John Malveaux: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra - November 21st program including Clarinetist Anthony McGill and composer Anthony Davis discussion

Anthony McGill

John Malveaux of MusicUNTOLD.com writes:

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra - Live from Music Hall on November 21st program including Clarinetist Anthony McGill and composer Anthony Davis discussion (You Have The Right To Remain Silent). See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcE5MQ6uMmI and pic of Anthony McGill

International Contemporary Ensemble and Civic Orchestra of Chicago Present the World Premiere of Nicole Mitchell’s Inescapable Spiral Remote Dec. 15 6pm CST

 Tuesday, December 15 at 6:00pm CST/7:00pm EST – Free with Advanced                                                          RSVP

www.iceorg.org 

New York, NY (November 23, 2020) — The International Contemporary Ensemble and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago present a free virtual concert featuring the world premiere of Nicole M. Mitchell’s Inescapable Spiral Remote (2020) on Tuesday, December 15, 2020 at 6pm CST/7pm EST. The program will stream on YouTube and is open to the public with advanced RSVP. An informal Q & A with the artists will follow the performance.

Inescapable Spiral, commissioned by the International Contemporary Ensemble with lead support from Oscar Gerardo and premiered at Ojai Music Festival 2017, is written for open instrumentation and a variable ensemble. Performers can range anywhere from 5 to 20 players. As Nicole mentions, “it’s like a choreography of these little miniature pieces, with the intent of collision.” The variable process in her work extends to a new remote edition of the piece, specifically reimagined for pre-recorded and live performances that are created remotely and mixed live online.

"There are a few possible ways that celestial bodies can orbit the Earth. One is called the ‘spiral impact’ orbit, in which it is inevitable for one celestial body to be pulled towards the greater object in an ‘inescapable spiral’ until they ultimately collide,” says Mitchell.  

"As the pandemic forced our programming, collaboration, and creation into the virtual sphere, we immediately thought of Nicole Mitchell and her extensive experience with remote Telematic performances. We commissioned her to make a new version of the 2017 Inescapable Spiral that could be workshopped in the context of our online Ensemble Evolution program in late June in partnership with the New School’s College of Performing Arts. Six months later, as the final event in our weekly streaming series, TUES@7, we’ll bring thirteen members of the Ensemble into collaboration with over a dozen members of Chicago Civic,” says International Contemporary Ensemble’s Artistic Director Ross Karre. 

"This performance presents the Civic Orchestra with so many exciting opportunities to explore new modes of musical expression online,” says Jonathan McCormick, who is Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Negaunee Music Institute and oversees the Civic. “After three years and at least two instances of postponed performances, it feels as though the inescapable spiral of planning this collaboration is finally reaching a joyful conclusion, thanks to Nicole’s ingenuity and International Contemporary Ensemble’s thoughtful partnership.”

Program Information

Nicole Mitchell’s Inescapable Spiral Remote

Tuesday, December 15, at 6:00pm CST/7:00pm EST

Tickets: Free with Advanced RSVP

Link: www.eventbrite.com/e/inescapable-spiral-remote-tickets-129775539131

Program:

Nicole Mitchell – Inescapable Spiral Remote (2020) [World Premiere] 

The 2020/21 Civic Orchestra of Chicago season is generously sponsored by The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation. 

About Nicole Mitchell

Nicole Mitchell is an award-winning creative flutist, composer, conceptualist, bandleader, and educator. A United States Artist (2020), a Doris Duke Artist (2012) and recipient of the Herb Alpert Award (2011), her research centers on the powerful legacy of contemporary African American culture and black experimental art. For over 20 years, Mitchell’s critically acclaimed Black Earth Ensemble (BEE) has been her primary compositional laboratory with which she has recorded over 10 albums and performed at festivals and art venues throughout Europe, Canada, and the US. A former president of the AACM, she composes for contemporary ensembles of varied instrumentation and size (from solo to orchestra and big band) while incorporating improvisation and a wide aesthetic expression. Her recognition as a 2018 recipient of the Champion of New Music Award from the American Composers Forum and the 2019 Women In Jazz Visionary Award from the Jazz Institute of Chicago are positive responses to her community impact. Much of Mitchell’s creative process has been informed by literature and narrative, with a special interest in science fiction. Her album, Mandorla Awakening (FPE, 2017), combined Afrofuturism with intercultural collaboration and was selected by The New York Times as the #1 jazz album of 2017. As a composer, she has been commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Newport Jazz Festival, the Art Institute of Chicago, the French American Jazz Exchange, Chamber Music America, the Chicago Jazz Festival, International Contemporary Ensemble, and the Chicago Sinfonietta. As a flutist she has developed her own signature language and has been a repeated recipient of the Top Jazz Flutist awards from Jazz Journalists Association and DownBeat Magazine from 2010-2019. A professor of Music at University of Pittsburgh, Mitchell is the William S. Dietrich II Chair of Jazz Studies, where she works to continue the visionary legacies of her predecessors Geri Allen and Nathan Davis. Mitchell was previously a professor of music at University of California, Irvine.Learn more at www.nicolemitchell.com.  

