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Home , Aldeburgh Music, Amanda Holden (writer), Angelicus, Armida (Weir), Barbican Centre, Bradford Playhouse

#OPERAHARMONY

CREATING IN ISOLATION

1

3 WELCOME TO # HARMONY FROM FOUNDER – ELLA MARCHMENT

Welcome to #OperaHarmony.

#Opera Harmony is a collection of opera makers from across the world who, during this time of crisis, formed an online community to create new operas.

I started this initiative when the show that I was rehearsing at Dutch National Opera was cancelled because of the lockdown. Using social media and online platforms I invited colleagues worldwide to join me in the immense technical and logistical challenge of creating new works online. I set the themes of ‘distance’ and ‘community’, organised artist teams, and since March have been overseeing of twenty new operas.

All the artists involved in #OperaHarmony are highly skilled professionals who typically apply their talents in creating live performances. Through this project, they have had to adapt to working in a new medium, as well as embracing new technologies and novel ways of creating, producing, and sharing work.

#OperaHarmony’s goal was to bring people together in ways that were unimaginable prior to Covid-19. Over 100 artists from all the opera disciplines have collaborated to write, stage, record, and produce the new operas. The pieces encapsulate an incredibly dark period for the arts, and they are a symbol of the unstoppable determination, and community that exists to perform and continue to create operatic works.

This has been my saving grace throughout lockdown, and it has given all involved a sense of purpose. When we started building these works we had no idea how they would eventually be realised, and it is with great thanks that we acknowledge the support of Opera Vision in helping to both distribute and disseminate these pieces, and also for establishing a means in which audiences can be invited into the heart of the process too .

Thank you to everyone who has given their time and talents, and explored how to make the impossible possible. We all hope to see you again in real life soon.

Ella Marchment

4 ELLA MARCHMENT

FOUNDER – UK

Ella Marchment is an opera director, the stage director of The International Opera Awards, and the artistic director of Opera Festival of Chicago, as well as being a cultural leader, public speaker, and lecturer. She is currently under commission for Nick Hern Books and is producing a series of twenty new operas for Opera Vision as a reaction to Covid-19. At this time she should have been directing the ’s production of ’s The Enchanted Pig and the 2020 International Opera Awards.

Ella was the first opera director to receive an International Opera Awards bursary. In 2018 she was a finalist in the Women of the Future Awards – in recognition of her exceptional achievements in the arts – and a semi-finalist in the European Opera- Directing Prize.

Ella has worked throughout the , Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, and America with companies including Wexford Festival Opera, The Mariinsky, Bury Court Opera, Dutch National Opera, The Royal , and Opera Festival.

Ella was associate director of Mary Birnbaum’s production of Dido & Aeneas at Juilliard Opera and led the tour to Opera in and of Versailles in France. In 2020 Ella was part of the Guildhall School of Music and vocal-studies faculty, teaching drama and directing opera scenes. She also directed at the Royal College of Music.

Ella is a committed campaigner for equality in the arts. As well as co-founding the UK-based charity SWAP’ra (Supporting Women and Parents in Opera), she has been a principal speaker at events held at the , , the Wiener Institute, Opera Europa (the ), Arts Council , and the Southbank Centre. Ella was an associate artist of Artistic Directors of the Future in 2019, an organisation dedicated to promoting ethnic in British .

Ella is represented by Day Macaskill of Cruickshank Cazenove in London. www.ellamarchment.org 5 JONAS ROSE HØEG

PROJECT SOUND ENGINEER –

Jonas Rose Høeg is a Copenhagen based sound designer and sound engineer working with live music, theatre, and live streaming.

Jonas runs the company SOUNDSRIGHT in Denmark, that has quickly transformed to facilitate online or social distancing art experiences during the current global situation. Jonas also writes and plays pop folk music under the name Jonas Rose, primarily using vocals and stringed instruments such as acoustic and electric guitar, electric and , but also occasionally and . 6 MEDIA PARTNER

CHLOE NELKIN CONSULTING

Chloé Nelkin Consulting was founded in 2010 and specialises in PR, events, marketing and consultancy with a dedicated focus on bespoke campaigns for visual and performing arts. With a passion for the arts and creativity, CNC is a dynamic company that believes in the importance of culture that always delivers campaigns with style and sophistication. The company handles multiple sell-out productions of all sizes across all genres.

Some recent theatre work includes: Love, Loss and Chianti (), What Girls Are Made of ( Theatre), Bobby and Amy (), Dust (Trafalgar Studios, and Edinburgh), This is Black (The Bunker), Nevill Holt Opera, Little Death Club (Edinburgh, Underbelly Southbank Festival), Mouthpiece (Soho Theatre), CircusFest 2018 (Roundhouse), Rotterdam (Trafalgar Studios, ) and Brodsky/Baryshnikov (). Further information can be seen at www.chloenelkinconsulting.com. 7 STREAMING PARTNER

OPERA VISION

OperaVision is opera for the connected world.

Watch live streams as the operas themselves unfold in the opera house. View your favourite performances, subtitled, on demand. Learn about the art form and specific productions by browsing our richly populated digital library, stories, and articles. Discover resources for young audiences and for artistic career development. In English, French, and German, thoughtfully curated, and free to browse and explore.

Supported by the European Union's Creative Europe programme, OperaVision builds on the success of The Opera Platform, with more contributing opera companies from more countries, under the editorial supervision of Opera Europa, the European association of opera companies and festivals.

OperaVision brings together 29 partners from 17 countries and invites you to travel and discover the diversity of opera from wherever you want, whenever you want. 8 SOME OF OUR STATS

9 The Participants involved in #OperaHarmony have been – Ireland creating remotely from: – Italy – Netherlands – – – Belgium – Peru – Brazil – – Scotland – Denmark – Spain – England – Sweden – France – – – USA – Hong Kong –

10 THE OPERAS

WEEK 1 – AUGUST 4 WEEK 2 – AUGUST 11 WEEK 3 – AUGUST 18 WEEK 4 – AUGUST 25

– A MAN DRAGS THE CARCASS OF A DEER – WISDOM OF STONE (Hall/Evans) – A FISH OUT OF WATER (Jenkins/du Tilleul – MY NEIGHBOUR FIGARO (Glickman/ (Rust/Troupes) McNicol) Gallagher)

– ESSENTIAL BUSINESS (Stillman/Pool) – AUSCHWITZ LOVERS (Holacky) – THRESHOLD (Shouten/Vail) – LA SOLITUDINE (Sever/Lemieux)

– SLEEPING & WAKING ARE THEIR NAMES – FURLOUGHED (Mikyska/Buck) (Purdue/Banks) – BEHIND THE LINES (Blair/Ramster) – WALK OUT OF YOURSELF (Voicings Collective)

– HOW DOES A BUILDING SING? (Alram/Bosy) – HAROLD & KEITH ATTEMPT TO USE ZOOM TO –A LIFE RESET (Scarlato/Foley) – GRIEF (Holger Petersen/Holden) DISCUSS THE POTENTIAL TAKEOVER OF BELOVED FOOTBALL CLUB NEWCASTLE UNITED: THE OPERA (Morris/Eastlake)

– (Schlechte-Bond/Williams) – EDGE OF TIME (Boulton/Stanley) – APART/MENTAL (Steen/Birnbaum)

– NO ROOM. NO ROOM. NO ROOM. (Phizmiz/ Mattey)

11 WEEK 1 – AUGUST 4

– A MAN DRAGS THE CARCASS OF A DEER (Rust/Troupes)

– AUSCHWITZ LOVERS (Holacky)

– DIVAS FURLOUGHED (Mikyska/Buck)

– HOW DOES A BUILDING SING? (Alram/Bosy)

– THE DEN (Schlechte-Bond/Williams)

12 A MAN DRAGS THE CARCASS OF A DEER

Composer – Joel Rust

Librettist – David Troupes

Director – Eloise Lally

Soprano – Rebecca Bottone

Baritone – Luke Sutliff

Video Editor – Nick Light

Animation – Benjamin Fox

Further Information

13 SYNOPSIS – A MAN DRAGS THE CARCASS OF A DEER

A Man Drags the Carcass of a Deer presents a winter forest at dusk, where the eponymous man drags the eponymous carcass back to his town and family.

Written for two singers, the Man and an unseen Voice, this piece is a meditation on the tension between isolation and community, between the burden of involvement and the urge toward release.

14 JOEL RUST

COMPOSER – USA/UK

Joel Rust is a composer, sound artist, and PhD student at New York University. Recently, he’s been working on CITIZEN, an interactive installation focusing on our experiences of urban soundscapes, his dissertation on Varèse’s unfinished multimedia works of the 1930s and 40s, and The Conifers, an opera, in collaboration with David Troupes.

15 DAVID TROUPES

LIBRETTIST – USA/UK

David Troupes has published two collections of poetry, and his creative work, including prose and sequential/comic art, appears widely in journals and anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic. Ted Hughes and Christianity, a book grown from his doctoral research, was published by Cambridge University Press in July 2019. In 2016 he was awarded a Jerwood Opera Writing Fellowship from Music, collaborating with Joel Rust on a .

16 ELOISE LALLY

DIRECTOR – GERMANY/UK

Eloise Lally is an opera and theatre director. She trained at the University of Surrey and at Mountview Academy, where she graduated with an MA in Theatre Directing. She has assisted on opera internationally and directed for London’s leading fringe venues.

Eloise lives in , Germany.

17 REBECCA BOTTONE

SOPRANO – UK

Rebecca Bottone was born in Bedfordshire and studied at the RAM.

Recent engagements include a WNO tour to Hong Kong with Pelléas et Mélisande Welsh National Opera, Bauci Bauci e filemeno, Amore Gluck's Orfeo and Despina in Cosi fan Tutte with the Classical Opera Company and concerts with the Karlsruhe Festival, Clorinda and Mabel (Scottish Opera), recording Amor in Gluck’s Orfeo with La nuova musica and Guinia in Mozart’s and Ilia in Mozart's at Opera, Haydn's Creation with Zurich Opera and a reprisal of the Olivier award winning production of Akhnaten at ENO in the role of Queen Tye .

Further appearances include First Innocent in the world premiere of Birtwistle’s Minotaur and First Niece (Royal Opera House‚ )‚ Cricket and Parrott in the world and USA premieres of Jonathan Dove’s The Adventures of Pinocchio ( and Minnesota Opera)‚ Blonde Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Aix-en-Provence Festival)‚ Marie in the world premiere of ’s ( International Festival)‚ Amanda in Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre and Casilda in ()‚ Anne Egerman ‚ Johanna Sweeney Todd and Carrie Carousel (Théâtre du Châtelet‚ ) and the Maid in Ades’ Powder Her Face and Semira in Arne's Artaxerxes at the Linbury Studio‚.

Rebecca has worked with many of the world’s leading including the Gabrieli Consort and Players; she has sung Charmeuse in ’Thais’ under Eschenbach with Renee Fleming and also performed with the AAM and the RAI Turin; the CBSO‚ the Halle and the Manchester Camerata; St John Passion with the Sinfonica di Milano in ; the under Sir ; and the Tonhalle Zürich under Sir Mark Elder.

Recordings include Cis EMI and two Rossini roles for ‚ Eurice Adelaide di Borgognia and Cleone Ermione. TV appearances include BBC2’s Television documentary The Genius of Beethoven‚ David Starkey’s Music and Monarchy , and Hugh Wood’s Epithamalion at the BBC Proms and the role of a singer in Steven Poliakoffs acclaimed film Capturing Mary.

Future performances include the role of Marina in the world premiere of The Life & Death of by Anthony Bolton with Grange Opera and concerts with the RPO, Capella Cracoviensis and the role of l'ange in Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise at Basel Opera. 18 LUKE SUTLIFF

BARITONE – USA

A native of Lakewood, Colorado, baritone Luke Sutliff is a second year master’s candidate at Rice University under the tutelage of Dr. Stephen King. He was going to make his Opera Theatre of Saint Louis debut as a Gerdine Young Artist, as the role of Elder McLean in Susannah and cover of Morales in . Unfortunately due to COVID-19, the season was canceled. This past fall, he appeared as Mr. Johannes Zegner in Proving Up by Missy Mazzoli at Rice University. He previously graduated from The Juilliard School where he studied with the late Sanford Sylvan. Mr. Sutliff has spent two consecutive summers at The Chautauqua Institute where he performed as Demetrius in A Midsummer Nights Dream, Hucklebee in The Fantasticks, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore, Escamillo cover in Carmen, and made his concert debut with the Chautauqua Festival Orchestra. In his last year at Juilliard, he covered Aeneas in their production of which toured to Opera Holland Park and the Opéra royal de Versailles. Previously that year he made his Alice Tully Hall debut. In past seasons at Juilliard, he has appeared as Jupiter in Orpheus in the Underworld and The Herald in The Burning Fiery Furnace. Mr. Sutliff has also premiered Samuel Zyman’s Viento, Agua, Piedra, Jack Frerer’s Four Frost Songs, Let Them Eat Cake by Trey Makler, and will premiere Jack Frerer’s Splinter.

19 NICK LIGHT

VIDEO EDITOR – UK/CANADA

Based in Vancouver, Canada, and London, UK, Nick is an AWARD WINNING Editor with a strong record of Editing high quality music, entertainment and factual productions.

Nick began working in the TV and Film industry in 2004, working as a Junior Editor at Superkrush, a boutique production company in the North East of England, on commercials and corporate films, and quickly rose to become a full Editor, delivering 100s of projects for Sky, BBC, ITV, DCM, Disney and Channel 4.

After leaving Superkrush Nick gained more experience working in Post Production, working as an Assistant Editor on productions for BBC, and ITV, as well as holding positions at various Post Production Companies, and Video Games Companies.

In 2010 Nick began working for BBC Factual in the Post-Production Department, designing and implementing workflows for major UK Factual series, and providing technical support to all onsite edit suites, and his assistance here helped deliver well over 100 hours of programmes to air.

Alongside retained positions with well-known Production organizations in London, he maintained a Wide client base, and complete work for Lowe Superculture, Vice Media, The BBC, and Creative England.

Nick has been working in Canada since 2013, and is a Permanent Resident of Canada.

20 BENJAMIN FOX

ANIMATOR – UK

An award-winning filmmaker making small, spirited slices of cinema. These idiosyncratic film works employ animation to manipulate and fuse a range of techniques. Tactile worlds of earthy folk aspirations, often in a state of flux, where senses and sensation rule, visualising interactions between mind, body and environment.

His films have been shown in festivals and exhibitions around the world. In 2014 he produced sequences of animated projections for the Helios Collective productions Eight Songs for a Mad king and Facade.

He lives and works in Haggerston, London.

