Michael Colina’s Requinauts, recently released on Naxos with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Chorus, has received wide attention and praise for its excellence.
Read the Opera News review here.
Purchase the CD here.
by Bill
by Bill
Joshua Roman, the former 22-year-old principal of the Seattle Symphony, returned as soloist in December to give the premiere of Mason Bates’ new Cello Concerto. The Seattle Times writes “Bates’ history in techno music is evident in the strong rhythmic pulse of the concerto, which culminate in a fast-moving ‘Leger’ finale that starts off as a high-spirited jig and moves on to passages of phenomenal dexterity.”
by Bill
Gil Shaham gave the premiere of David Bruce’s new Violin Concerto “Fragile Light” with the San Diego Symphony in three performances over 12-14 December, with a further performance already scheduled for Palm Springs in January.
The performance had a profound effect on Garrett Harris from SanDiegoReader.com who said about the piece “It took me deep… I’m not sure where I was headed but it was a place I’ve never been to before with music… How can you like something that changes your perception of what music is capable of?… It’s beyond ‘like,’ it’s beyond ‘love.’ ” and Ken Herman at San Diego Story said “this Violin Concerto has a future,” calling it a “serious, probing accomplishment.”
by Bill
by Bill
With music and concept by Laura Kaminsky, libretto by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed, the opera As One was given its premiere by American Opera Projects at the BAM Fisher Theater in September of 2014. The production featured a film by Kimberly Reed, and was universally praised for its honesty and originality.
A rich addition to the repertoire … formidable on all fronts … As One is everything that we hope for in contemporary opera: topical, poignant, daring, and beautifully written.”
– New York Classical Review
“Artistically distinguished, socially important … says so much with relatively modest means.”
– WQXR
As One, … satisfies in an entertaining and delicately moving way.”
– New York Observer
A piece that haunts and challenges its audience with questions about identity, authenticity, compassion and the human desire for self-love and peace.”
– Opera News
As One forces you to think, simultaneously challenging preconceptions and inspiring empathy…[with] winning humor and a satisfying emotional arc.”
– The New York Times
“Perfect Boy” from As One [excerpt] from American Opera Projects on Vimeo.
Mezzo-Soprano, Baritone, String Quartet (requires a conductor, who plays a small role in the piece).
Order the CD
You can download the libretto here.
For additional information, visit the AS ONE website here.
To obtain a quote on licensing As One for performance, please fill out a request here.
Opera News Interview with Laura Kaminsky on Premiere of Musical Opera As One
Kaminsky One of Eight Recipients of Opera America’s Grant for Female Composers
“A Christmas Story” [excerpt] from As One from American Opera Projects on Vimeo.
“Out of Nowhere” [excerpt] from As one from American Opera Projects on Vimeo.
“As One” is the hottest title in opera right now, at least among the titles written in the last 100 years. The musical tale of a transgender woman’s personal evolution is somehow right on time–an accomplished bit of art-making, with considerable entertainment value, that thrusts itself smack into the current political and social discourse.
It’s in Denver this week week. Pittsburgh last. Seattle produced it in November and folks in New Orleans and Los Angeles get to hear it this spring. The chamber piece, which premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in late 2014, has a rare vitality in a business where new works–including the good ones–have to fight for even a second show.
Opera companies love it. One reason is that it’s relatively inexpensive to present: no chorus, orchestra or big sets. Composer Laura Kaminsky’s creation has just two singers, a string quartet and a couple of temporary screens that show films in the background.
But that’s why audiences seem to like it, too. It’s intimate. All the complaints so frequently lodged against the art form–that it can be distant, formal and out-of-touch, aren’t a factor for “As One.” Nor is length; it clocks in at just 75 minutes.