About the International Contemporary Ensemble

The International Contemporary Ensemble is an artist collective that is transforming the way music is created and experienced. As performer, curator, and educator, the Ensemble explores how new music intersects with communities across the world. The Ensemble’s 36 members are featured as soloists, chamber musicians, commissioners, and collaborators with the foremost musical artists of our time. Works by emerging composers have anchored the Ensemble’s programming since its founding in 2001, and the group’s recordings and digital platforms highlight the many voices that weave music’s present.

A recipient of the American Music Center’s Trailblazer Award and the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, the International Contemporary Ensemble was also named the 2014 Musical America Ensemble of the Year. The group currently serves as artists-in-residence at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ Mostly Mozart Festival, and previously led a five-year residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. The International Contemporary Ensemble was featured at the Ojai Music Festival from 2015 to 2017, and at recent festivals abroad such as gmem-CNCM-marseille and Vértice at Cultura UNAM, Mexico City. Other performance stages have included the Park Avenue Armory, The Stone, ice floes at Greenland’s Diskotek Sessions, and boats on the Amazon River.

OpenICE, made possible with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, offers free concerts and interactive, educational programming wherever the Ensemble performs. As the Ensemble in Residence of the Nokia Bell Labs Experiments in Art and Technology, the International Contemporary Ensemble advances music technology and digital communications as an empowering tool for artists from all backgrounds. Curricular activities include a residency and coursework at the New School College of Performing Arts, along with a summer intensive program, called Ensemble Evolution, where topics of equity, diversity, and inclusion build new bridges and pathways for the future of creative sound practices. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for the Ensemble. Read more at www.iceorg.org and watch over 350 videos of live performances and documentaries at www.digitice.org. 

About the Civic Orchestra of Chicago

Founded in 1919 by Frederick Stock, second music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), the Civic Orchestra of Chicago prepares emerging professional musicians for lives in music. Civic members participate in rigorous orchestral training, September through June each season, with Principal Conductor Ken-David Masur, musicians of the CSO, and some of today’s most luminary conductors including CSO Zell Music Director Riccardo Muti. 

From 2010 to 2019, Yo-Yo Ma was a leading mentor to Civic musicians and staff in his role as CSO Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant, and the programs and initiatives he established are integral to the Civic Orchestra curriculum today. Civic Orchestra musicians develop as exceptional orchestral players and engaged artists, cultivating their ability to succeed in the rapidly evolving world of music in the twenty-first century.

The importance of the Civic Orchestra’s role in Greater Chicago is underscored by its commitment to present concerts of the highest quality at no charge to the public. In addition to the critically acclaimed live concerts at Symphony Center, Civic Orchestra performances can be heard locally on WFMT (98.7 FM).

Civic musicians also expand their creative, professional, and artistic boundaries and reach diverse audiences through educational performances at Chicago Public Schools and a series of chamber concerts at various locations throughout the city including Chicago Park District field houses and the National Museum of Mexican Art.

To further expand its musician training, the Civic Orchestra launched the Civic Fellowship program in the 2013–14 season. Each year ten to fifteen Civic members are designated as Civic Fellows and participate in intensive leadership training that is designed to build and diversity their creative and professional skills.

The Civic Orchestra’s long history of presenting full orchestra performances free to the public includes annual concerts at the South Shore Cultural Center (in partnership with the South Shore Advisory Council) as well as numerous Chicago Public Schools. The Civic Orchestra is a signature program of the Negaunee Music Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which offers a wide range of education and community programs that engage more than 200,000 people of diverse ages, incomes, and backgrounds each year, in Chicago and around the world. Learn more at https://cso.org/institute/civic-orchestra-of-chicago/.  