21 AUSCHWITZ LOVERS

Composer & Librettist – Filip Holacky

Director – Robert Hersey

Video Editor – John Paul Hersey

Soprano – Susie Buckle

Mezzo-Soprano – Carolyn Dobbin

Tenor – Roger Paterson

Baritone – Franco Pomponi

Piano – Duncan Honeybourne

Further Information

22 SYNOPSIS – AUSCHWITZ LOVERS

While old man sits waiting to see an old woman in hospital for the first time in many years, both remember the moment they first met 67 years before in Auschwitz. They become lovers and promise each other that they would meet again and be together after liberation, but fate intervenes…

23 FILIP HOLACKY

COMPOSER & LIBRETTIST – CZECH REPUBLIC/SCOTLAND

Filip Holacky is a Czech composer, conductor and orchestrator based in , UK. He studied at the Brno Conservatory in the Czech Republic and performed in many countries around Europe and the USA. He’s currently studying Composition under the tutelage of David Fennessy at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. His works include chamber works, symphonic pieces, and opera and musical theatre works.

In 2017, his choral setting of Emily Dickinson’s Nature is What We See won the C4’s Composition Competition in New York . In 2019, his opera The Orangery won the Edinburgh Studio Opera Composition Award for the Best New Opera. In 2020, Filip was chosen by an internationally acclaimed composer and conductor Bright Sheng to serve as a Composition Fellow at the festival of Intimacy of Creativity in Hong Kong.

24 ROBERT HERSEY

DIRECTOR – UK

Robert studied Music at Newcastle and Acting and Directing at The School of the Science of Acting and the National Theatre in London . He has worked extensively in London and the North of England as Head of Theatre in Colleges, Theatre in Education , Youth Theatres and Community Theatre projects. He has directed many plays and music theatre but has a particular passion for early and contemporary opera. He is also a singer, instrumentalist and conductor working with and directing various early music ensembles touring the UK . He has recently directed Operas for Edinburgh Studio Opera and is Stage Director for the Brundibar Arts Festival.

25 JOHN PAUL HERSEY

VIDEO EDITOR – UK

John Paul Hersey studied at Newcastle Polytechnic and attained a BA Hons in Graphic Design. Since then has worked for a wide variety of Production Companies and Broadcasters including the BBC, Granada and RedVision Visual Effects. He is now Co-Director at his own company, Stonesoup VFX, which produces Visual Effects for TV Productions for the Netflix, Discovery, National Geographic, ITV and BBC. JP was Supervisor and Creative Lead for the team that collected both a National RTS for VFX for ITV’s Titanic Birth of a Legend and that was nominated for a Visual Effects BAFTA for the BBC’s 20th Century Battles.

26 SUSIE BUCKLE

SOPRANO – UK

Susie Buckle studied at Trinity Laban on the Postgraduate Artist Diploma programme as an Eve Malpass and Kathleen Roberts Vocal Scholar. For Opera North, she recently covered the role of Despinio in their acclaimed production of The Greek Passion, and played Sam-I-Am in Robert Kapilow’s opera Green Eggs and Ham, based on the Dr. Seuss book of the same title. Susie joined Opera Holland Park’s chorus last summer, where she also played one of the madrigal singers in their production of Manon Lescaut. Prior to lockdown, she was very much looking forward to joining them again this season for their productions of and Eugene Onegin. Other roles include: Pamina Magic (OperaUpClose); Bridesmaid (Charles Court Opera); cover Pepík Cunning Little Vixen (British Youth Opera); Mabel Pirates of Penzance and Josephine HMS Pinafore (Opera Anywhere); Rowan The Little Sweep and Lady-in-Waiting (Blackheath Halls Opera). Concert highlights include Trinity Laban and Jette Parker Young Artists recital at Blackheath Halls; soprano soloist in Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle at the Saville Club, London, and soloist in Elijah at St John’s Smith Square, conducted by Edward Gardner. Increasingly involved in performing new work, premieres include Nance in Banished by Stephen McNeff; and Emily in Dead Equal by Rose Hall and Lila Palmer for Helios Collective. Susie also performed in ’s King Harald’s Saga at the Barbican in collaboration with Trinity Laban and the Puppet Centre, and covered the role of Alyson in The Rattler, a new opera for children directed by Frederic Wake-Walker for Mahogany Opera Group.

27 CAROLYN DOBBIN

MEZZO-SOPRANO – IRELAND

Northern Irish mezzo soprano trained at the RSAMD and the YAP of OTC Dublin. During 2010/11 Carolyn was Associate Artist at WNO and 2012-2014 a member of Luzern Theatre, Switzerland.

Carolyn performed Mary/Der Fliegende Hollander (LFO), Penelope/ il ritorno d’ulisses, Annio/, Bradamante/ , Angelina/ la Cenerentola, Carmen (Luzerner Theatre), Flora and Annina/ Traviata ( Bern stdteatre), Mercedes/Carmen, (WNO) Janet/ Drs tale ( ROH2), Scipio/Caligula and Hannah/Passenger(ENO), Nicklausse/ Hoffman, Andronico/ (Capella Cracoviensis), Meg Page/Falstaff (OHP), / (DO), Maddalena/Rigoletto and Polina/Pique Dame (GPO), Lucretia/ (IYO) Madam Popova/ (MWO), CD release R Loders Raymond and Agnes, she established the Northern Irish Song Project and recorded the first CD ‘Calen-o’ of songs by composers past and present from the North of Ireland with Iain Burnside Delphian Records and BBC Radio3 Recitals. She has performed many by Handel, Verdi, Mozart, Bach with many prestigious orchestras in the Uk, Spain and Switzerland.

Recent and future engagements include the release of Ethel Smythes CD Fête Galante RO, Fenena/Nabucco & Alisa/ at DOF, Smeton/ at LFO, Mrs Peachum in Guide to love and marriage MWO, WNO concerts Dubai and London, debut for Irish National Opera 2020 and Siegrune Walküre LfO 2020/23.

28 ROGER PATERSON

TENOR – SCOTLAND

Roger Paterson’s music training began at the Junior Academy of Music at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) and continued at the University of Glasgow where he gained an honours degree in Musicology in 2007. He has since studied with Joan Gordon, Pat McMahon and Paul Farrington. He has given solo recitals in a variety of venues around the United Kingdom: for Reger Festival, Swiss Church/ London, at Ayr Town Hall and Pollok House/Glasgow and he gave a Russian Song recital for the Sphere Concert Series, Renfield St Stephens Church/Glasgow. In 2014, he became a founding member of Scozzesi, and has performed at the Byre Theatre/St Andrews; Music Inverness; Music in Thurso; Biggar Music Club; Strathearn Music Society; Ayr Music Club; Music in Dollar; Osprey Music Society; Forest Hills/Aberfoyle; Newton Stewart and District Music Club; Ross Priory/Gartocharn; Winter Palace/Glasgow Green with repeat performances planned in 2019 for Music Inverness, Music in Thurso and for Classic Music Live! Falkirk, Music Nairn and Melrose Music Society.

On the operatic stage, Roger has performed as: •1st Japanese Emissary (cover), The Nightingale, (Welsh National Opera) •Giuseppe (and cover of Gaston), La Traviata, (Longborough Festival Opera) •Rodolfo, La Bohème, (OLIVIER nominated, The Trafalgar Studios/London) •Cavaradossi, , (OFFIE winner, King’s Head Theatre/London) •Mozart, Mozart and Salieri, (OFFIE nominated, Time Zone Theatre/London) •Turridu, , (Kentish Opera) •Nadir, Les Pêcheurs de Perles, (Edinburgh ) •Claudio, Much Ado About Nothing, (Opera Northern Group) In 2020 his plans include performing the roles of Cavardossi in Opera Undone's version of Puccini's Tosca, and Rodolfo and Mimi in Opera Undone's new gay version of Puccini's La Boheme. He will be working with Welsh National Opera for the first time this year covering the 1st Japanese Emissary in Stravinsky’s The Nightingale,which is a contrasting double bill: the enchanting fairy tale, The Nightingale and the dark and menacing story of Bluebeard’s Castle, staring Sir .

His plans also include opera galas and concerts in the United Kingdom. 29 FRANCO POMPONI

BARITONE – USA

Franco trained at the Juilliard Opera Center receiving the DeRosa prize for excellence. He joined the elite Lyric Opera of Chicago young artist program garnering critical praise as Germont La traviata, and Malatesta . He made his debut as Escamillo in Carmen and the following season was invited to The Franco made his European debut in the title role of in Barcelona. Hailed as one of the supreme interpreters of the role, he has performed Hamlet in Brussels, Kansas City, Met, and Marseille, winning Opéra magazine’s choice as “Opera of the Year”. In Paris at Théâtre du Châtelet, Franco created a sensation as Pentheus in The Bassarids of Henze, and has returned as Sweeney Todd, and Nixon Nixon in China televised on Mezzo. Franco has performed leading baritone and bass-baritone roles at major Opera houses and Concert Halls worldwide.

EUROPE & WORLD - Liceo Barcelona, Teatro Real Madrid, Bolshoi Moscow, La Monnaie Brussels , Opernhaus Zürich, Grand Theatre Geneva, Opéra Lausanne, Chatelet Paris, Opéra Comique, Royal Theatre Versailles, Marseille, Montpellier, Opéra Nice, Opéra du Rhin Strasbourg, Tours, Vichy, Den Haag, Rotterdam, Netherlands, Teatro Massimo Palermo, Teatro Lirico Cagliari, Italy, Greek National Opera, , Hungarian State Opera, , Finnish National Opera, Helsinki, Guangzhou Opera, China, Doha Opera House, Qatar.

AMERICAS - Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, , New York City Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Santa Fe Opera, New Orleans Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Spoleto Festival, San Diego Opera, Saratoga, Boston Lyric, Opera Omaha, Dallas Opera, Austin Lyric, San Antonio, Portland Opera, Eugene Opera, Kentucky Opera, Washington Concert Opera, Carnegie Hall New York, Orchestra Hall Chicago.

ORCHESTRA - Chicago Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, BYSO, Boston, Orchestre du Paris, Orchestre Radio France, Grant Park Symphony, Qatar Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Musiciens du Louvre.

30 DUNCAN HONEYBOURNE PIANIST – UK

Commended by International Piano magazine for his "glittering performances", Duncan Honeybourne has enjoyed a colourful and diverse career as pianist, writer and in music education for over 20 years.

His debut in 1998 as concerto soloist at Symphony Hall, Birmingham and the National Concert Hall, Dublin, was broadcast on radio and television, and recital debuts included London, Paris, and international festivals in Belgium and Switzerland. Duncan’s debut CD was described by Gramophone magazine as “not to be missed by all lovers of English music”, whilst BBC Music Magazine reported: “There are gorgeous things here. Hard to imagine better performances.”

Honeybourne has toured extensively in the UK, Ireland and Europe as solo and lecture recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician, appearing at many major venues and leading festivals. His solo performances have been frequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and TV, Irish, French, Swiss, Austrian, Belgian, Dutch, Finnish and German Radio, SABC (South Africa), ABC (Australia) and Radio New Zealand. Duncan’s many acclaimed recordings reflect his long association with 20th and 21st century British piano and , and include complete surveys of the solo piano music of Moeran and Joubert, and the /piano music of Parry. His solo discs have been awarded 5 stars in Musical Opinion and International Piano and featured as CD of the Week on FMR Radio in South Africa and Recommended CD on ORF Austrian Radio.

Duncan has premiered over 60 new solo piano works including John Joubert’s Third Piano Sonata, John Casken’s Tempus Plangendi, Sadie Harrison’s piano cycles Lunae and Shadows, Peter Reynolds’ Penllyn for Late Music York and the Andrew Downes at Birmingham Town Hall.

Duncan Honeybourne has written for , Guardian, Birmingham Post and Jewish Chronicle as well as and International Piano magazines. He is a Piano Tutor at the University of Southampton and Sherborne School, gives regular masterclasses and adjudications, and has written and lectured widely on his experience of life with autism. He is Founder/Artistic Director of the Weymouth Lunchtime Chamber Concerts near his home in Dorset.

31 DIVAS FURLOUGHED

Composer – Ian Mikyska

Librettist, Director & Editor – Anthony Buck

Violetta – Keely Futterer

Cio-Cio San – Lizzie Holmes

Lucia – Elise Caluwaerts

Salome – Justine Viani

Further Information

32 SYNOPSIS – DIVAS FURLOUGHED

With opera houses closed all over the world, four opera characters are finally off the stage for the first time since their debuts. This "documentary" opera finds Violetta, Butterfly, Lucia, and alone in their apartments, transitioning from the obligation to perform the scripts others have written for them (that end in their loss of love, and ultimately their deaths) to finding freedom and their own voices.

33 IAN MIKYSKA

COMPOSER – CZECH REPUBLIC

Ian Mikyska is a composer based in who generally works outside of concert music, creating theatre, installations, performances and texts. Following composition studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London (with exchanges at the Univerisät der Künste, Berlin, and FAMU, Prague), he is currently studying for a master's degree in directing alternative and puppet theatre at DAMU, Prague. His work generally focuses on the interplay of conceptual thought and a focus on perception, often in a meditative context. www.ianmikyska.com

34 ANTHONY BUCK

LIBRETTIST & DIRECTOR – USA

Anthony Buck is a singer, director, actor, teacher, librettist and illustrator living in Salt Lake City, Utah. His libretti include A Christmas Carol (composer Michael Leavitt), a new English-language , and two operas currently in composition. Directorial titles include St. Matthew Passion, L’elisir d’amore, Idomeneo, Amahl and the Night Visitors, , , Dido and Æneas, and assistant on Carmen, La Traviata, and Cosí fan tutte. His scripts for radio include Arabian Nights, Make Offer, and Tagged. Holding a doctoral degree in Voice and Opera, he is an adjunct professor at Utah Valley University and Salt Lake Community College. He and his wife have three adorable children.

35 KEELY FUTTERER

VIOLETTA – USA

Soprano KEELY FUTTERER, praised by Opera News as a “high-quality … with a keen verbal nuance,” has been seen in performances across the globe in China, Italy and the . Career highlights of Ms. Futterer include Elle in La Voix Humaine, the title role in , Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, and Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro. Recently, she received critical acclaim for her role debut of Marie in La fille du Régiment at Opera Saratoga, where she was reviewed as having “one of the most gorgeous voices you can imagine with charm to match.” On the concert stage, she has performed Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, covered Renée Fleming in the world premiere of Kevin Puts’ Letters from Georgia, and performed as the soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mahler’s Symphony 2 and 4, and Mozart’s . A frequent performer of contemporary work, she performed Sara Turing in the premiere of The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing with American Lyric Theatre, the Witch Mother in the American premiere of Glass’s The Witches’ of Venice, and next April will reprise the role of Isabella Beecher in Victoria Bond’s Mrs. President, part of the Cutting Edge Concert Series and in honor of the 100 year anniversary of women’s suffrage. This past spring, she made her company debut at Tulsa Opera in Madame Butterfly and next season performs a role debut with Opera in the Rock as Violetta Valéry in La Traviata.

