Tag Archive for: Opera

The Opera about Fannie Lou Hamer

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Photo by www.ireneyoungfoto.com

After reading numerous articles about our shorter than short attention spans, I’ve decided to split this, the August 2024 Classical Music in Color into two parts. It may be a permanent fixture. Let me know what you think.

The first part is an interview with 85 year old composer Mary D. Watkins who’s about to premiere her latest opera “Is This America” about the Mississippi Civil Rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer. 

Mary D. Watkins is a Colorado native who earned a degree in classical composition from Howard University in Washington, DC.  She started getting noticed later in life.  She won a Female Composer grant from Opera America in 2020, has previously won composer fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, along with various other grants.  AND She received a 2021 Artist Legacy Award from the California Arts Council.  She was also recognized with a 2022 Composers Now Visionary Award. She says her composition of this opera was a long time coming.

The Second part of this, the August 2024 edition of Classical Music In Color is what I’m calling for now, the Albums, Opportunities, Events and Milestone section of the show.

Here are the links:

Sphinx – SOPA

Black Violin Foundation Grants

Castle Of Our Skins Give Black

Kellen Gray

Lara Downes

Click Here

Austin Opera Ends This Season In A Blaze Of Carmen

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Austin Opera is ending their 2023-24 season with the red-hot opera Bizet’s Carmen.  The cast is full of young singers, many of whom are making their debut with the Austin Opera. 

CEO Annie Burridge is hoping this super popular work from Bizet will entice audiences back to the Long Center after the hibernation forced upon us by Covid. 

 

Monetizing Your Career In Music And Your Brand

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Why would a business school devoted to developing entrepreneurs invite an opera singer to lead a masterclass?  Babson College in Massachusetts did just that.  

They named Soprano Karen Slack as the school’s Artist In Residence.  She spent 3 days teaching, talking, and singing.

School administrators, like Anjali Bal, say that Slack and other artists like her, offer their students a different perspective on creating a thriving business.

Classical Music and Women, By The Numbers

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At least six U.S. orchestras are performing the music of Florence Price this Women’s History Month.  Other women composers are getting the spotlight too. 

That’s nice says Liane Curtis, the President of Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy, but it’s not really enough.  The organization has released its Repertoire Report which analyzes the programming of the top 21 U.S. Symphony Orchestras.

The World’s First Mariachi Opera

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The Austin Opera is about to do something they’ve never done before. 

They are presenting the world’s first Mariachi Opera, Cruzar la Cara de la Luna. It will also be the first time they are staging an opera sung in Spanish with help from the new Butler Fund for Spanish Programming.  Some of the cast is from Ópera de Bellas Artes, the national opera company of Mexico.

Austin Opera General Director and CEO,  Annie Burridge says this production is the first of many. 

The Pressure Of Being The First One. The Dreams of a Nigerian Violinist and Florence Price. 

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Rosalyn Aninyei  is doing her best to create and maintain a world class orchestra in her home country of Nigeria.  Florence Price is getting the festival treatment at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.  Blake-Anthony Johnson talks about his path to become the first African American to be the CEO of a world-renowned orchestra, the Chicago Sinfonietta.

There’s a new album of music by Florence Price and William Dawson via the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Here’s a link to the Margaret Bonds Symposium at Queens University in  Charlotte, North Carolina.

New Albums from Pratt, Dworkin and Malakai and a Latinx Opera Workshop

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In this month of September, your ears will be filled with the sound of STILLPOINT.  It’s Awadagin Pratt’s latest album.  He’s performing music he commissioned from several composers of color. 

You can hear the life and times of Aaron P. Dworkin’s in his debut spoken word album The Poetjournalist. 

Malakai Bayoh didn’t win Britian’s Got Talent 2023. The 14-year-old DID win a record deal and his debut album Golden is out and about.

Opportunities abound all over the BIPOC spectrum. 

Austin Opera has a program for Latinx creatives. 

There’s a leadership opportunity at the Delaware Symphony Orchestra. 

South Africa’s National Arts Festival is calling for creatives of all types for their 2024 event. 

Composers might want to write what could become the Best Symphonia of the Year. 

Mozart In Motion

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This is another addition to your summer reading list. 

There are hundreds of books about Mozart but the author of Mozart In Motion has a different take.  Author Patrick Mackie takes us time traveling through the swirl that was Mozart’s short life.

The 96-Hour Opera Project

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If you’ve ever done a large creative project, you know it usually takes longer than 96 hours – four days – to create what one might call something good.   Composers and Librettist will be attempting this feat in the Atlanta Opera’s 96 Hour Opera Project. 

The Atlanta Opera’s New Works Administrator Cara Consilvio says it’s not as arduous as it seems.  Still, some of the 2 person teams won’t even meet each other in person until their arrival in Atlanta on June 9th.

Nathan Felix of Austin, is one of the finalists.