John Malveaux: Early Music Access Projects new virtual series, Expanding the Narrative, aims to center Black Music and musicians in the story of early America

John Malveaux of MusicUNTOLD.com writes:

Early Music Access Projects new virtual series, Expanding the Narrative, aims to center Black Music and musicians in the story of early America 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF4w1So8_M8&fbclid=IwAR3rJOTsvY7QowzRYha7iuXJ23Bt7914rZCfSXDEl4Dz0Py5LidzoyufTxQ&app=desktop

Inquirer.com: Curtis Institute names pianist Michelle Cann to new chair honoring legendary professor Eleanor Sokoloff

Michelle Cann

(Jiyang Chen)

The Philadelphia Inquirer

by Peter Dobrin

November 17, 2020

The Curtis Institute of Music has created a position in honor of Eleanor Sokoloff, the legendary piano professor who taught at the school for more than eight decades, and the school has named Philadelphia pianist Michelle Cann to fill the spot.

The 2013 Curtis graduate takes up the inaugural Eleanor Sokoloff chair in piano studies with duties she expects to begin in the new year. Sokoloff died in July at age 106.

Cann will teach private lessons as well as coach chamber music, and said Tuesday that she hopes her role will be even more expansive. Nothing is set, but she envisions making mentorship connections between Curtis students and young musicians in the city.

She also hopes to broaden the career-soloist mind-set with which some students enter Curtis.

 “The world is really changing, and I think it’s extremely important to be more than great pianists who sit in the practice room for hours to win a competition and get a solo career,” said Cann. “That’s not to say that that work isn’t important, but we are at a point for every conservatory to take it much farther than that. It’s important for Curtis students to be much more well-rounded.”

Cann, 33, has performed with the Florida Orchestra and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and in early 2021 is slated as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra in its first performance of Florence Price’s Concerto in One Movement.

John Malveaux: Palm Beach Opera has announced its star-studded, outdoor 2021 Festival which will take place at the South Florida Fairgrounds

Opera Wire

by David Salazar

November 17, 2020

Palm Beach Opera has announced its star-studded, outdoor 2021 Festival which will take place at the South Florida Fairgrounds’ iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre.

The festival will kick off with Puccini’s “La Bohème” starring Michael Fabiano as Rodolfo, Latonia Moore as Mimì, Isabel Leonard as Musetta, Quinn Kelsey as Marcello, Ryan Speedo Green as Colline, and Samuel Ramey as Benoit / Alcindoro. James Robinson will direct the production with David Stern at the podium.

Performance Dates: Feb. 19, 24, 2021

Sterna and Robinson will also team up for “Die Zauberflöte” starring Janai Brugger, Matthew Polenzani, Joshua Hopkins, Morris Robinson, Kathryn Lewek, Patricia Westley, Shannon Jennings, Ryan Speedo Green, Jenny Anne Flory, and Avery Amereau, among others.

Free Directories of Classical Music Written by Black Composers, including Repertoire for Violin and Orchestra, Launched by Music by Black Composers

 THE RACHEL BARTON PINE FOUNDATION’S 

MUSIC BY BLACK COMPOSERS
LAUNCHES NEW FREE DIRECTORIES OF
REPERTOIRE FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA AND UNACCOMPANIED VIOLIN
WRITTEN BY BLACK COMPOSERS

CHICAGO –  The not-for-profit Rachel Barton Pine (RBP) Foundation’s Music by Black Composers (MBC) project has launched its first free online directories of classical music written by Black composers: Repertoire for Violin and Orchestra, and Repertoire for Unaccompanied Solo Violin. MBC works to rectify historic and ongoing racial injustices in the classical music sphere.

MBC’s repertoire directories establish a central location for existing music by Black classical composers. They are a free resource for performers, conductors, concert programmers, students, and teachers seeking existing music, as well as for researchers and scholars of classical music. Whenever possible, the directories include instrumentation, length, links for acquiring the sheet music, links to recordings, and other helpful information to aid in programming. Additionally, the works in the directory for violin and orchestra are sortable by piece (composition date, orchestration, length) and composer (gender and geographical region). Built to be ever-expanding, MBC asks that users alert them as to any missing works by emailing editor@musicbyblackcomposers.org.

“We’ve been hearing from conductors and orchestra managers who want to diversify their programming, but they do not have a definitive list of what repertoire exists and where to find it. MBC has created these directories so that anyone, anywhere can learn about repertoire by Black classical composers, get the music, and program it. Our team is really excited for conductors, orchestras, and soloists to start discovering these incredible concertos and concert works. It’s our hope that these compositions will become part of our standard repertoire, as they should have been all along,” says Pine, a leading violin soloist, who is president of RBP Foundation and Executive Editor and Music Editor for MBC. Pine and Megan E. Hill, Ph.D., Managing Editor, Head Researcher and Writer for MBC, compiled and edited the directories.