36 LIZZIE HOLMES

CIO-CIO SAN – UK

British soprano Lizzie Holmes was born in Dorset and grew up in Ethiopia, Hong Kong and Australia. A graduate of London's Royal College of Music, Lizzie is building a reputation as a highly versatile performer with a love of detailed storytelling. Recent highlights include Laurette Doctor Miracle (Wexford Festival Opera), Dew Fairy and cover Gretel (), title role Sāvitri (Hampstead Garden Opera) and Musetta La Bohème (Oxford Opera). This year Lizzie made her Royal Opera House Crush Room recital debut and was headline soloist for ’s Strauss Gala with highlights including Istanbul’s UNIQ Hall, and Bridgewater Hall. Other highlights include Mimi in the Olivier Awards Nominated ‘Best New Opera’ La Bohème (Trafalgar Studios), Cunegonde (Minack Theatre) and Despina Così fan tutte (Devon Opera). Before the virus hit, Lizzie was due to sing Gianetta and cover Adina L’Elisir d’Amore (Longborough Festival Opera) and Frasquita Carmen (Iford Arts). She is grateful for financial support at this time from the Arts Council England and Help Musicians UK.

Lizzie is a Concordia Foundation Artist, British Youth Opera alumni, Into Opera Associate Artist and Carne Trust scholar. As an undergraduate she read English Literature at Warwick University and was awarded ‘Best Supporting Actor’ at the National Student Drama Festival. She has worked professionally in devised theatre and on the West End in The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s Theatre). Lizzie is a Guest Lecturer on Creative Entrepreneurialism at the Royal College of Music and founder of DEBUT, their concert series at Shoreditch Treehouse was one of Airbnb’s Top 5 Global Experiences 2018 and has been featured by Steinway & Sons and Opera Now. www.lizzieholmes.com | @LizzieJHolmes

37 ELISE CALUWAERTS

LUCIA – BELGIUM

Thanks to her versatility and captivating personality, soprano Elise Caluwaerts has grown into a renowned soloist both in Belgium and abroad. Elise Caluwaerts began her singing career as a baroque singer, and later expanded her repertoire to the romantic and contemporary genre. Her love for challenging repertoire – ranging from opera to multidisciplinary projects – led to various creations and remarkable collaborations with internationally renowned composers and ensembles. During the Sydney Festival 2016, she sang the highly acclaimed role of Lei in Pascal Dusapin’s Passion.

"Belgian soprano Elise Caluwaerts impressed with her supple sense of line and strength, displaying a soaring, pure-toned top register and richly coloured lower register." (The Australian, reviewing Passion at the Sydney Festival 2016)

Furthermore, Elise released an album with spectacular repertoire with the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra in December 2016. It lead to various major opera productions, such as Mozart’s (Donna Elvira) with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra directed by David Stern and Rosina in Rossini’s Il Barbieri di Siviglia (Rosina) under the baton of Vegard Nilsen. Highlight of the 2017-2018 season was the female leading role (Chuan Yun) in the creation of Enjott Schneider's opera Marco Polo directed by Kasper Holten in Guanghzou Opera (China) in May 2018. In 2019 Elise sang Mimi in La Boheme at the Copenhagen Opera Festival and a series of new year’s concerts with Aalborg Symphony Orchestra. www.elisecaluwaerts.com 38 JUSTINE VIANI

SALOME – AUSTRALIA/UK

The Australian-British soprano Justine Viani made her stage debut singing the title role of ’ Salome at the Theatre der Stadt Heidelberg in April 2010. Since then she has performed internationally with roles such as Tosca, , Kaiserin, Sieglinde, Gerhilde, Salud, , Santuzza, Agathe, Donna Elvira, Vitellia, and has sung the Duchess from Powder her Face with New York City Opera in 2012, and most recently with Greek National Opera in 2019. She will make her debut as Helena in Strauss’s Ägyptische Helena with Fulham Opera in November 2020. Ms Viani has also performed extensively as an soloist and lieder recitalist. Some orchestral concerts include Strauss’ Lieder Op.27 and Vier Letzte Lieder, Wagner Wesendonck Lieder, Berg Sieben frühe Lieder, and Mahler Rückert Lieder.

She has succeeded in many international competitions, including being a finalist in three, but winning two Wagner Bayreuth society prizes in London, Vienna and Sydney.

She has been fortunate to have studied with such as KS Inge Borkh, KS Ute Vinzing, Monserrat Caballé, Dennis O’Neill, and .

39 HOW DOES A BUILDING SING?

Composer – Felipe Alram

Video Direction & Animation – Ted Bosy

Flat at Maskelyne Close, , Local Co-op – Lotte Betts-Dean

Further Information

40 SYNOPSIS – HOW DOES A BUILDING SING?

This piece is a sonic and architectural performance featuring a cast of familiar architectural elements that we come to know through the sounds that come of our interaction with them. Throughout this piece overhearings and noises from the flat where we live, Battersea Park and the local Co-op become the voice of the spaces through our inhabitation. A journey through this sonic and visual woven assemblage is accompanied by a word-collage of snippets from our surroundings caught on recording, crossed with a travel brochure that perversely came in the post during lockdown. Mixed media sketches and pieces of a contemporary coloured BBC newsreel are collaged in relating to the ruins of the Festival of Britain ‘theatre set’ in Battersea park, which people are using for their daily lockdown exercise, and the piece is disintegrated and reintegrates.

41 FELIPE ALRAM

COMPOSER – BRAZIL/UK

Felipe Alram is a music composer based in London. Born in Rio de Janeiro, his musical work consists of a blend of genres such as Jazz, Contemporary classical, Rock and various kinds of Brazilian music including Choro and Samba. He started developing his music skills in 2002, when his interest for learning the guitar showed up. In 2007 he went to Seville, Spain where he spent an year studying Flamenco guitar and music theory. Later he graduated in Music Composition at UFRJ, in Rio, Brazil where he organized a big concert where he presented a variety of works for different chamber groups, a jazz Big Band and electronic produced soundtracks he did for different movie scenes and art projects. In London, He studied Sound Design and Music Composition for film and media at Morley College and is working with images and sound and their relation with each other.

42 TED BOSY

VIDEO DIRECTION & ANIMATION – UK

Ted Bosy is a London-based still and moving image artist, as well as Architecture graduate from The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, London (graduating with a first in June 2019). Her work sustains a poetics of transgression to create new experiential narratives, with an architectural language including analogue and digital methods such as rendering, casting, 3D printing and paper modelling. She explores space in multi and mixed media, combining sketches, rendering and modelmaking. She has a particular interest in the relationship of architecture with photographic and moving image and uses and misuses both analogue and digital media in her architectural and moving image work. She worked on a UK Arts Council supported non-narrative film program with SPACE and the ICA London, and her film Surfacing was screened at the ICA and exhibited in 2017 as part of the Playback touring film festival. Her zines are held at OCADU and Art Metropole, Toronto, renowned as a key early correspondence art organisation.

43 LOTTE BETTS-DEAN

FLAT AT MASKELYNE CLOSE, BATTERSEA PARK, LOCAL CO-OP – AUSTRALIA

Praised by for her “irrepressible sense of drama and unmissable, urgent musicality”, Australian mezzo- soprano Lotte Betts-Dean’s wide ranging repertoire encompasses opera, oratorio, contemporary music, , chamber music and early music.

A versatile concert artist performing predominantly in Australia and in the UK, recent highlights include her debut with Symphony Orchestra and Sir Andrew Davis (Stravinsky Perséphone), performances at Buxton International Festival, St John’s Smith Square, St Martin in the Fields, ’s Sound Unbound Festival, Tête- à-Tête Festival, , Cadogan Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre, and the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. Alongside Joseph Havlat, Lotte won the 2019 Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform and was subsequently invited to the 2019 Oxford Lieder Festival and the 2020 Oxford Lieder Spring Song Festival. Lotte won the 2017 Southbank Sinfonia Peter Hulsen Orchestral Song Award, the inaugural 2018 Musician’s Company New Elizabethan Award, and most recently, the 2020 Audrey Strange Memorial Prize for an outstanding singer at the Royal Over-Seas League Competition.

Lotte is a Yeoman of the Musicians Company, an Music Trust bursar, a City Music Foundation Artist and a 2020 Tait Memorial Trust Awardee. Lotte has appeared as soloist with several major ensembles including the internationally renowned Australian Chamber Orchestra (Bach Christmas Oratorio) English Chamber Orchestra (Vivaldi ) and Manchester Collective (Schoenberg ).

Lotte is a graduate of the (MA) and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. Her performances have been broadcast on radio around the world including BBC Radio 3, Deutschlandradio Kultur, ABC Classic FM and WQXR NY.

Alongside Australian violinist Bridget O’Donnell, Lotte recently organized the Australian Bushfire Benefit London at the Royal Academy of Music, involving major artists such as Simone Young, Stuart Skelton and Amy Dickson. The event raised over £40,000 for the Australian Bushfire Relief effort. www.lottebettsdean.com

44 THE DEN

Composer – Christopher Schlechte-Bond

Librettist – Fiona Williams

Director – Jen McGregor

Joe – Britt Hewitt

Aimee – Jennifer Clark

Cello – Kevin Kirs Verstege

Bassoon – Gillian

Clarinet – Ozlem Celik

Further Information

45 SYNOPSIS – THE DEN

Aimee and Joe are hiding in their homemade den, escaping from their over-zealously cleaning mum. She's having a Lockdown Meltdown. Outside, the world is bewildering and more than a little bit weird. But together in their Isolation Igloo, Aimee and Joe are superheroes cooking up a plan to defeat King Corona and his evil super spreaders.

The Den is a child’s eye-view of the coronavirus pandemic and all the weirdness that has brought upon their worlds: no school, parents at home All The Time, being apart from family and friends, fighting an unknown and unseeable foe. It’s a time of great confusion and chaos and danger.

Embracing the nature of lockdown, Christopher Schlechte-Bond’s score draws on the vigour and energy of librettist Fiona Williams’ childish themes, blending the musical voices of cellist Kevin Kirs Verstege, bassoonist Gillian Horn, and clarinettist Ozlem Celik, with his own synths and homemade percussion.

Filmed at home in Dallas and England with director Jen McGregor in Edinburgh, The Den is a trans-Atlantic collaboration, reflecting the pandemic’s impact on children’s lives on both sides of The Pond.

46 CHRISTOPHER SCHLECHTE-BLOND COMPOSER – UK

Christopher Schlechte-Bond is a London-based composer for the concert hall, film, TV and theatre. His music is bold, textural and colourful, with folk, world, classical electronic and electroacoustic influences. He enjoys playing with exciting sounds and creating new ones from seemingly unexpected places. He has worked with the British , King’s College Chorus, the , Constanza Chorus, Ensemble Novus, Helios Opera Company, the And So Forth Opera Company, Azalea Ensemble, Mary Dullea, BBC Radio 3 and . He is also artistic director of the contemporary music ensemble ‘Echoshed’. He obtained a Master of Composition from the Royal College of Music under Simon Holt, Joseph Horovitz and Gilbert Nouno and first-class honours from King’s College London under , Rob Keeley and Ed Nesbit.

47 FIONA WILLIAMS

LIBRETTIST – UK

A former opera singer, Fiona works as a director, writer, dramaturg and workshop animateur.

Directorial credits include new works The Reckoning for The Art of Change and The Witches of Paisley for community company Paisley Opera to classics from La Bohème to Wagner's Ring Cycle for companies small and large across the UK. In November last year, she directed her first musical, Urinetown the Musical, for Brunel University Arts. She directed scenes at the inaugural Swap'ra Gala - including the UK premiere of Mark Adamo's Little Women - and worked as a regular staff and associate director for Opera Holland Park. As well as directing, Fiona works extensively in music education and outreach running Opera Holland Park’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland education programme for primary schools, a specialist programme for children with autism and special educational needs, and OperaUNITY workshops for families.

She conducts a number of community including the staff choir at Springfield Hospital Choir, Mental Notes, and leads regular vocal and musicianship projects for Pelican Music.

Fiona's next projects include A Paisley Kiss for Paisley Opera as well as the development of a new opera about female homelessness with composer Eve Harrison and the support of the Royal Opera House's Engender programme. fionawilliamsdirector.co.uk

48 JEN MCGREGOR

DIRECTOR – SCOTLAND

Jen McGregor is a Scottish writer and director. She trained at Mountview. Theatre work includes Comfort and Joy (TREND Festival, Rome), Winter Fuel Allowance (Village Pub Theatre) #SonsOfGod: Vox (Piccolo Theatre of Milan), Volante (Hothouse, Traverse) and Canto X (Fronteiras Theatre Lab, Summerhall). Her play Heaven Burns won the Assembly Roxy Theatre Award in 2018. Most recently, Jen directed Cavelleria Rusticana for Edinburgh Studio Opera.

49 BRITT HEWITT JOE – USA

Britt Hewitt is an American soprano, actor, and singer/ songwriter. Based in NYC, Britt is currently completing her training at The Juilliard School, where she’s studied with Sanford Sylvan and William Burden. At Juilliard, Hewitt played Miles in The Turn of the Screw and the Spirit in Dido and Aeneas. She performed in two consecutive Juilliard Focus Festivals, and to fulfill her senior recital requirement, she curated an evening of music created by female composers. Britt recently sang the role of Dawn in Everything for Dawn: Part I at The Flea Theatre. Next summer, she expects to attend the Mostly Modern Festival and Kneisel . Hewitt is a member of the New York Songwriters Circle, with which she performs her original work at The Bitter End. Find out more and take a listen at www.britthewitt.com.

50 JENNIFER CLARK AIMEE – UK

Jennifer studied at the and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where she was a Leverhulme Scholar. In February 2020 she made her Opera North debut as Flora in The Turn of the Screw, and was due to sing Anne Egerman / A Little Night Music in May 2020 for Opera North and Leeds Playhouse (postponed). Previous roles include / Façon Tragique de Tuer une Femme (ENOA Residency, ), First Boy / The Magic Flute (WNO), Flora / The Turn of the Screw (Bury Court Opera), cover Blonde / Seraglio and cover Emmie / Albert Herring (), Bacchis / La Belle Hélène (Opera della Luna and New Sussex Opera), Gretel / Hansel and Gretel and Galatea / Acis and Galatea (Opera’r Ddraig), Belinda / Dido and Aeneas (The Baroque Collective) and soloist / ensemble in Merry Opera Company’s staged Messiah. Jennifer’s 2018/19 season saw her rejoin The Grange Festival for their critically acclaimed in collaboration with The Sixteen, and sing the roles of Mabel / The Pirates of Penzance, Josephine / HMS Pinafore and / Patience for Opera Anywhere’s ongoing UK tour. On the concert platform she has appeared with Tenebrae, Southwell Festival Voices and Britten Sinfonia Voices. www.jenniferclarksoprano.com.

