BROOKLYN, NY - American Opera Projects (AOP) announces the return of its popular Composers & the Voice program for its 2017-19 seasons. Created and led by Composers & the Voice Artistic Director Steven Osgood,
eight composers and librettists will be selected for two-year
fellowships to learn the fundamentals of writing for the voice and opera
stage. Workshop
sessions with professional opera singers, mentors, and instructors are
held at AOP's home base in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Applications and
complete information will be available beginning March 15 at www.aopopera.org/composers_voice. The deadline for applications is April 28 with fellowships announced by July 1.
The Composers & the Voice
fellowships include a year of working with the company's Resident
Ensemble of Singers and Artistic Team followed by a year of continued
promotion and development through AOP and its strategic partnerships.
The workshop sessions between September 2017 and April 2018 include
composition of solo works for six voice types (coloratura soprano, lyric soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, and bass). In addition, over 45 hours of "Skill-Building Sessions" of acting courses with director Mary Birnbaum (Die Zauberflöte at Juilliard), theatrical improvisation led by Terry Greiss
(Co-Founder, Ensemble Actor, Executive Director of Irondale Ensemble
Project), and libretto development with Libretto Writing Instructor Mark Campbell (librettist, As One, Silent Night), will provide in-depth knowledge of how singers build characters, act in scenes, and sing text.
Fellows
will also receive individual guidance from "Artistic Chairs,"
sponsorships named in honor of mentors and their support of Composers & the Voice. Artistic Chairs for the upcoming season include composers Ricky Ian Gordon (27, The Grapes of Wrath), David T. Little (Dog Days, JFK), Missy Mazzoli (Breaking the Waves, Songs From the Uproar), Tobias Picker (An American Tragedy, Emmeline), Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell), and Gregory Spears (Fellow Travelers, Paul's Case), and librettists Gene Scheer (Cold Mountain, Moby Dick) and Royce Vavrek (Dog Days, JFK).
At the end of the workshop sessions, AOP will present selections from the participants' work in public performances - First Glimpse, a concert of songs in Spring 2018, and Six Scenes, an evening of short opera scenes in Fall 2018.
Following the Six Scenes performances, Composers & the Voice
enters its second year of its two-year cycle and focuses on the
development and further promotion of the Fellows' C&V-created works.
This includes career guidance from AOP's staff and potential workshops
and presentations in AOP's "First Chance" opera development program.
Composers & the Voice will also continue partnerships with The Hermitage Artist Retreat (http://hermitageartistretreat.org),
which will select a C&V Fellow (or Fellowship team) to receive a
6-week residency to continue opera development at the Hermitage's
Florida estate, and the Chautauqua Opera Company (http://ciweb.org/opera),
which annually invites one C&V alumnus to join the company for
their 8-week summer season as a Composer-in-Residence and receive world
premieres of three works commissioned by AOP.
Since
launching in 2002, C&V has fostered the development of 54 composers
& librettists. Alumni works that went through AOP's opera
development program and continued to a world premiere include Love/Hate (ODC/San Francisco Opera 2012, Jack Perla), Paul's Case (UrbanArias 2013, Gregory Spears), The Scarlet Ibis (PROTOTYPE 2015, Stefan Weisman), and three in 2017 - Three Way (Nashville Opera and AOP, Robert Paterson), The Summer King (Pittsburgh Opera, Daniel Sonenberg), and Independence Eve (UrbanArias, Sidney Marquez Boquiren).
"The
philosophy of Composers & the Voice since its beginning has been
that by immersing composers and librettists in hands-on work with
skilled singers and music directors, we empower them to create
groundbreaking works that are true to each of their artistic languages,"
says Osgood. "Composers rarely have the opportunity to work with opera
singers during their training, and C&V was designed to address this
void. I could not be more proud of the commissions and premieres that
have flowed to the alumni of C&V."
The
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation continues its support of AOP's Composers
& the Voice program through 2019 as part of a two hundred thousand
($200,000) multi-year grant award, which also covers artistic personnel
and other program activities.
During his tenure as Artistic Director of American Opera Projects (2001 to 2008), Steven Osgood created Composers & the Voice and conducted the world premieres of Paula Kimper and Wende Persons' Patience & Sarah at the Lincoln Center Festival and Janice Hamer and Mary Azrael's Lost Childhood at the International Vocal Arts Institute (Tel Aviv). He has conducted the premieres of over a dozen operas, including As One, The Scarlet Ibis, Thumbprint, Peony Pavilion, Oresteia, Song from the Uproar & Breaking the Waves, JFK, and Little Nemo in Slumberland
and has served as Conductor Mentor for Washington National Opera's
American Opera Initiative. He has been a member of the Music Staff of
the Metropolitan Opera since 2006. Upcoming productions include the US
Stage Premiere of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in Respighi's realization, Don Pasquale, and Hydrogen Jukebox, all part of Chautauqua Opera's 2017 season, where he is General and Artistic Director.
COMPOSERS & THE VOICE 2017-2019: CALENDAR OF DATES
| March 15, 2017 | Applications available on AOP site |
| April 28, 2017 | Applications portal closes |
| June 30, 2017 | Announcement of 2017-19 C&V Fellows |
| October 2017 - May 2018 | Closed workshop sessions |
| May 2018 | Composers & the Voice: First Glimpse - concert reading of songs |
| September 2018 | Composers & the Voice: Six Scenes - concert reading of opera scenes |
| Fall 2018-2019 | AOP mentoring and opera development |
COMPOSERS & THE VOICE 2017-2019: ARTISTIC CHAIRS
Ricky Ian Gordon, David T. Little, Missy Mazzoli, Tobias Picker, Gene Scheer, Stephen Schwartz, Gregory Spears, and Royce Vavrek.
MORE INFO AND PRESS MATERIALS AVAILABLE AT: www.aopopera.org/press.
END
No comments:
Post a Comment