The directory of Repertoire for Violin and Orchestra currently features 38 compositions by 19 composers (four women and 15 men), which were composed between 1773 and 2020. In contrast, the website most frequently used by conductors, orchestra administrators, and librarians, Daniels' Orchestral Music Online, only includes 15 works by seven Black composers (two women and five men). 

The directory of Repertoire for Unaccompanied Solo Violin currently features 36 compositions by five women and 23 men, which were composed between 1868 and 2020. The category of Unaccompanied Solo Violin is defined as works intended for a solo performer. The vast majority are unaccompanied, but may include electronics, narration, or other auxiliary actions performed by the soloist.

MBC is currently working on further directories of music for violin and piano and music for multiple violins. In addition, MBC is collaborating with colleagues to build directories of music for viola, cello, bass, string quartet, piano, organ, recorder, school band, school orchestra, and symphony. 

MBC also aspires to function as a hub for existing resources by linking to directories created by others. A directory of Repertoire for Classical Guitar, compiled by Ciyadh Wells and Neil Beckmann, is now linked to MBC’s website. It includes data about sheet music, recordings, composers’ biographies, composition length, and the year written. The works are categorized as chamber classical guitar, solo electric guitar, chamber electric guitar, solo “other plucked string,” and chamber “other plucked string” music. The directory features 139 compositions by four women and 16 men, which were composed between 1973 and 2020.

MBC’s repertoire directories serve as companion resources to MBC’s free, sortable directories of Living Black Classical Composers (currently more than 300) and Historic Black Classical Composers (currently more than 150). These directories are one of the ways MBC makes the music of Black composers available to everyone, so that it may bring greater diversity to the ranks of classical music performers, composers, and audiences. 

In 2018, MBC published MBC Violin Volume I, the first in a series of pedagogical books of music exclusively by Black classical composers; The Rachel Barton Pine Foundation Coloring Book of Black Composers featuring 40 prominent Black composers from around the world; and a timeline poster featuring more than 300 Black composers spanning four centuries. MBC Violin Volume IIand MBC Carillon Volume Iare currently being edited for publication.

Currently, the Music by Black Composers website hosts a number of free resources aimed at spreading awareness of classical music written by Black composers. There is a list of children’s books about Black classical music making, a bibliography of reference books on Black classical music composers, a discography of works by Black classical composers, and a list of podcasts and radio programs that celebrate Black composers. The website also offers Digital Resources for MBC’s instrument books which include recordings (audio and video) for each published piece to help students learn to play the music, and many links for further reading about the article topics featured in the books. For more information about other current resources and future plans, please visit MBC’s Projects Timeline. 
  
MBC’s Board of Advisors includes Aaron Dworkin, Sphinx Organization Founder; Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE, double bassist and founder of Chineke!; Lee Koonce, President & Artistic Director, Gateways Music Festival; Mike Wright, Founder and Chair, International Society of African to American Music; Henry Fogel, Dean of Roosevelt University’s College of Performing Arts; Toni-Marie Montgomery, Dean of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University; Dr. Fred “FredO” Onovwerosuoke, composer; conductors James Blachly, Philip Greenberg, and Michael Morgan; pianist Awadagin Pratt; violinists David Caines Burnett, Terrance Gray, Mariana Green-Hill, Ed Kreitman, Diane Monroe, Arnold Steinhart, and Almita Vamos; violists Robert Fisher and Dr. Juliet White-Smith; cellists Dr. Tanya L. Carey and Anthony Elliot; Dr. Barbara Wright-Pryor, Former President, Chicago Music Association, Branch No. 1, NANM, Inc.; Sheila A. Jones, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association and Director of Community Stewardship/African American Network; historian and journalist William J. Zick; and Lee Newcomer, owner of Performers Music.

Serving on the Honorary Board for MBC are trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis, violinist Joshua Bell, actor Leslie Odom, Jr., jazz bassist and composer Stanley Clarke, mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, pianist and composer Billy Childs, television commentator Gretchen Carlson, pianist and pedagogue André Watts, Kevin Sylvester, and Wilner Baptiste from Black Violin, and violinist and composer Daniel Bernard Roumain. 
 