51 KEVIN KIRS VERSTEGE – SWEDEN

Kevin Kirs Verstege is a musician born in Stockholm, Sweden. His musical journey began in his home where he started exploring the living room piano, and eventually proving a talent. At the age of 10, Kevin was admitted to ‘Musikskolan Lilla Akademien’ as a piano student. After some time spent in a completely musical environment, with children from various backgrounds playing different instruments Kevin became very fond of the cello. A few years spent studying the cello as well as the piano, Kevin had his heart completely set on the cello and let the piano go. Spending his teenage years playing music in all shapes and forms with young groups from Stockholm, touring Europe and the United States performing in venues such as Carnegie Hall, NY. Kevin had gotten a taste for the international music life. In 2011, Kevin moved to Glasgow, UK. to pursue his musical interest at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. During his years in Scotland, Kevin was expanding his musicality as well as instrumental skills under the guidance of his mentor Aleksei Kiseliov. An exciting five years in the United Kingdom led to various prestigious musical opportunities such as performing Elgar’s with the City of Carlisle Orchestra under the baton of Ryan Bancroft as well as numerous concerts along side the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in venues such as Edinburgh and the . Moving on to the next and current chapter in the story, Kevin is currently enrolled in a masters pro- gramme at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in the Netherlands under the tutelage of Michael Stirling. His musical adventures in Amsterdam covers a wide range of variation from nordic folk music performances, performance art shows, orchestral playing and close collaborations with living composers in exciting arenas such as the Nieuw Ensemble performing in a variety of interesting venues like Het Concertgebouw, Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ and Splendor.

52 GILLIAN HORN – SCOTLAND

Gillian Horn is a freelance bassoonist from Glasgow. Since gaining her undergraduate and Master's degrees from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2017, Gillian has been performing regularly in Scotland, the UK and abroad.

Gillian is a keen orchestral musician and has toured with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra. Her love of opera has kept her busy, and she has performed as Principal Bassoonist with the Scottish Concert Orchestra, Opera del Lumi, Magnetic Opera, Paisley Opera, Raucous Rossini Opera (UK/Italy), New Generation Festival (Florence) and more.

As a founding member of the Genovia Quartet (bassoon quartet) and Sirocco Winds (woodwind chamber ensemble), chamber music is Gillian's passion. Her ensembles give regular recitals and educational workshops around the UK to audiences of all ages. Highlights include performances at Paxton House, St Magnus International Festival, Leeds College of Music, the International Double Reed Society Conference (Granada, 2018) and the Jackdaws' "Year of the Bassoon" project (Somerset, 2020)

53 OZLEM CELIK – TURKEY

Ozlem is currently playing as a versatile principal clarinettist in various orchestras and groups across the U.K., Turkey and Europe and has established herself as a solo and chamber musician of distinction. Besides her international career, she is holding the principal chair of Samsun State Opera and Ballet Orchestra since 2009. Ozlem’s musical education began in Dokuz Eylul University State Conservatory, where she studied clarinet with Atif Peynirci and chamber music with oboist Murat Ozulgen, principals Izmir State Symphony Orchestra. During her studies which culminated in a degree education she participated in masterclasses with Alain Damiens, Nicholas Baldeyrou and Sarah Elbaz and studied with Guy Deplus, Alexander Fitterstein and Karl Heinz Steffens. She had got chance to attend masterclasses with Karl Leister, Patrick Messina, Martin Fröst, Andrew Marriner, Robert Plane, Michael Collins during her education in London. She played as a soloist in the Youth-Genç Symphony Orchestra which was cooperation between German and Turkish young musicians, and she subsequently toured with this orchestra around Germany and Turkey. Currently she is based in London, completed her MA in Performance at the Royal Academy of Music, in June 2016 and studied clarinet under Angela Malsbury and Timothy Lines. She was delighted to be awarded a full scholarship by the Borusan Philarmonic Orchestra. Ozlem was of Music in 2016 and is supported by Talent Unlimited. Recent engagements include solo and chamber concerts in London, Europe and Turkey. She appeared at Royal Festival Hall, Royal Overseas League besides performances as principal clarinettist of The World of Women Orchestra , the Dulwich Opera Company and Hornton Chamber Orchestra and the World Premiers of the operas the Mad King Suibhne and Aurora by Noah Mosley. For further information about Ozlem Celik please visit www.ozlemcelik.co.uk

54 WEEK 2 – AUGUST 11

– WISDOM OF STONE (Hall/Evans)

– ESSENTIAL BUSINESS (Stillman/Pool)

– SLEEPING & WAKING ARE THEIR NAMES (Purdue/Banks)

– HAROLD & KEITH ATTEMPT TO USE ZOOM TO DISCUSS THE POTENTIAL TAKEOVER OF BELOVED FOOTBALL CLUB NEWCASTLE UNITED: THE OPERA (Morris/Eastlake)

– NO ROOM. NO ROOM. NO ROOM. (Phizmiz/Mattey)

55 WISDOM OF STONE

Composer – Rose Miranda Hall

Librettist & Director – Candace Evans

Elise – Anne-Sophie Duprels

Cello – Kevin Kirs Verstege

Viola – Bart Folkers

Oboe – Clara Laufente Garcia

Bassoon – Gillian Horn

Editor – Thomas Hripko

Pianist & Musical Coach – Annette Saunders

Further Information

56 SYNOPSIS – WISDOM ON STONE

Self-quarantined in an ancient chateau in France, Elise confronts history, and what the walls around her have seen over the centuries. Her emotional journey echoes what each of us have felt, grappling with unseen forces and uncontrollable threats.

Can we truly learn from history, or will we be forever forced to relive the same experiences?

Filmed on location at Chateau de la Rochelambert

Rochelambert Castle is perched on a basalt cliff, the remains of an extinct volcano. The oldest recorded traces of human presence in Europe were found in this area and it has been continuously inhabited since the Neolithic era.

57 ROSE MIRANDA HALL COMPOSER – UK

Rose Miranda Hall’s composition focuses on narratives that challenge common preconceptions through opera and contemporary music theatre. Her work has been performed across the UK, in Germany, Hong Kong and Canada. In 2018 Rose was awarded second prize in the International Wolf Durmashkin Composition Award for ‘Mein Schatten’, which was premiered by Yoed Sorek and the Bavarian Philharmonic in Landsberg am Lech. Current projects include opera ‘Dead Equal’ which headlined Summerhall’s Army@TheFringe 2019. With a by Lila Palmer, ‘Dead Equal’ weaves the extraordinary story of the only British woman to fight in WWI with verbatim reports from today's female soldiers, exposing the struggle of women at war for equality, past and present. ‘Beautifully written, powerfully performed and reaching the hearts of everyone listening ... a resplendent feminist perspective on female involvement in combat’ (Broadway Baby). The 2019 production is a development and extension of a scene exploration with The Helios Collective’s Formations 2016. ‘The Jewel Merchants’ (2017/2020), is a participatory community chamber opera written alongside mental health service users and staff in collaboration with poet David Gilbert, Lila Palmer and cellist James Whittle. In 2019 Rose was also chosen alongside five female composers to have their compositions workshopped by Wild Plum Arts at PRS for Music with mentorship from Errollyn Wallen and Joanna Lee; ’Paper Woman’ is the first in a of poems by Palmer. Rose is also working with librettist Emily Coppola on a chamber opera which looks at the representation of mental health on the operatic stage.

58 CANDACE EVANS LIBRETTIST & DIRECTOR – USA

Internationally recognised, Candace Evans has been praised as a stage director and choreographer with “a flawless sense of timing” (Opera News), whose work is “genuine gripping drama.” (Opera Now.) Honoured by the National Music Critic’s Association of Argentina, her La Viuda Alegre at the legendary Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires was named one of the top three operas of the entire Argentinian season. Similarly her productions of Carmen, Eugene Onegin and The Merry Widow were all named as top ten classical events for Madison Opera and Dallas Opera. Following these honours, she was asked to direct Don Pasquale for the opening season of the Winspear Opera House in Dallas. Ms. Evan’s production of Akhnaten for San Diego Opera and Indiana University was named by the organisation as a definitive performance.

Among Ms. Evan’s other past engagements are the opera companies of Santa Fe, Arizona, Palm Beach, San Diego, Fort Worth, North Carolina, San Jose, Birmingham, Knoxville, Livermore and Indianapolis, as well as the Florentine Opera and Opera Southwest. Frequently in Italy, her production of Le Nozze di Figaro toured with the Montefeltro Festival.

Already fascinated by directing as a child, Candace loved staging fairy tales with tiny paper theatre models. At age 12, when she was asked to direct and choreograph an hour of music and dance for a PTA show, she knew she had found her career. “My love of creating stories, realised through music, movement and text has never dimmed. There is complete alchemy for the soul in opera.”

Ms. Evans continued to study classical voice, ballet and theatre, culminating in a Master of Fine Arts degree. She taught for the theatre and music departments at Southern Methodist University, lectures nationally on mask training for singers and serves as an acting coach for numerous companies and professionals, who seek her for her understanding of role interpretation and physicalisation of emotion.

Her own performance career spanned the wide diversity of dancing with the Wisconsin , singing with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, international tours in Shakespearean roles, national voice-over and television credits and creating staged concert events. This combination of talent and interest illustrate why her directorial style is one of such integration of musical intent, dramatic text and the physical life of performers.

“With the addition of imagination, spectacle, colour, costume, light and movement, the music and text should be given wings. I have always had a strong vision of how the music should move in a physical way.” Her recent production of Florencia en el Amazonas, for both San Diego Opera and Indiana University (available on demand at the IU Opera streaming website, http://www.music.indiana.edu/ iumusiclive/streaming/ ) very clearly illustrate this attitude, as well as the variety of style that her work encompasses.

Firm in her belief that opera shouldn’t be viewed as formal or forbidding, Candace retains her childhood wonder in the art form. “It’s not my job to teach, preach or scold. My greatest wish is that the audience can be released into a world of creativity and wonder, moved by the music and stories that investigate our world.”

Upcoming are productions include La Traviata, Béatrice et Bénédict, and a return to the Dallas Opera.

59 ANNE-SOPHIE DUPRELS

ELISE – FRANCE

Described as a “formidable singing actress”, Anne-Sophie Duprels has garnered high critical acclaim internationally for her portrayal of leading heroines. She made her UK debut with Opera Holland Park, a company with whom she has built a long standing relationship, where her credits include the title role in Mascagni’s , and Zazá, Luisa Luisa Miller Katya Kabanova, Jenufa, Suor Angelica, Amelia , Giorgetta , Magda La Rondine, Violetta La Traviata and Mélisande Pelleas et Mélisande.

Other highlights include Risurrezione (Wexford Festival Opera and Teatro Maggio Musicale Fiorentino), title role Thaïs (Teatro Nacional de São Carlos; Theater Lübeck), Elle La Voix Humaine (Opéra de Tours, Buxton Festival , Royal Albert Hall), ( Grange Park Opera, Scottish Opera), Salud La vida Breve ( Opera North, Greek National Opera) Future plans include title role Edmea, Anna Le Villi, Title role Margot la Rouge.

Anne Sophie is also collaborating regularly with pianists Antoine Palloc and Pascal Roge , giving songs recitals all over Europe.

Anne Sophie was nominated in 2013 for outstanding achievement for her CioCioSan at Opera Holland Park (Whatsonstage awards), for Best Opera La Voix Humaine in Buxton for Manchester Theatre Award , best Opera in 2014 in Canada's Sterling award and best Opera Il Trittico for the RPS awards in 2016.

60 KEVIN KIRS VERSTEGE CELLO – SWEDEN

Kevin Kirs Verstege is a musician born in Stockholm, Sweden. His musical journey began in his home where he started exploring the living room piano, and eventually proving a talent. At the age of 10, Kevin was admitted to ‘Musikskolan Lilla Akademien’ as a piano student. After some time spent in a completely musical environment, with children from various backgrounds playing different instruments Kevin became very fond of the cello. A few years spent studying the cello as well as the piano, Kevin had his heart completely set on the cello and let the piano go. Spending his teenage years playing music in all shapes and forms with young groups from Stockholm, touring Europe and the United States performing in venues such as Carnegie Hall, NY. Kevin had gotten a taste for the international music life. In 2011, Kevin moved to Glasgow, UK. to pursue his musical interest at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. During his years in Scotland, Kevin was expanding his musicality as well as instrumental skills under the guidance of his mentor Aleksei Kiseliov. An exciting five years in the United Kingdom led to various prestigious musical opportunities such as performing Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the City of Carlisle Orchestra under the baton of Ryan Bancroft as well as numerous concerts along side the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in venues such as Edinburgh Usher Hall and the Royal Albert Hall. Moving on to the next and current chapter in the story, Kevin is currently enrolled in a masters pro- gramme at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in the Netherlands under the tutelage of Michael Stirling. His musical adventures in Amsterdam covers a wide range of variation from nordic folk music performances, performance art shows, orchestral playing and close collaborations with living composers in exciting arenas such as the Nieuw Ensemble performing in a variety of interesting venues like Het Concertgebouw, Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ and Splendor.

61 BART FOLKERS VIOLA – NETHERLANDS

Bart Folkers is a Dutch violist. He studied viola at the Utrecht Conservatorium with Mikhail Zemtsov, and is now studying with Julia Dinerstein at Codarts in Rotterdam. Bart played numerous projects in the Dutch National Youth Orchestra (NJO) and participated in Spanish National Youth Orchestra (JONDE). Bart worked with famous soloists and conductors among which: , David Grimal, Jules Buckly, Bas Wiegers and Gustavo Gimeno. Bart is especially fond of playing opera, having played several family operas with Leonard Evers in the Dutch National Opera.

Bart enjoys performing chamber music as well: He is part of Duo Stellina, a duo for violin and viola. This duo frequently performs outdoors, in special places like gardens, book stores and airplane hangars. Bart is also part of the Rodinia Trio, a trio for flute, viola and harp. This group set out to explore the 20th century gems of this repertoire, playing Debussy, Takemitsu and Ravel.

Apart from a classical background, Bart also likes to play other styles. Being part of the Metropole Orkest Academy, he played in Concertgebouw and at Tomorrowland with film music and Electronic Dance Music.

In the Opera Harmony project, you will find Bart playing in Grief by Nils Holger Petersen and Wisdom of Stone by Rose Hall.

Webpage: www.bartfolkers.nl

62 CLARA LAUFUENTE GARCIA – SPAIN

Born in Spain, Clara is a Masters and Bachelor graduated of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS).

Whilst studying at the RCS, she was part of the Sinfonietta project with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO) recording works by Stravinsky for BBC Radio. She was accepted onto the BBC SSO, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Apprenticeship Schemes, the last one culminated with three highly acclaimed performances of Mozart's Gran Partita for Winds and a BBC Radio 3 broadcast .Since then she has worked as a freelance with all of the three orchestras and also Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet.

As a soloist she has performed Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante, Strauss’s Oboe Concerto, Rossini´s Variations for Oboe, Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Winds K297b and James MacMillan’s concerto for and orchestra, The World's Ransoming, as the winner of the Macmillan Concerto Competition. The concert was conducted by the composer himself at City Halls, Glasgow.