December 19, 2014 – Excellence in Opera (“Freddie”) Award
Operavore
December 18, 2014 – Slate
The Uses of “Trans” in Art
October 2, 2014 – GAY CITY NEWS
Opera review: “New Starts”
September 11, 2014 – OUT MAGAZINE
Opera review: “A Transgender Woman’s Operatic Path to Self-Acceptance”
September 10, 2014 – NY OBSERVER
Opera review: “An Emotional Before-and-After Opera of Gender Transformation Premieres at BAM”
September 9, 2014 – Q ON STAGE
Opera review: “Magnificent ‘As One'”
September 9, 2014 – THE FILM EXPERIENCE
Opera review: “Stage Door: ‘As One’ by Kimberly Reed”
September 2014 – OPERA NEWS
Opera review: “As One BROOKLYN American Opera Projects”
September 5, 2014 – THE NEW YORK TIMES
Opera review: “The Arc of a Transgender Life”
September 5, 2014 – NEW YORK CLASSICAL REVIEW
Opera review: “Kaminsky’s transgender opera “As One” makes a poignant and remarkable premiere”
September 5, 2014 – WQXR: OPERAVORE
Opera review: “Opera As One Explores Gender Change, Identity Struggles”
September 5, 2014 – PARTERRE.COM
Opera review: “outskirts”
September 4, 2014 – WWFM: CADENZA
Opera profile: “As One”
September 4, 2014 – HUFFINGTON POST
Opera profile: “‘As One’ Opera Brings Husband And Wife Stars Together For Heartfelt Transgender Role”
September 3, 2014 – GAY CITY NEWS
Opera profile: “The Voyage to Oneness”
September 2, 2014 – BK LIVE
Opera profile: Video Interview: “As One”
September 2, 2014 – BROOKLYN DAILY
Opera profile: “Husband and wife share role of transgender woman in new opera”
September 2014 – OPERA NEWS
Composer/Opera profile: “Hearing Both Sides”
Fall 2014 – OPERA AMERICA MAGAZINE
Composer/Opera profile: “Are Women Different?”
July 17, 2014 – THE ADVOCATE
Opera profile: “Husband and Wife to Share Role in Trans Opera”
July 10, 2014 – WQXR: OPERAVORE
Opera profile: “What to Hear in NYC Opera and Vocal Music”
by Bill
One of the most notorious scandals in American history comes to life in this world premiere opera by celebrated composer Joel Puckett. The 1919 Chicago White Sox were arguably the best team in the history of the game–they were also the most poorly paid, always at odds with their penny-pinching owner. Resentment, revenge, and ambition gone awry were the motivating factors that led eight players to conspire with gamblers and throw the World Series to the Cincinnatti Reds. Rich with characters such as Shoeless Joe Jackson, Ring Lardner, and Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, The Black Sox Scandal is a tragic tale of mythic proportions, ripe with greed, power, romance, and redemption, all set against the backdrop of America’s favorite pastime.
Composer Joel Puckett says, “I am thrilled to tell this incredible American story of deception, heartbreak, and disillusionment with an establishment. I am even more thrilled to be bringing this story to life with the amazingly supportive team at Minnesota Opera.”
Named as one of National Public Radio’s favorite composers under the age of 40 by their listeners, Joel Puckett is a composer who is dedicated to the belief that music can bring consolation, hope, and joy to all who need it. The Washington Post has hailed him as both “visionary” and “gifted” and the Baltimore Sun proclaimed his work for the Washington Chorus and Orchestra, This Mourning, as “being of comparable expressive weight” to John Adams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning work.
Mr. Puckett is currently on the full-time faculty of the Peabody Conservatory of Music of Johns Hopkins University where he teaches courses in music theory, co-teaches the composition seminar, and recently finished a term as the composer-in-residence for the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras.