The idea for MBC started with a recording Rachel Barton Pine made for Cedille Records in 1997 titled Violin Concertos by Black Composers of the 18th and 19th Centuries. The album contains historic compositions by Afro-Caribbean and Afro-European composers from the Classical and Romantic eras that had long been underrecognized. Soon after its release, Pine found herself sitting on diversity panels and receiving numerous inquiries from students, parents, teachers, and colleagues about where to find more works by Black composers. She quickly discovered that much repertoire by Black composers is out of print or only exists in manuscript. So, in 2001, her not-for-profit Rachel Barton Pine Foundation committed to its Music by Black Composers project. Over the past two decades, MBC has collected 900+ works by more than 450 Black composers from North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania, written by men and women from the 18th to the 21st centuries.
 
Pine is an award-winning, chart-topping violinist who performs with the world's leading orchestras and has recorded 39 acclaimed albums. Her performances are heard on NPR and stations around the globe. She has appeared on The Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, CNN, PBS NewsHour, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and in media outlets around the world. In addition to the MBC project, the RBP Foundation assists young artists through its Instrument Loan Program, Grants for Education and Career, and Global HeartStrings, which supports musicians in developing countries.

For more information, please visit RBPFoundation.org, MusicbyBlackComposers.org, and RachelBartonPine.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipkVKZ_WRY8&feature=youtu.be

Arts Engines: Aaron Dworkin With Career Coach Ashley Hall

Aaron Dworkin sits down with Ashley Hall, Career Coaching Manager and Professor of Trumpet at the Longy School of Music to discuss preparing musicians for success in an evolving arts world

November 21, 2020

Produced in partnership with the Detroit Public Television, Ovation TV, American Public Media and The Violin Channel, each episode highlights the perspectives of the thought leaders and game-changers who are creating significant impact in the field of the arts.

“I hope that what this time does for us is blows open these myopic views of success that we have sort of held on to, and help us all as artists to go deep into What is my unique contribution?" Ashley Hall said. "What will I contribute? What will my voice look like?” Ashley Hall, Career Coaching Manager and Professor of Trumpet at the Longy School of Music speaks about preparing musicians for success in an evolving arts world."

https://theviolinchannel.com/arts-engines-aaron-dworkin-with-career-coach-ashley-hall/

John Malveaux: Soprano Latonia Moore and pianist Roberto Berrocal in "A Christmas Concert" in St. Hugh-Steinway Concert Series Fri. Dec. 4, 8pm EST

 John Malveaux of MusicUNTOLD.com writes:

Please join Soprano Latonia Moore and pianist Roberto Berrocal for the St. Hugh-Steinway Concert Series featuring opera and Christmas favorites streamed LIVE on Friday, December 4th, 8pm EST!   

Sphinx Organization: Announcing the 24th Annual Sphinx Competition Semi-Finalists

 Meet the 2021 Sphinx Competition Semi-Finalists! 

LLLEARN MORE ABOUT THE SEMI-FINALISTShttps://www.sphinxmusic.org/sphinx-competition/

In partnership with the DTE Energy Foundation, we will welcome 18 of the nation’s top young string players to compete at the 24th Annual Sphinx Competition.



Honors Concert 

Friday, January 29th at 12pm ET (Live-Streamed) 

Junior Division finalists compete for the top $10,000 prize.

Finals Concert

Saturday, January 30th at 7:30pm ET (Live-Streamed) 

Senior Division finalists compete for the top $50,000 Robert Frederick Smith prize and solo appearances with major orchestras. 

MARK YOUR CALENDARhttps://secure.lglforms.com/form_engine/s/I1GJAKxsJbYo01wAahmRFQ

Sphinx Organization SphinxMusic.org

THE AMERICAN OPERA PROJECT HONORS SOPRANO ANGEL BLUE AND PRODUCER CHARLES JARDEN FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO OPERA DEC. 6, 2020 at 7pm EST

THE AMERICAN OPERA PROJECT HONORS SOPRANO ANGEL BLUE AND PRODUCER CHARLES JARDEN FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO OPERA AND SERVICE TO COMMUNITIES

DECEMBER 6, 2020 at 7pm EST

Dedications to be made at December benefit

November 16, 2020

Brooklyn, NY -The American Opera Project announces fermata, a virtual benefit to be held on Sunday, December 6th at 7pm EST. Soprano Angel Blue and producer Charles Jarden will be honored for their contributions to the world of opera and their communities.