Clara was the oboist for the opera company Raucous Rossini and worked for two seasons for the New Generation Festival, opera festival in Florence. She is an active chamber musician who plays with Sirocco Winds and Turquoise Duo.

Clara is currently waiting to take the first oboe position she won at the Orchestra Academia China in Beijing.

63 GILLIAN HORN BASSOON – SCOTLAND

Gillian Horn is a freelance bassoonist from Glasgow. Since gaining her undergraduate and Master's degrees from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2017, Gillian has been performing regularly in Scotland, the UK and abroad.

Gillian is a keen orchestral musician and has toured with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Scottish Ballet Orchestra. Her love of opera has kept her busy, and she has performed as Principal Bassoonist with the Scottish Concert Orchestra, Opera del Lumi, Magnetic Opera, Paisley Opera, Raucous Rossini Opera (UK/Italy), New Generation Festival (Florence) and more.

As a founding member of the Genovia Quartet (bassoon quartet) and Sirocco Winds (woodwind chamber ensemble), chamber music is Gillian's passion. Her ensembles give regular recitals and educational workshops around the UK to audiences of all ages. Highlights include performances at Paxton House, St Magnus International Festival, Leeds College of Music, the International Double Reed Society Conference (Granada, 2018) and the Jackdaws' "Year of the Bassoon" project (Somerset, 2020)

64 THOMAS HRIPKO SOUND & VIDEO EDITOR – USA

Thomas Hripko helps brands become invited guests into people’s lives. A Creative Director, Writer, Voice Actor, Producer and Editor, he has teamed with hundreds of brands including Arrow Electronics, The Home Depot, Neiman Marcus, Motel 6, Shell and Southwest Airlines.

His career began at The Richards Group advertising agency, then greatly expanded when he opened his own recording studio, The Radio Spot. His work has work numerous awards, including Clio and Mobius International. He now owns and operates The Plush Room, a civilized recording studio, while continuing to write, consult and give brands a relevant voice.

Additionally, Thomas is a competitive race car driver, contemplative gardener, respectful scuba diver and turtle whisperer.

65 ANNETTE SAUNDERS PIANO & MUSICAL COACH – UK

Annette Saunders has worked for Opera North, English National Opera, Glyndebourne, Opera, Buxton Festival, RCM, RAM, the Britten-Pears School at Aldeburgh, and the Jette Parker Young Artists at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

She was Head of Music at Buxton Festival for seven years and joined the permanent music staff at Opera North in 2016 where she is now Assistant Head of Music.

66 ESSENTIAL BUSINESS

Composer, Pianist, Filmmaker – Judith Lynn Stillman

Librettist – Anna Pool

Director – Elayce Ismail

Pastor – Will Liverman

Further Information

67 SYNOPSIS – ESSENTIAL BUSINESS

Who am I to put six feet between me and my ministry? I gave them touch. Healing touch.

As the pandemic hit and stay-at-home orders swept the US, many states classed churches as essential businesses, allowing them to stay open. Essential Business is inspired by a real-life Florida pastor who kept his church doors open to preach the word of God. And radical alt-right conspiracy theories. To him the coronavirus was a hoax; a plot to bring down the church and kill civilians through enforced World Health Organisation vaccinations.

Infused with spiritual and gospel harmonies, Essential Business grew out of composer Judith Lynn Stillman and librettist Anna Pool’s examination of the life and death consequences of powerful, and sometimes controversial, religious leaders’ decisions.

Together with director Elayce Ismail and baritone Will Liverman, they have created a piece that asks: what would you do if everything you ever knew changed in a moment? And what it would take to change your beliefs?

68 JUDITH LYNN STILLMAN

COMPOSER, PIANO, FILMMAKER – USA

Judith Lynn Stillman enjoys a distinguished international career as pianist, composer, music director, librettist, filmmaker and artistic visionary. Hailed by Wynton Marsalis as “a consummate artist,” she holds Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degrees from The Juilliard School. Stillman was named Honored Artist of The American Prize as both composer and pianist, winner of a first Pell Award for Excellence the Arts, the Bannister Award for Civil Service in the Arts, and 18 piano competitions. Stillman’s career highlights include Marlboro Music Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival, Voice of Music (), Tanglewood Music Festival; performances and world premieres at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall; NPR, PBS; Guest Artist in China, Russia, the Czech Republic, the UK, Italy, France, Switzerland, etc., at major conservatories such as Beijing's Central Conservatory, Prague Conservatory, the Ravel Academy, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland; collaborations with Wynton Marsalis, Mark O'Connor, Jordan Rudess (of ), Herbie Hancock (BOSE commercial), members of the NY Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Borromeo, Cassatt, Shanghai Quartets; performer at the Grammy's honoring Rostropovich; special guest with The Beach Boys. Stillman’s duo album with Wynton Marsalis on Sony was on the Billboard Top Ten: “Marsalis and Stillman make an impeccable team. The playing consistently dazzles.” Stillman is the Artist-in-Residence and a Professor of Music at Rhode Island College. As composer-filmmaker, Stillman is winner of Grand Jury Prize, Best Music Video, Best Score, Best Multimedia Film, and Audience Choice Awards in international film festivals, and Stillman's music videos and movie scores have garnered film festival recognition worldwide, with showings in 48 countries. https://judithlynnstillman.com

69 ANNA POOL LIBRETTIST – UK

Anna Pool is a British theatre director, producer and writer whose innovative productions change perceptions of what music theatre is, how it is made and who it is for.

She has directed new plays, musicals and operas for organisations including the Barbican, English National Opera, Opera North, The Sage, Music Theatre Wales, Hall for Cornwall and . Without Covid-19, she'd currently be creating A Little Night Music with James Brining for Leeds Playhouse and reviving Nicholas Hyntner's Don Carlo at The Royal Opera House.

Anna’s work is predominantly inspired by history, faith, myth and magic in the everyday. She regularly uses innovative storytelling mediums, incorporating puppetry, headphone technology and site-specific spaces to great acclaim. Her Mozart Double Bill for Pop Up Opera UK was a finalist for Best Opera at the 2019 Off West End Awards and she was nominated for a 2016 New British Music Theatre Award for her work in developing site-specific music theatre. Currently she is creating a new verbatim digital hybrid musical with East London residents for the 2020 Spitalfields Festival.

Anna’s composition and writing experience includes work for Shakespeare's Globe, Opera North, Marlowe Theatre Canterbury, English Touring Opera, Barbican Silent Film Club, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Tete a Tete Festival.

Anna is a member of the chart-topping Mediaeval Baebes. Her musical theatre song, Anything But Normal, has over 750,000 views on YouTube. She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music in Drama, winning the Composition Prize in 2015.

70 ELAYCE ISMAIL DIRECTOR – UK

Elayce works in the UK and internationally as a theatre and opera director, and dramaturg. She was the inaugural RTYDS Associate Director at Northern Stage in 2017/2018. Prior to this she was Resident Director at the National Theatre Studio as the recipient of the JP Morgan Award for Emerging Directors in 2014/2015, and a Jerwood Assistant Director at the in 2013.

Current projects include working with composer Alex Ho on a Homemakers commission for HOME/MTW/, and adapting/directing Derek Walcott’s Omeros for the Gate.

Other direction includes: They Whisper Don’t Gaze at the Stars… (ENO), If Not Now, When? (NT); Nanjing (Royal Court/Shakespeare’s Globe/UK tour); Under Milk Wood, The War of the Worlds (Northern Stage); Girls (HighTide Festival/Soho Theatre/UK tour – selected for British Council Edinburgh Showcase 2017); The Rise and Shine of Comrade Fiasco, Chorus, Spooky Action at a Distance (); The Lost Ring (Deutsches Theater Berlin); Stay Another Song (Young Vic); When I Am Queen (Almeida).

Recent opera as revival/associate director includes: 4:48 Psychosis (Opéra national du Rhin/Royal Opera House); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Opéra Orchestre national Montpellier); The Virtues of Things (Royal Opera House).

71 WILL LIVERMAN PASTOR – USA

Called "one of the most versatile singing artists performing today, being equally skilled in classical repertoire and less mainstream works" (Bachtrack), Met Opera baritone Will Liverman is quickly gaining a reputation for his compelling performances, while making significant debuts at opera houses across the world. Liverman is recipient of a 2019 Richard Tucker Career Grant and Sphinx Medal of Excellence.

Liverman made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Malcolm Fleet in Nico Muhly's Marnie in 2018. In the 2019-2020 season, Liverman returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Papageno in its holiday production of The Magic Flute, in addition to singing the role of Horemhab in the Met's premiere of Philip Glass' Akhnaten. He also appears as Pantalone in The Love of Three Oranges at Opera Philadelphia, as Marcello in La bohème at Seattle Opera, and as Sylvio in at Opera Colorado and Portland Opera, in addition to performing Die at The Barns at Wolf Trap Opera.

Recent engagements include appearances with Tulsa Opera as The Pilot in The Little Prince; with Opera Philadelphia, Santa Fe Opera, and Dallas Opera as Schaunard in La bohème; and with Santa Fe Opera as the Foreman at the Mill in Jenůfa. Liverman has performed the leading role of Figaro in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia with Seattle Opera, Virginia Opera, Kentucky Opera, Madison Opera and Utah Opera. He originated the role of Dizzy Gillespie in Charlie Parker’s Yardbird with Opera Philadelphia. Other recent highlights include the role of Tommy McIntyre in the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of Fellow Travelers for its Lyric Unlimited initiative; Papageno in The Magic Flute with Florentine Opera and Central City Opera; his role debut as Marcello in La bohème with Portland Opera; his debut with Seattle Opera as Raimbaud in ; Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia and Beaumarchais in The Ghosts of Versailles with Wolf Trap Opera; Andrew Hanley in the world premiere of Kevin Puts’ The Manchurian Candidate with Minnesota Opera; Sam in The Pirates of Penzance with Atlanta Opera; the Husband in Les mamelles de Tirésias with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago; the Protestant Minister in Menotti’s The Last Savage with Santa Fe Opera; and Mr. Noye in Noye’s Fludde as a guest artist at Wheaton College.

Expanding into the concert repertoire, Liverman performed the title role in with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, and was a featured soloist in the Brahms Requiem with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, in Handel's Messiah with the Seattle Symphony, in Carmina Burana with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, in Mozart's Mass in C with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with the South Dakota Symphony, and at the New York Festival of Song.

Liverman holds a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, and a Bachelor of Music degree from Wheaton College in Illinois.

72 SLEEPING & WAKING ARE THEIR NAMES

Music – Bryony Purdue

Words – Toria Banks

Sleeping – Bryony Purdue

Waking – Juliette Koch

Mother – Linda Hirst

Oboe – Olivia Fraser

Director – Toria Banks

Sound editor & mixer – Bryony Purdue

Video editor – Juliette Koch

Further Information

73 SYNOPSIS – SLEEPING & WAKING ARE THEIR NAMES

A girl has been asleep in a for 400 years, dreaming of birdsong. Across town, her sister casts spells to try to put herself to sleep. An old woman has two daughters called Sleeping and Waking: taking the form of a bird she watches them through windows. A 5 minute opera by singer and first time composer Bryony Purdue approaches the distancing effects of isolation through the language of folk tales.

74 BRYONY PURDUE

COMPOSER, SOUND EDITOR & SLEEP – UK

Having graduated from the BMus in Classical Performance (Mezzo-Soprano) at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in Dec ’17, Bryony was sought to join the Opera GlassWorks Company in their Times acclaimed production of ‘The Rake’s Progress’ at Wilton’s Music Hall. In the past three years, Bryony has sung with Longborough Festival Opera, appeared on ITV’s ‘Vanity Fair’ and since being represented by iD Agency, has toured the UK as Mary Macarthur in Folk Opera ‘Rouse, ye Women!’. Bryony regularly works on stage as an actor, singer, compere and continues to write and develop music with MDs and is finishing off a debut album and - one good thing about a lockdown!

75 TORIA BANKS LIBRETTIST & DIRECTOR – UK

Toria Banks is co-founder of intersectional feminist touring opera company HERA. She co-wrote and directed their first show Generation (premiere 2019, York Concerts), an operatic gig theatre show which featured a new commission from poet Sabrina Mahfouz and composer Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian: making new translations of by 9 women composers. As producer she led on Consent and Communication, a day long workshop addressing stage intimacy and sexual harassment in the opera industry, and a reading of The Trojan Women by Sarah Taylor-Ellis starring and Gweneth Ann Rand, both in 2019. Their next show, which she is making with composer Amble Skuse, is a verbatim opera about disability and the DWP, set to premiere as a live digital event at Sound Festival in early 2021. She has staff directed for ETO and ROH and directed for Grimeborn, Tête à Tête, and HGO. She has been Resident Director in the Vocal Department at Trinity Laban since 2009.

She is a collaborative writer, and has worked as a dramaturg adapting classic texts (including for Told by an Idiot) and contributing to devised shows like Roaghainn nan Daoine/The People’s Choice (Theatre Hebrides, 2010): ”an astonishing and powerful story, full of resonances for the 21st century” (The Scotsman). Her play We Have Won the Land, with new songs by Hector Macinnes, toured Scotland in 2012, “Funny, observant and full of humanity… highly significant Scottish political theatre” (Aberdeen Press and Journal). Deeds Not Words (2018), mixed drama, documentary and original songs by Mary Ann Kennedy and opened in Stornoway before touring community venues in the Western Isles. In 2019 she began work on a new play in residency at The Watch in Berlin.

76 LINDA HIRST THE MOTHER – UK

Linda is co-founder of intersectional feminist touring opera company HERA. In 2019, she performed in their first show Generation, singing music by Cevanne Horrocks- Hopayian, Camilla di Rossi and Maria Agnesi Pinottini. Her career as a mezzo soprano began in the early music revival of the seventies, singing for Roger Norrington, and David Munrow, as well as making Atom Heart Mother with , recording Tommy with the Who and 2000 Motels with Frank Zappa. From 1974 - 78 she was a Swingle Singer and then co-founded Electric Phoenix. With both groups she travelled the world, leading to an international solo career: working with living composers, among them Ligeti, Henze & Berio, and premiering and recording pieces written for her by Knussen, Weir, Holt, Osborne and more; and with the world's leading ensembles, orchestras, festivals and opera companies with conductors including Rattle, Gielen, Nagano, Howarth and Harding. Alternative contemporary music also interested her, and recordings with Ivor Cutler and the Tom Waits song "What is he building in there" are examples. Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire has been a constant thread through the last 40 years, a highlight being Glen Tetley's ballet with the Royal Opera House. She has worked in education throughout her career, and was Head of Vocal Studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire from 1995 - 2017. She has given masterclasses in the Teatro Colon, La Fenice, several American Universities and for many years at Dartington and the Hilliard Ensemble Summer Schools. She is a fellow of Dartington College of Arts, an Hon DLit (Huddersfield), a Hinrichsen Trustee and was made President of the Kathleen Ferrier Society in 2013.

