's a rawness to it that really opens your heart up to that and [echoes] what [so many of us] are feeling right now."

CD Review:Fanfare Magazine, Issue 32:2

...this is one of the freshest, most ambitious new American operas I've heard in ages. Instead of taking up once again some cinematic or literary retread, it actually dares to use original material. And it also dares to take up historical events and musical tropes without succumbing to mere costume drama. The above criticism aside, I appreciate, admire, and enjoy Sawyer's voice. And I hope this is only the first of Shoptaw's librettos. As a first collaboration, the result is stunning.

Robert Carl

Big themes, big performances boost 'Our American Cousin'

…[Our American Cousin] has several passages where words and music come together exquisitely. One is the series of choruses in Act I, when the Ford's Theatre audience turns and reforms into groups representing the war's human aftermath - amputees, freedmen, nurses, carpetbaggers, etc., singing words culled from real diaries and letters. Here is Sawyer's most beautiful music, drenched in a bittersweet chromaticism reminiscent of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. These, and a final chorus condemning the cycle of "blood for blood," might well be packaged separately. They speak clearly to our day.

David Perkins, Boston Globe

Eric Sawyer’s Opera About Lincoln’s Assassination Premières

…The work is overall an impressive achievement. The opening act is filled with a sense of dark intrigue and anticipation. The portion drawn from the original play, primarily in Act II, is light and entertaining. The final portion is more somber and contemplative... this work deserves many future productions because of its superior artistic, albeit highly intellectual qualities.

Marvin J. Ward, Classical Voice of New England

'Cousin' opera recounts Lincoln assassination

NORTHAMPTON - In opera, anything can happen as long as you sing about it. In Eric Sawyer and John Shoptaw's new opera "Our American Cousin," the events immediately surrounding President Abraham Lincoln's assassination were examined operatically through the eyes of the actors in the play the president came to Ford's Theater to attend that fateful evening...more

Clifton J. Noble Jr.
The Republican

The Ives Quartet presents
Sawyer's Quartet #2

"The highlight of the evening,.... Eric Sawyer's Quartet No. 2, was immediately appealing and left me looking forward to further performances of this composer's work. The second movement in particular was memorable, combining beautiful melodic material presented in the kind of deeply personal and heartfelt counterpoint reminiscent of a late Beethoven quartet.

...The other movements, lighter in character, were also attractive on first hearing. Sawyer clearly knows how to write for string quartet, filling his music with lots of interesting interplay, unpredictable rhythmic flashes, and virtuosic challenges. It all added up to a premiere that was thought provoking, moving, and altogether entertaining. "

Steven Miller
San Francisco Classical Voice

Strings magazine

"This quartet [String Quartet #3] has echoes of early 20th century lyricism while still being completely contemporary. It is a terrific piece.

...these Bagatelles [ Five Bagatelles for cello and piano] are brief and witty, and would make a wonderful addition to any cellist's repertoire."

Sarah Freiberg
Strings

Composers in Red Sneakers concert

Eric Sawyer knows how to write for chorus, and his Three Choruses from Ecclesiastes, shiningly sung by The Seraphim Singers, was notable for fine prosody and meaningful, pleasant harmonies: it recalled Samuel Barber’s Reincarnations cycle.

Stephen Marc Beaudoin