Attendance at the benefit is free ($40 suggested donation) for the 7pm event, hosted by Jorell Williams, and limited spots are available for a 6pm VIP pre-show experience.

fermata will be a celebration of music and two honorees: Metropolitan Opera soprano and founder of the non-profit organization Sylvia’s Kids Foundation, Angel Blue, the recipient of our first ever Van Blazer award and the enduring legacy of AOP’s own Charles Jarden. Created in 2020 to honor a vanguard trailblazer changing the way opera is made and experienced, the Van Blazer award celebrates an iconoclastic artist who has fostered resiliency and inclusivity within their communities by the very way they have shaped their life and career. 

The evening will also include special appearances by legendary soprano Lauren Flanigan and superstar countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, as well as introductions to the many operas currently being created at AOP.

A contribution of $500 or higher grants access to a special VIP pre-show experience at 6pm, featuring a choreography session with acclaimed ballet dancer and Associate Artistic Director of the New York City Ballet Wendy Whelan, an interactive culinary class with chef Tyler Kord of No. 7 restaurants, a communal musical moment with soprano Adrienne Danrich, a song lyric writing workshop with librettist Mark Campbell, a world premiere by composer/performer Gilda Lyons, and more special guests, auction items, toasts and surprises.  

Join us for this exclusive portion of the evening, where we will announce AOP’s inaugural Artistic Advisory Council, led by Council Director and composer Laura Kaminsky, and raise glasses to our beautiful and resilient community.

For more information, or to reserve your ticket, visit www.aopopera.org/fermata2020.

ABOUT ANGEL BLUE

Angel Blue has emerged in recent seasons as one of the most important sopranos before the public today. On September 23, 2019 she opened the Metropolitan Opera’s 2019/2020 season as Bess in a new production of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. These performances follow her internationally praised French Opera debut and role debut as Floria Tosca at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in July of 2019. Earlier, Ms. Blue made her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Violetta Valery in La Traviata, after which she returned to the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in the same role. She has also been praised for performances in many other theaters, such as the Vienna State Opera, Semperoper Dresden, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, Theater an der Wien, Oper Frankfurt, San Diego Opera and many others.

Alongside her musical activities, Angel Blue, who was raised in California and completed her musical studies at UCLA, is dedicated to the support of inner city youth. She is the founder of the non-profit organization Sylvia’s Kids Foundation, an organization that is dedicated to helping America’s teenagers continue their studies in either a trade school, community college, or four-year university once they have completed high school. The SKF scholarship award is given every year in the month of May. To learn more about Sylvia’s Kids Foundation visit www.sylviaskids.org

For Angel's full bio, visit: https://www.zemskygreenartists.com/artists/angel-blue/

ABOUT JORELL WILLIAMS

Jorell Williams is an American operatic baritone with a wide variety of experience from standard repertoire to premiere pieces. He begins the 2020-2021 season with world premieres of Hilliard and Boresi's The Happy Hour and Rachel Peters' Everything comes to a head with The Decameron Opera Coalition / Lyric Opera of the North featuring Bass-Baritone Luca Pisaroni, In Real Life II by Robert Paterson and David Cote in his debut with the American Modern Ensemble, Kamala Sankaram's Only you will recognize the signal with HERE Arts Center, his company and role debut of Don Giovanni with Opera Columbus, and the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel with The Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater.

A former resident artist of The American Opera Project's Composers and the Voice series from 2011-2014, Jorell is a much in demand interpreter of contemporary opera, and has created roles in several world premieres, notably: Hilliard and Boresi’s Blue Viola with Urban Arias; Matt Aucoin’s Crossing with the American Repertory Theater; John David Earnest’s The Theory of Everything with Encompass New Opera Theater; Anthony Davis’ Lear on the Second Floor at the University of San Diego; John Musto’s Bastianello with Rochester Lyric Opera; and workshops of Michael Torke’s Senna (2010), Nico Muhly’s Two Boys (2011), and Ricky Ian Gordon’s Intimate Apparel (2018) with The Metropolitan Opera. Jorell is a recipient of the 2018 Rochester Classical Idol XII Top Prize and Audience Choice awards, and garners top awards from the Gerda Lissner International Competition, Schuyler Foundation for Career Bridges, Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation, The American Prize, Serge Koussevitzky Foundation, David Adams Art Song Competition, The American Traditions Competition, Civic Morning Musicals Foundation, Harlem Opera Theater, the National Association of Negro Musicians, and the Liberace Foundation.

For more information, visit: https://www.jorellwilliams.com/