77 JULIETTE KOCH WAKING & VIDEO EDITOR – UK

Juliette Koch is a recent master’s graduate from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Having trained from a young age with companies such as Cambridge Youth Opera, The Young Actors Screen Academy, and West End Kids, she has a strong background in performance which now spans a broad spectrum, from stage and recital, to screen and recording. Operatic roles include ‘Lucia’ in The Rape of Lucretia (Britten), ‘Queen of the Night’ (cover) in Die Zauberflöte (Mozart), ‘First Lady’ (cover) in Die Zauberflöte (Mozart), and ‘Amore’ in L’incoronazione di Poppea (Monterverdi). As an advocate for Contemporary Opera, Juliette has performed in numerous world premieres across the UK such as The Trojan Women (Taylor-Ellis, HERA, 2019), The Powder Monkey (Wallen, 2018), Chance (Gurrapadi & Fischer, 2018), Radium (2018), The Burning Boy (McNeff, 2017), and Banished (McNeff, 2016). She regularly collaborates with composers and poets to create exciting piece for her instrument that combine her colourful with her enthusiasm for extended technique and language. Notable projects include Dear Frances (Clarkson, 2019) with Sound State at the Southbank Centre, and Screaming Moon (Clarkson, 2018) with Leeds Lieder Festival. Juliette’s vocals have also been featured in film scores and multi-media projects worldwide; Death Angel (MacLeod, BFI, 2019), Fundamental Forces (Macleod, 2018), London: A Musical Documentary (Isom & Koch, 2017), and Music in The Round (Isom, 2016), blending an operatic voice with popular culture through her versatile tone and strong improvisatory skill. Her aim is to make classical music accessible and engaging for all. As part of her musical duo Sirens, she has had great success in their few years as an ensemble; Sirens have been featured twice on Classic FM Sessions with their work with Jonathan Dove in 2018 and for their performances in The Debussy Festival 2018. They have also been finalists in The Lilian Ash French Song competition 2018, and The Lieder competition 2018.

78 OLIVIA FRASER OBOE – UK

Olivia is a London-based oboist who enjoys a varied freelance career of orchestral, ballet and opera performance, chamber music and solo recitals. She studied at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, where she won the Evelyn Barbirolli Oboe Prize, the Harold Clark Woodwind Prize and the Audience Prize at the Gold Medal Showcase.

Since graduating, Olivia has played with a number of top UK orchestras including the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Royal Ballet Sinfonia, London Mozart Players and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

79 HAROLD & KEITH ATTEMPT TO USE ZOOM TO DISCUSS THE POTENTIAL TAKEOVER OF BELOVED FOOTBALL CLUB NEWCASTLE UNITED: THE OPERA

Composer – Hugh Morris

Librettist – Jamie Eastlake

Director – Jim Osman

Harold – Laura Margaret Smith

Keith – Flora MacDonald

Sarah – Caroline Kennedy

Clarinet – Ozlem Celik

Cello – Kevin Kirs Verstege

Further Information

80 SYNOPSIS – HAROLD & KEITH ATTEMPT TO USE ZOOM TO DISCUSS THE POTENTIAL TAKEOVER OF BELOVED FOOTBALL CLUB NEWCASTLE UNITED: THE OPERA

It’s a lockdown. Things are rumbling in the North East as a sports store mogul looks to Saudi Arabia to claw back millions of pounds of his business venture. After discovering the internet Harold and Keith attempt to log in to zoom to discuss what’s really happening in the region.

81 HUGH MORRIS COMPOSER – UK

Hugh is a musician based in Manchester. Born in County Durham, he has collaborated as a composer with Ludlow English Song Weekend, Devon Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Museum, International Anthony Burgess Foundation, No Dice Collective, Manchester Contemporary Youth Opera, Vonnegut Collective, Animikii Theatre, Somnium Chamber Choir and the Eskandari Quartet. He is a contributor for Jazzwise, VAN Magazine, The Sampler and Bachtrack. Hugh sings with Kantos Chamber Choir, who regularly record for BBC Radio 3 and 4. This year, he founded Axis Classical, a monthly platform for young performers from around the Manchester scene playing innovative chamber music. He graduated from University of Manchester with a First Class degree in Music in 2019, receiving the Hargreaves Prize for Aesthetics. He studied Composition with Nina Whiteman and Kevin Malone.

82 JAMIE EASTLAKE LIBRETTIST & DIRECTOR – UK

Jamie is an Oliver award winning theatre producer who founded Theatre N16 and sat at its helm as it programmed over 300 pieces of new work over the course of 4 years. As a writer his plays ‘The Mountain Bluebird’ and ‘Monkeys Blood’ have played to critical acclaim.

He is currently an associate artist of Live Theatre in Newcastle where he works for the creative team as associate producer and works on script development.

As a producer he has worked across Europe, with over a dozen OffWestEnd nominations, his Olivier award and his work developing artists he has become a progressive force for working class theatre creatives from Northern England.

He also wrote a best selling joke book and has a follow up in the works. Newcastle United is life.

83 LAURA MARGARET SMITH HAROLD – SCOTLAND

Described as "a spirited young mezzo with a full, fearless voice. A name to watch" by Gramophone magazine, Scottish Mezzo-Soprano, Laura Margaret Smith is a versatile performer who enjoys an exciting international career. Laura's operatic roles include Eudamia, Dorilla in Tempe - Vivaldi (Wexford Festival Opera/La Fenice), Olga, Eugene Onegin (Edinburgh International Festival Opera Project), Tina, Dinner at Eight - Bolcom (Wexford Festival Opera/ Minnesota Opera), La Gobba, Risurrezione - Alfano (Wexford Festival Opera), Angiolina, La Cenerentola (Scottish Opera Unwrapped), Ordinary Person, Inés de Castro (Scottish Opera), Witch, Macbeth (Scottish Opera Tour), Vaila, Hirda (NOISE, Celtic Connections), the title role in Carmen (Edinburgh Grand Opera), Amahl, Amahl and the Night Visitors (Opera Bohemia), Chrissie Miller, Breathe Freely - Julian Wagstaff (Scottish Opera/The University of Edinburgh, Linn Records), Clarissa, The Turing Test - Wagstaff (Edinburgh Studio Opera), Hermia, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Scottish Opera/Royal Conservatoire of Scotland).

Laura has also sung with the Chorus since 2015. Noted for her interpretations of contemporary repertoire, Laura performed as soloist in David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion at PODIUM Festival (Hamburg Staatsoper/Bundesjugendballett) and has workshopped new operas with Opera Mahogany. A regular performer and recording artist with women’s contemporary vocal ensemble, Scottish Voices, Laura recently toured the USA, and looks forward to concerts in Portugal, Paris & Boston in 2021. On the concert platform, Laura has performed at such prestigious venues as the Melbourne Recital Centre, the Centenary Concert at , Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, St. Martin-in- the-fields, Usher Hall, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow City Halls and for a live recording on BBC Radio 3 at Aberdeen’s The Citadel. Laura is a former Scottish Opera Robertson Scholarship Trust Emerging Artist, graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Alexander Gibson Opera School, winner of a Young Concert Artists Award from Making Music, alumna of the Accademia di , a Samling Artist, a Britten-Pears Young Artist and an alumna of Live Music Now Scotland.

84 FLORA MACDONALD KEITH – UK

Mezzo-soprano Flora Macdonald’s roles include in Dove’s (Waterperry Opera Festival), Stewardess in Dove’s (Royal Academy Opera), Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas under (Grange Festival), Flora in Dove’s The Enchanted Pig (Hampstead Garden Opera), Wu in Maxwell Davies’ Kommilitonen! directed by Polly Graham (Welsh National Youth Opera) and Sarcastic Halli in Alex Paxton’s new opera For the Love of Thorstein Shiver (Helios Collective). She has previously performed with as an Alvarez Young Artist, Scottish Opera, Opera Holland Park and Spitalfields Music Festival.

Appearing regularly as an oratorio soloist and recitalist, Flora has performed in venues such as the Wigmore Hall, the Holywell Music Room, St John’s Smith Square and St Martin-in-the-Fields. Her passion for contemporary music, cultivated working with Robert Fokkens, has led her to work on new music with Errollyn Wallen, Judith Weir, David Pountney, Howard Skempton and the Juice Vocal Ensemble.

Flora graduated from the Royal Academy of Music with Distinction in her Masters and a DipRAM for an outstanding final recital. While there, she won the 2017 Isabel Jay Prize and studied with Alex Ashworth, Audrey Hyland and Matthew Fletcher.

She looks forward to returning to Scottish Opera to cover the role of Giulia in their postponed tour of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers.

85 CAROLINE KENNEDY SARAH – UK

Soprano, Caroline Kennedy was awarded a BA Hons. in French and Drama from The University of Kent and graduated from The RSAMD’s Alexander Gibson Opera School.

She has sung and covered roles with companies such as ENO, Scottish Opera, Mid Wales Opera, Nevill Holt Opera, Grange Park Opera, Opera Holland Park, Buxton Opera, Bampton Classical Opera and Tête à Tête.

Most notable roles in the last couple of years have included Despina in Cosi fan tutte, Musetta La Boheme for The Kings Head Theatre and Nannetta Falstaff at Wilton’s music Hall.

Highlights of 2018/19 were singing Frasquita Carmen for both Dartmoor Prison Project and Oxford Opera. She also won critical acclaim as Fireball/ Alexis in The Tales of Offenbach with Opera della Luna and Eurydice Orpheus and Eurydice at the . Last summer the Bridewell also premiered Bumbleina, a cabaret which Caroline wrote and performed about the joys of online dating.

Caroline has been involved in a number of community opera projects, from premiering the role of Veronica An Opera for Sunderland to introducing children to opera in schools with English Pocket Opera and Into Opera. She also does a lot of work with Lost Chord and Care Uk creating concerts for people suffering with Dementia. She is currently leading a Singing for the Mind group on Zoom and will sing again for Opera Helps from July.

86 KEVIN KIRS VERSTEGE CELLO – SWEDEN

Kevin Kirs Verstege is a musician born in Stockholm, Sweden. His musical journey began in his home where he started exploring the living room piano, and eventually proving a talent. At the age of 10, Kevin was admitted to ‘Musikskolan Lilla Akademien’ as a piano student. After some time spent in a completely musical environment, with children from various backgrounds playing diffe- rent instruments Kevin became very fond of the cello. A few years spent studying the cello as well as the piano, Kevin had his heart completely set on the cello and let the piano go. Spending his teenage years playing music in all shapes and forms with young groups from Stockholm, touring Europe and the United States performing in venues such as Carnegie Hall, NY. Kevin had gotten a taste for the international music life. In 2011, Kevin moved to Glasgow, UK. to pursue his musical interest at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. During his years in Scotland, Kevin was expanding his musicality as well as instrumental skills under the guidance of his mentor Aleksei Kiseliov. An exciting five years in the United Kingdom led to various prestigious musical opportunities such as performing Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the City of Carlisle Orchestra under the baton of Ryan Bancroft as well as numerous concerts along side the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in venues such as Edinburgh Usher Hall and the Royal Albert Hall. Moving on to the next and current chapter in the story, Kevin is currently enrolled in a masters pro- gramme at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in the Netherlands under the tutelage of Michael Stirling. His musical adventures in Amsterdam covers a wide range of variation from nordic folk music performances, performance art shows, orchestral playing and close collaborations with living composers in exciting arenas such as the Nieuw Ensemble performing in a variety of interesting venues like Het Concertgebouw, Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ and Splendor.

87 OZLEM CELIK

CLARINET – TURKEY

Ozlem is currently playing as a versatile principal clarinettist in various orchestras and groups across the U.K., Turkey and Europe and has established herself as a solo and chamber musician of distinction. Besides her international career, she is holding the principal chair of Samsun State Opera and Ballet Orchestra since 2009. Ozlem’s musical education began in Dokuz Eylul University State Conservatory, where she studied clarinet with Atif Peynirci and chamber music with oboist Murat Ozulgen, principals Izmir State Symphony Orchestra. During her studies which culminated in a degree education she participated in masterclasses with Alain Damiens, Nicholas Baldeyrou and Sarah Elbaz and studied with Guy Deplus, Alexander Fitterstein and Karl Heinz Steffens. She had got chance to attend masterclasses with Karl Leister, Patrick Messina, Martin Fröst, Andrew Marriner, Robert Plane, Michael Collins during her education in London. She played as a soloist in the Youth-Genç Symphony Orchestra which was cooperation between German and Turkish young musicians, and she subsequently toured with this orchestra around Germany and Turkey. Currently she is based in London, completed her MA in Performance at the Royal Academy of Music, in June 2016 and studied clarinet under Angela Malsbury and Timothy Lines. She was delighted to be awarded a full scholarship by the Borusan Philarmonic Orchestra. Ozlem was of Music in 2016 and is supported by Talent Unlimited. Recent engagements include solo and chamber concerts in London, Europe and Turkey. She appeared at Royal Festival Hall, Royal Overseas League besides performances as principal clarinettist of The World of Women Orchestra , the Dulwich Opera Company and Hornton Chamber Orchestra and the World Premiers of the operas the Mad King Suibhne and Aurora by Noah Mosley. For further information about Ozlem Celik please visit www.ozlemcelik.co.uk

88 NO ROOM. NO ROOM. NO ROOM.

Composer – Ergo Phizmiz

Librettist & Director – Gareth Mattey

Soprano – Britt Hewitt

Mezzo- – Grainne Gillis

Tenor – Zahid Siddiqui

Bass-Baritone – Phil Wilcox

Video Editor – Fraz Ireland

Further Information

89 SYNOPSIS – NO ROOM. NO ROOM. NO ROOM.

If you hadn't noticed, the world is a little bit odd. It's hard to define at the best times and somehow even harder when we're all confined to our easily-defined spaces. Presenting absurd little vignettes of people stuck in their rooms, this video-opera-slideshow-extravaganza for four performers and electronics brings the strangeness of this whole situation to home. Specifically to that little room you just can't get out of.

90 ERGO PHIZMIZ COMPOSER – UK

Ergo Phizmiz is an international interdimensional intermedia superstar deluxe working in text, composition, design, animation, songwriting, collage, curating and performance. Recent projects include the creation of a large scale film collage for the 's "", the Deutsche Symphonie Orchester's forthcoming productions of works by Hindemith and Martinu, and the cross-media semantic opera "Dimbola Mikado" in co-operation with Julia Margaret Cameron Trust. They have released hundreds of hours of music and produced countless pieces for stage, installation and radio across the UK, USA and Europe.

91 GARETH MATTEY LIBRETTIST & DIRECTOR – UK

Gareth Mattey (they/them) is a writer, director, filmmaker and dramaturg based in the UK, specialising in multi-media approaches to opera and music theatre and the role of queer identity in contemporary performance.