For Minnesota Opera, Eric Simonson recently directed The Dream of Valentino (2014), Silent Night (2011) and Wuthering Heights (2011); and Rusalka for Colorado Opera. Other credits include The Grapes of Wrath at Minnesota Opera, Pittsburgh Opera and Carnegie Hall; numerous plays for Steppenwolf Theatre; and productions at The Huntington Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, Primary Stages in New York, Court Theatre in Chicago, l.a. Theatre Works, The Kennedy Center, City Theater in Pittsburgh, Seattle Rep and San Jose Rep. His production of The Song of Jacob Zulu played on Broadway and received six Tony Awards including Best Director. Mr. Simonson is a member of Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
by Bill
Ensemble Pi’s Ninth Peace Project Concert
“Word Interpretations”
World Premieres by Laura Kaminsky and Susan Botti
Works by Jason Eckardt, Bryant Kong, Penderecki, and Shostakovich
Language gets appropriated, translated, and sometimes “reformed” by culture and politics. For their annual Peace Project’s ninth installment, music collective Ensemble Pi performs new commissions and other works which examine the relationship of language, truth and politics – and how words change meaning when used in contexts different than the ones intended.
Clarinetist Moran Katz then joined the trio for another world premiere, Laura Kaminsky‘s strikingly intense diptych, Deception. Katz’s moody, richly burnished low register in tandem with the cello built an air of mystery and foreboding, occasionally punctured by the piano. The second movement worked clever variations via individual voices in a very Debussy-esque arrangement that also offered a nod to Shostakovich and possibly Penderecki as well.
Read the review of the concert here.
Laura Kaminsky’s Deception, for b-flat clarinet, violin, cello, and piano (2014) – a work exploring the manipulation of language in situations such as reconsidered statements, solo pronouncements, intertwined dialogue, and that which is unspoken. Musical gestures and interruptions are used to symbolize two ways of creating language, then using it in a different context to create new meaning.
Performers include Idith Meshulam, piano; Airi Yoshioka, violin; Katie Schlaikjer Schlaikjer, cello; Moran Katz, clarinet; Kristin Norderval, voice; with guest artist Rachel Rosales, voice.
Ensemble Pi, a socially conscious new music group founded in 2002, features composers whose work seeks to open a dialogue between ideas and music on some of the world’s current and critical issues. For the last ten years, Ensemble Pi has presented an annual Peace Project concert, praised by The New York Times as “gracefully played…a fiery and emotive performance.” The Ensemble has commissioned new works and collaborated with visual artists, writers, actors, and journalists, among them South African artist William Kentridge and American journalist/writer Naomi Wolf, Frederic Rzewski, and Philip Miller. The ensemble was in residence for four American music festivals presented by the American Composers Alliance and now collaborates with the APNM. Ensemble Pi has also created artistic and educational programs in response to major exhibitions at Chelsea Art Museum, The Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, and the Museum of Modern Art. Gramophone wrote of the Ensemble’s first CD, Keep Going, “a touching tribute to Ellias Tanenbaum, played with conviction and verve”. A second CD featuring Laura Kaminsky’s music was released by Albany Record this year and was described as “played with warmth and variety… in effective fashion” (American Record Guide). www.ensemble-pi.org
by Bill
On This Muddy Water: Voices from the Houston Ship Channel
Wednesday, December 10, 5:30 p.m.
Tudor Gallery, Julia Ideson Library
550 McKinney Street, Houston
HGOco presents the world premiere of On This Muddy Water: Voices from the Houston Ship Channel by D. J. Sparr and Janine Joseph—a 30-minute song cycle for voices and chamber ensemble commissioned to celebrate the Ship Channel’s centennial. Sparr and Joseph combed through hours of oral histories collected by the Houston Arts Alliance to create this compelling portrait of the men and women at the heart of one of Houston’s most vibrant centers of industry.
For more information, click here.
by Bill
The Baltimore Symphony surveyed the 2014/15 season and prepared some fascinating statistics on programming. Mason Bates soars to the top as the second most performed living composer. Among the information they collected is the news that works by living composers amount to 11.4% of all works performed.
You can view the complete statistics here.
Beethoven still gets more performances, but he’s had quite a head start.
by Bill
Wexford Festival Opera will present the European premiere of Kevin Puts’ and Mark Campbell’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Silent Night, about the spontaneous Christmas truce between enemy combatants during the First World War. More details online at http://www.wexfordopera.com