Recent collaborations as librettist and dramaturg include the documentary opera Bermondsey, 1983 (developed with Robert Reid Allan on residencies with Snape Maltings and LOD muziektheater in Ghent, Belgium), Talkin(g) (A)bout My Generation (written with Pedro Lima for Casa da Musica in Porto, Portugal), PREPARE IT (MY BODY) (collaborated with writer/director Crispin Lord for CRIPtic Pit Party in the Barbican Pit Theatre), A Father Is Looking For His Daughter (presented as part of rough-for-opera at the Cockpit Theatre) and Belladonna (commissioned by FAWN Chamber Creative, Toronto). Upcoming work includes Little England (with Mark Bowler for Guildhall) and Herculine (with Alex Mills at Snape Maltings). Having completed the MA in Opera Making and Writing with Guildhall in 2017-2018 with the opera Reel Woman, they now teach on the same course.

As a filmmaker, they have written and directed the short Quartet for Random Acts North and Channel 4, and directed and edited a 360-degree short operatic video on a fragment of La Bohème at the Banff Centre in Canada. They teach filmmaking to undergraduate students at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and they are currently writing and developing their first feature film with director Nicholas Hampson.

92 BRITT HEWITT SOPRANO – USA

Britt Hewitt is an American soprano, actor, and singer/ songwriter. Based in NYC, Britt is currently completing her training at The Juilliard School, where she’s studied with Sanford Sylvan and William Burden. At Juilliard, Hewitt played Miles in The Turn of the Screw and the Spirit in Dido and Aeneas. She performed in two consecutive Juilliard Focus Festivals, and to fulfill her senior recital requirement, she curated an evening of music created by female composers. Britt recently sang the role of Dawn in Everything for Dawn: Part I at The Flea Theatre. Next summer, she expects to attend the Mostly Modern Festival and Kneisel Music Hall. Hewitt is a member of the New York Songwriters Circle, with which she performs her original work at The Bitter End. Find out more and take a listen at www.britthewitt.com.

93 GRAINNE GILLIS MEZZO-CONTRALTO – IRELAND

Hailed by The Observer as a voice with ‘great dramatic potential’ and praised by Opera Now for her ‘vibrant, bright tones’ and clarity of diction, Gráinne Gillis is an Irish-American dramatic contralto based in London. She gained a First in Music at University College Cork, were she was the recipient of many awards, including two Italian Government Scholarships, the Donal ‘Doc’ Gleeson award and the Composition Prize. She then went on to study at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and graduated with distinction. Since re-training as an opera singer, she has worked as an Emerging Artist for Opera della Luna in The Gondoliers, and performed La Nourrice in Ariane et Barbe-Bleu, Zita in Gianni Schicchi, and the Mother in Hansel & Gretel; La Zia Principessa and La Badessa in Suor Angelica; Dryad in Ariadne auf Naxos; Baba in ; Annie Jump-Cannon in The Observatory for Improbable; 3rd Witch in Macbeth for English Pocket Opera Company; Madame Popova in The Bear; Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte, Dama/3rd Witch in Macbeth and Annina in La Traviata for Pavilion Opera; Frugola & Lucia in Il Tabarro and Cavalleria Rusticana respectively; The Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas, Formations 2016 for The Helios Collective, creating the role of Flora Sandes in Dead Equal at ENO Baylis, supported by ENO and the IOA. In 2018/19 she worked with the legendary mezzo Dolora Zajick as one of only 5 selected participants in intensive vocal workshops in Reno, Nevada in 2018; sang the role of Flora in the Olivier award-winning King’s Head Theatre’s autumn production of La Traviata (nominated for an Ofie) and also sang a concert of Bernstein songs in the opening recital for the London Song Festival. Other highlights in the 2018/19 saw her performing her own one-woman show Mezzo Sings The Bard, a show about Shakespeare and opera; and singing Hélène in et Hélène, the Old Woman in Candide and La Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod 2018. In 2019/20 roles include Aksinya in Lady Macbeth of Mtsenk for Fulham Opera; Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica and Lucia in Cavalleria Rusticana for North Wales Opera Company; Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance at the Cork Opera House, and Vampyrmeister/Suse in Der Vampyr for Gothic Opera (nominated for an Ofie). Gráinne also was the lead in an episode of the Pleiades Project’s ‘24’ series, a dramatization of the Arie Antiche. She was booked to perform on a national tour of Ireland with the Everyman Theatre’s production of three operas called ‘Sea Trilogy’ ad well as 1st Magd in ; these performances were canceled due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Gráinne is thankful to be supported this season by Help Musicians UK.

94 ZAHID SIDDIQUI

TENOR – UK/DUBAI

Zahid Siddiqui, born in London and raised in Dubai, is a tenor studying at the Royal College of Music with Russell Smythe, generously supported by the Lennox Hannay Charitable Trust. Whilst living in Manchester, Zahid was an active member of the music community. In 2017, he played Satyavan in Holst’s Sāvitri and in 2018 he played the Sorceress/Spirit in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and El Remendado in Bizet’s Carmen. Most recently, Zahid played Teapot/Old Man in Ravel’s L’enfant et les Sortilèges and in the World Stage Premier of Judith Weir’s . He was selected as one of the University’s Concerto Soloists for two years running. At the RCM, he has appeared in recitals and has performed the roles of Scaramuccio (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Adario (Les Indes Galantes) in opera scenes. Recent concert engagements have included Gerald Finzi’s Dies Natalis, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, and Dvorak’s . Also passionate about vocal chamber music and choral singing, Zahid was a founding member of the vocal chamber music group Manchester Vox and performed regularly with the University of Manchester’s chamber choirs, Kantos Chamber Choir, and Manchester Renaissance Ensemble. He was a part of The Sixteen’s training programme Genesis Sixteen for 2018/19.

95 PHIL WILCOX

BASS-BARITONE – UK

Phil’s most recent engagements include playing Lord Dunmow (A Dinner Engagement, Berkeley) for Lunchbreak Opera; Basilio (Barbiere di Siviglia, Rossini) for Devon Opera; Major General Stanley (Pirates of Penzance, Sullivan) for productions by Merry Opera and Opera Holland Park in both Saudi Arabia and Penzance; Benedick (Much ado about Nothing, Stanford) for Northern Opera Group; Sir (Mansfield Park, Dove) for Waterperry Opera Festival; and Captain (Eugene Onegin, Tchaikovsky) for Buxton International Festival. He has also recently sung for the Royal Shakespeare Company in London and New York; Opera North; Wigmore Hall; the BBC Singers; Leeds Lieder Festival and a Last Night of Concert with Grimethorpe Colliery Band at Harrogate Royal Hall for Marie Curie.

Phil is a graduate of both Leeds College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music. During his time at the Academy he appeared as Kalenik in the RAOpera production of May Night (Rimsky-Korsakov); Polyphemus in Acis and Galatea (Handel, Semi-staged); and Liberto (cover) in L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Monteverdi).

Since graduating from the RAM, Phil continues to forge a career in operatic performance and has sung as a principal soloist for Buxton Festival Opera, Retrospect Opera, Merry Opera Company, XOGA, Proper Opera, Opera on Location and Young Opera Venture. He also appears regularly as an oratorio soloist, recitalist and professional chorister throughout the country.

Phil enjoys playing the piano accordion in ceilidh bands and at folk festival and finds inspiration and refreshment through long walks in the country.

For more details please visit www.philwilcox.com.

96 FRAZ IRELAND

VIDEO EDITOR – UK

Fraz Ireland is a composer and performer studying on the joint course at the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Manchester. Some highlights so far include winning the RPS award for young composers in 2016, composing 2 short operas (performed at Second Movement’s ‘Rough for Opera’ 2016 and at the Manchester Contemporary Youth Opera in 2019), and recently being invited to be a Britten- Pears Young Artist 2020. A lot of Fraz’s more recent work goes beyond the sonic, engaging with text and visuals, and exploring the relationship between creator and audience. Fraz’s recent audiovisual works exploring the uncanny through combinations of video collage, aggressive juxtaposition and weirdness that hopes to leave audiences with invisible question marks tattooed in the air around their faces.

97 WEEK 3 – AUGUST 18

– A FISH OUT OF WATER (Jenkins/du Tillieul McNicol)

– THRESHOLD (Schouten/Vail)

– BEHIND THE LINES (Blair/Ramster)

– A LIFE RESET (Scarlato/Foley)

– EDGE OF TIME (Boulton/Stanley/Marchment)

98 A FISH OUT OF WATER

Composer & Music Producer– Katie Jenkins

Librettist & Director – Mathilda du Tilleul McNicol

Improvised Lead Vocals – Britt Hewitt

Background Vocals/Violin – Katie Jenkins

Guitar – Bryson Kemp

Video Editor – Hayley Egan

With thanks to the following contributors for sharing their stories: Helen Sharman John Lockwood Nicolla Weekes Rob Preece Nick Jones Meg Cox Deshika Van Haght Paola Prestini

Further Information

99 SYNOPSIS – A FISH OUT OF WATER

A Fish Out of Water is a series of stories that have been generously shared during lockdown by a number of people who have experienced isolation during their lives, and their need for human connection.

The contributors include Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut to go into space; Rob Preece, who practices Tibetan Buddhism; John Lockwood, a political activist; Nicolla Weekes, an England rounders player, and Nick Jones a deep sea diver.

100 KATIE JENKINS

COMPOSER, MUSIC PRODUCER, VIOLIN – WALES/USA

Katie Jenkins is an award winning Welsh composer, now based in New York City. Her music weaves together tapestries of sound, focusing on the way that textures can be layered, evoking simultaneous environments. Katie’s work encompasses a broad spectrum of sounds from creating moments of intimate delicacy to rich soundscapes. She is an active recording artist and features regularly as vocalist on her own tracks. Katie’s music has been performed across Europe and the US, including performances at National Sawdust Brooklyn where she held a fellowship, The Juilliard School, The Curtis Institute of Music and The Wales Millennium Centre. Her multimedia collaborations have resulted in boundary pushing theatrical projects that include ‘American A.I- Am I Dreaming’ under the direction of New York based artist, Treyden Chiaravalloti. Other successful collaborations include music for Juilliard’s choreographers as well as music for animation, featuring award-winning violinist Nathan Meltzer. Katie has been commissioned by directors across the UK and US, including BBC Wildlife film-maker Nick Jones and New York based director Adjit Dias. Her music is also featured in MIBE Music Library. Katie has composed for dance, theatre, opera and choir. She has written for award winning soloists such as pianist Umi Garrett and soprano Libby Sokolowski. Her work has been performed by ensembles including the Harmonia Sacra Choir, Juilliard’s string quartets and featured at music festivals in Varna, and The Academy of Music, . Her work ‘Toccata’ for solo piano was placed 1st in the International Piano Competition, Smederevo, Serbia this year. At the Juilliard School, Katie was the last student of renowned composer, Christopher Rouse. She recently worked with Matthias Pintscher, conductor of the Ensemble Intercomporain, as well as Pulitzer prize winning composer Melinda Wagner. She holds the Gretchaninoff composition award as well as the Henry Mancini Fellowship.

101 MATHILDA DU TILLIEUL MCNICOL LIBRETTIST & DIRECTOR – UK

Mathilda du Tillieul McNicol is an Opera and Theatre Director based in London.

She has worked as Assistant Director for The Royal Opera, Scottish Opera, and the Verbier Festival. She recently completed the Young Vic Springboard director training and the ROH Jette Parker Young Artist directing course.

Previous work includes Assistant Producer for the Linbury Theatre, ROH. She studied music at the University of Manchester where she won both the composition and academic achievement prize.

Mathilda is particularly interested in developing work that pushes the form, tells stories that are socially and politically engaging, that makes us question ourselves, and most importantly is accessible and can speak to everyone.

102 BRITT HEWITT

SOPRANO – USA

Britt Hewitt is an American soprano, actor, and singer/ songwriter. Based in NYC, Britt is currently completing her training at The Juilliard School, where she’s studied with Sanford Sylvan and William Burden. At Juilliard, Hewitt played Miles in The Turn of the Screw and the Spirit in Dido and Aeneas. She performed in two consecutive Juilliard Focus Festivals, and to fulfill her senior recital requirement, she curated an evening of music created by female composers. Britt recently sang the role of Dawn in Everything for Dawn: Part I at The Flea Theatre. Next summer, she expects to attend the Mostly Modern Festival and Kneisel Music Hall. Hewitt is a member of the New York Songwriters Circle, with which she performs her original work at The Bitter End. Find out more and take a listen at www.britthewitt.com.

103 HAYLEY EGAN

VIDEO DESIGNER – UK

Hayley Egan is a video designer working across theatre, opera and more recently, digital platforms. She works internationally with a multi-disciplinary approach that fuses animation, film, and live camera technology.

Hayley's recent credits include Corona-Nation Street (EGO Performance Company), Nixon in China (Scottish Opera), Fahrenheit 451 (Central School of Speech and Drama), (), Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Teatro alla Scala), I'll Take You To Mrs Cole (), Freedom Season (Welsh National Opera) and Idomeneo (Teatro Real).

104 THRESHOLD

Composer & Jon – James Schouten

Librettist – Zoe Vail

Director & Video Editor – Mary Birnbaum

Steph – Kady Evanyshyn

Filmed by – Andrew Evanyshyn, Katherine Schouten, Clare Forbes

Further Information

105 SYNOPSIS – THRESHOLD

Faced with an unprecedented quarantine, two students return home to their elderly parents. Very different products of millennial Britain, Jon is torn from his medical studies and Steph is plunged back into fraught family life. As each struggle with the confines of Covid19, their impressions and views on life gradually alter through their fragile friendship.

106 JAMES SCHOUTEN

COMPOSER & JON – UK/CANADA

Canadian-born tenor James Schouten recently completed his Masters of Performance (Distinction) from the Royal College of Music under the tutelage of Timothy Evans-Jones. As a baritone James has performed roles such as: Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus), Silvio (Pagliacci), Marcello (La Bohѐme), Harlekin (Ariadne auf Naxos), Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni) and Escamillo (Carmen). Recent contemporary projects include the role of Bear in Lente Verelst's Bear and Friends (RCM Contemporary Scenes), Tony in (SAMTC), Simone Spagnolo’s Even you lights, cannot hear me as Animus/Pianist (Opera in the City Festival), Nebuchadnezzar in Joseph Cabons’ To Himself, Alone and Rock Tosca as musical director, orchestrator and Scarpia (Tête à Tête Festival). Having switched to tenor last year James is currently working on new repertoire - future engagements include Laca (Jenufa) for Fulham Opera and tenor chorus for Glyndebourne Festival Opera.

107 ZOE VAIL

LIBRETTIST – UK

Zoe Vail read English Literature and Linguistics at the (2001-2004). She worked as a secondary school teacher in London for 5 years before having her own children. Her first short play won Best Newcomer at Swindon Fringe 2017, and she performed a self-penned spoken word piece. Zoe won a place on the Square Peg Scripts scheme for emerging playwrights run by Mainspring Arts in 2018 resulting in an original short piece being staged and live-streamed. In 2019, she was mentored by Matt Woodhead of Lung Theatre.

108 MARY BIRNBAUM

DIRECTOR & VIDEO EDITOR – USA

In the summer of 2019, Mary Birnbaum’s new production of La Bohème opened the season at the Santa Fe Opera and was the first new female- led production since 1997.

Mary’s passion for interdisciplinary art paired with her training in theater has informed the variety of projects she has undertaken. Her directing work includes pieces by composers from Purcell and Mozart to world premieres by Kristen Kuster and Megan Levad and Angela Sclafani. She has built new productions for Montclair Peak Performances, The Juilliard School, Opera Philadelphia, the Château de Versailles, Teatro Naçional in Costa Rica, Compañia Lirica in Guatemala, National Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan, Oregon Symphony, Pacific Coast Symphony, Virginia Arts Festival, The Ojai Festival, IVAI in Tel Aviv, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Kentucky, Opera Columbus, CalPerformances Berkeley, Boston Baroque, New World Symphony and Bard Summerscape. She just translated her first opera, "" at Opera Columbus, which she also directed.

She has developed new plays and theatrical events in New York. Mary founded and ran a theater company, Art Party. She has also worked with playwrights to develop new projects, most notably in the Soho Rep Writers/Directors Lab and at Ars Nova. Currently, she curates the Orchard Project’s Greenhouse, a collaborative group for multi-hyphenate artists in NYC.

Teaching and working with young singers has been an important part of Mary’s career. She was invited to teach acting at Juilliard at age 26 and now holds the position of Associate Director of the Artist Diploma Program. In addition, she has taught classes to singers from the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Mannes/New School, Opera Workshop at Bard and the Santa Fe Apprentice Program. Mary Birnbaum holds an AB in English Language and Literature with a minor in French from Harvard College, and a certificate in movement and design from Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris.

Upcoming work includes: “Le Roi Arthus” at Bard Summerscape, "" at UMich and Philadelphia Orchestra as well as a new opera by Christopher Cerrone.

Mary Birnbaum, whose stage direction of opera and theatre New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini called “viscerally overwhelming” (Rape of Lucretia at Juilliard) and “genuinely insightful ... vibrant” (The Classical Style at Carnegie Hall), works both internationally, from Taiwan () to Central America (L’Elisir and bohème at the National Theatre of Costa Rica and Querido Arte in Guatemala), Australia and Israel, and across the U.S. (Opera Philadelphia, Seattle Opera, Opera Columbus, Virginia Arts Festival (Kept), Ojai Festival, Boston Baroque). This summer, her production of Dido and Aeneas plays Opera Holland Park in London and Opera de Versailles, and her production of La bohème opens the season at Santa Fe Opera. In Opera Magazine George Loomis wrote that Mary Birnbaum’s “thoughtful direction [of Eugene Onegin at Juilliard] was rich with imaginative touches” and the Houston Press termed her Hansel and Gretel a “stunner, perhaps the company’s most perfect realization. [The Company] has found a director of real quality in Mary Birnbaum.” Currently Associate Director of the post-graduate Artist Diploma in Opera Studies program at Juilliard, Mary has taught acting for singers at Bard College and in the Lindemann Young Artists Program at the Metropolitan Opera. A graduate of Harvard College, Mary trained professionally in physical theater at Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris.

109 KADY EVANYSHYN

STEPH – CANADA

Canadian mezzo-soprano Kady Evanyshyn is championing the crossroads of classical opera and contemporary vocal music. She has been hailed by the New York Classical Review for her “lovely, dramatic voice”, and by Musical America for her “delectable” musical interpretations. Kady joined the Hamburg Staatsoper’s International Opera Studio at the start of the 2019/20 season, where she debuted as Glascha (Kát’a Kabanová). She has performed internationally at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Holland Park, L’Opéra Royal de Versailles, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Peter Jay Sharp Theater, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, among others. Kady earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s of Music from The Juilliard School, where she was granted the John Erskine prize for exceptional scholastic and artistic achievement.

Kady’s past seasons include a combination of music old and new, from Purcell and beyond. Past roles include: Zweite Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Sändmannchen (Hänsel und Gretel), Kate Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Second Woman (Dido and Aeneas), Claire (Cold Mountain - West coast premiere), Frau Reich (Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor), and Annio (La clemenza di Tito). She is an alumnus of the Aspen Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, and Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artist Vocal Academy.

As an avid lover of contemporary art song, Kady most recently workshopped and performed Stefan Schäfer’s “Es war einmal” in October 2019 at the Hamburg Staatsoper. Other recent highlights include: Bach’s Ich habe genug, BWV 82 (Miller Theatre), Gervasoni’s Drei Grabschriften (world premiere), Berio’s Folk Songs (Alice Tully Hall), Druckman’s Animus II (Juilliard ChamberFest), and Edgar David Grana’s Tashi Tibet (National Opera Center). She was a competitor in the 2019 Wigmore Hall/Independent Opera International Song Competition, and has received prizes from the Gerda Lissner Foundation and the Winnipeg Music Festival. In previous seasons Kady has worked with ensembles such as the Kronos Quartet, Baroklyn, and the ÆON Music Ensemble. She is a native of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

110 BEHIND THE LINES

Composer & Co-Librettist – Heathcliff Blair

Co-Librettist – John Ramster

Director – Jo Meredith

Soprano – Daisy Brown

Tenor – Florian Panzieri

Video Design – Benjamin Fox

Video Editor – Claire Morgan Jones

Further Information

111 SYNOPSIS – BEHIND THE LINES

1918 : Love letters during war and pandemic. A young woman and her soldier fiancé plan their future together, but their letters make them realise that they now separately face the same new danger.

112 HEATHCLIFF BLAIR

COMPOSER & CO-LIBRETTIST – UK

Heathcliff Blair is a prize winning composer and film maker. A graduate of Bournemouth Film School, he has pursued a diversity of projects including script development for Channel 4 and independent production companies, and music scoring for BBC and ITV broadcast productions.

Other composition projects include a collaboration with installation artist Ming Wong on Singapore’s oficial entry in the 53rd Venice Biennale, earning a special jury citation. He also produced and performed on albums of television music from Doctor Who for Silva Screen Records, was the winning finalist of the Project SAM composers competition, and has scored New York film maker Paul Cronin’s 8 hour documentary on the American student protests of 1968.

As a film maker he has worked with many of the UK’s leading young music talents, creating performance films featuring opera, ballet and symphonic works ranging from and to the premiere of composer Alex Woolf’s Requiem. Heathcliff continues to produce original works exploring direct relationships between images, music, and time.

113 JOHN RAMSTER

CO-LIBRETTIST – UK

John Ramster is an opera director, teacher and writer, currently the Associate Head of Vocal Studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

114 JO MEREDITH

DIRECTOR – UK

Jo Meredith is a movement director and choreographer. Credits include: I Masnadieri for Teatro Alla Scala Milan, Director David McVicar, Drot Og Marsk for Royal Danish Opera, Directors Amy Lane and Kasper Holten, Rigoletto for Savonlinna Opera, Director David McVicar. Tosca, Icelandic Opera, Director Greg Eldridge. Royal Opera House, Main Stage, Jette Parker Young Artist Summer Concert, Director Noa Naamat, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, Alte Munze, Berlin, Director Julia Burbach. Royal Opera House, Main Stage, Jette Parker Young Artist Summer Concert, Di Seta and The Lighthouse, Linbury Studio Theatre, Director Greg Eldridge. Macbeth directed by Bruno Ravella and A Fairy Queen and Un Ballo in Maschera directed by Tim Nelson at Iford Arts. and Gotterdammerung, Longborough Festival Opera.

115 DAISY BROWN

SOPRANO – UK

During her studies at Trinity Laban Daisy was awarded the Eva Malpass Scholarship and the City Livery Club Music Section prize. She was a Finalist in the Thelma King awards‚ a Semi-Finalist in the Handel Festival Singing Competition‚ was Highly Commended by the Boise Foundation Award and is grateful to be the recipient of a Richard Angas Memorial Award.

Most recent and future engagements include Blonde Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Grange Festival)‚ Tytania A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Nevill Holt), title role The Snow Maiden‚ all female role Don Giovanni small-scale Tour‚ Adina The Elixir of Love Community Tour and Karolka Jenufa (Opera North)‚ Mabel The Pirates of Penzance (Opera Holland Park and Charles Court Opera), Masha The Queen of Spades‚ Tweedle Dee Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Mabel The Pirates of Penzance (Opera Holland Park)‚ Miss Jessel The Turn of the Screw (Bury Court Opera), Frasquita Carmen (Mid Wales Opera and Nevill Holt Opera)‚ Amor (Buxton Festival Opera)‚ Daniel Susanna (Iford Arts)‚ Susanna Le nozze di Figaro (Celebrate Voice Opera and Opera Vera)‚ Emmie Albert Herring (Mid Wales Opera)‚ Pamina The Magic Flute‚ directed by Kit Hesketh- Harvey and Cis Albert Herring for the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme‚ Sister Born Mad‚ and Kiss me‚ Figaro! (Merry Opera Company - nominated for the Off West End Award for Best Female Lead). Concert and oratorio appearances include Messiah with Brian Kay (Royal Albert Hall), Glories of Venice and Vivaldi's Gloria (Saffron Walden Choral Society)‚ Mozart's Requiem (University Church of St Mary), Paul Carr’s Requiem for an Angel‚ Mozart’s Missa Brevis (Leith Hill Music Festival)‚ C Minor Mass and Requiem (St Albans Choral Society)‚ Faure’s Requiem and Mozart’s (Sutton Valance Choral Society) and Mozart’s Requiem and Solemn Vespers (Ely Choral Society).

116 FLORIAN PANZIERI

TENOR – FRANCE

Parisian born Tenor Florian Panzieri has recently graduated with distinction from the Master’s programme at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, under the tutelage of John Evans and Adrian Thompson.

A few of his opera credits include Marzio Mitridate (Garsington Opera) (postponed COVID-19), Telemachus (Cover) Don Ottavio Don Giovanni (Merry Opera), The Return of Ulysses (Royal Opera House at the Roundhouse), Berthold Scoring a Century (British Youth Opera), Max (Cover) Fantasio (Garsington Opera), Peter Quint The Turn of the Screw (King’s Opera).

He is exceptionally grateful to The Worshipful Company of Leathersellers’, The Countess of Munster Trust, The Kathleen Trust and the Mario Lanza Educational Trust for their generous contributions towards his tuition.

117 A LIFE RESET

Composer – Dimitri Scarlato

Librettist – Laura-Jane Foley

Director – Julie Osman

Anna – Kirstin Sharpin

Chorus – Philippa Boyle, Victoria Barbé, Elizabeth Sillo

Video Editor – Alessandro Maricalaso

Further Information

118 SYNOPSIS – A LIFE RESET

Set in the initial weeks of the lockdown during the Coronavirus pandemic, A Life Reset highlights the equalising effects of lockdown. Anna, a woman who usually lives alone in isolation and hasn’t left her flat in years, is now able to join in fully now life has moved online. But will these inclusive opportunities last?

119 DIMITRI SCARLATO

COMPOSER – ITALY

Dimitri Scarlato is a composer and conductor born and raised in Rome where he studied Composition, Piano and at the Conservatorio di Musica S.Cecilia. In 2004 he moved to London to attend a Masters in Composition at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and in 2014 he completed a Doctorate in Composition at the Royal College of Music, which in 2010 selected him as a RCM Rising Star. His music has been performed in several venues across Europe such as the Barbican Hall and the Cadogan Hall in London and Gran Teatro La Fenice in Venice. The Accademia Filarmonica Romana premiered his opera Fadwa in May 2013 at the Teatro Olimpico in Rome. His activity spans from contemporary classic music, opera, theatre, films and pop music. In 2007 he worked in the music pre-production of Sweeney Todd, by Tim Burton, and in 2009 he composed the music for The City in the Sky, which has been selected at the 66th Venice Film Festival. In 2011 Dimitri has been selected at VOX3 - Composing for Voice at the Royal Opera House of London, and at the Berlinale Talent Campus 2011 as a film composer. In 2014 he was the music/conducting coach for Sir Michael Caine on the film Youth, by the Oscar winning director Paolo Sorrentino. In 2015 he won the 3rd Composition Competition at the International Spring Orchestra Festival, with his piece Caduceo, written for two and had his opera The Christmas Truce premiered at the Teatro Palladium in Rome. Over the last years, he worked on several cinematic projects including Sparks & Embers, a British independent film starring Kris Marshall (released in the UK in 2015), and Thala my Love, a Tunisian independent film about the ‘Arab spring’, previewed at the Carthage Film Festival 2016. Highlights from 2017 include conducting the premieres of 3 new contemporary operas at Stara Zagora (Bulgaria) and being at Later with Jools Holland as arranger and conductor for the American indie band Queens of the Stone Age. In 2019 he released his album Colours, performing it live in concerts in London, Florence and Rome, worked as orchestrator and conductor in several projects of fellow composers and composed and acted as music supervisor for the soundtrack of the feature film Il Talento del Calabrone, due to be released in 2020. A lecturer in History of Music at the Royal College of London, with focus on contemporary classic music, opera and films, Dimitri from January 2020 has also been appointed Area Leader in Composition for Screen at the RCM.

120 LAURA-JANE FOLEY LIBRETTIST – UK

Laura-Jane Foley is a musician, writer, broadcaster and academic and has enjoyed an exciting and varied career across the arts. Laura-Jane was educated at Homerton College, Cambridge University, where she won the Westall Prize for outstanding contribution to college life; Trinity College, Oxford University; and she received her doctorate from .

Laura-Jane is a widely published writer. Her publications include The Butterfly Book (2009), Cambridge: an 800th Anniversary Portrait (2009), The Old Parsonage (2010), Poetry from Art (2011) and The Echoing Gallery (2013). Her sell-out play An Evening with Lucian Freud premiered in the West End in 2015 and starred Cressida Bonas, Maureen Lipman and . Further works for theatre/opera include Words of Love ( Playhouse, 2010), A Far Better Thing with Luis Soldado (ROH/Jerwood Space, 2011) She Sings it Differently with Stephen Barlow (Helios/National Portrait Gallery, 2016) and Colours with Dimitri Scarlato (2017/18). In 2011 she trained as a librettist at the Royal Opera House.

As a singer she has sung on several best-selling CDs including the film soundtrack for Disney's Prince Caspian. In 2018 her solo album ‘Songs for my Daughter’ reached the Top 10 in the iTunes classical chart.

Laura-Jane has also presented and contributed to a range of television and radio programmes; discussions ranging from art and politics to reality TV. She currently hosts the podcast ‘My Favourite Work of Art’.

In 2016 she was shortlisted for a Women of the Future award for exceptional achievement in the arts. In 2018 Laura-Jane was made an ambassador for the Lullaby Trust charity.

121 JULIE OSMAN DIRECTOR – UK

Theatre & opera director, trained in Laban movement technique; joint artistic director of Freathy Tippett (movement/music theatre collective) where she creates experimental movement work and runs professional development workshops, e.g. New Habits, a workshop series with Theatre Delicatessen.

Opera: King Arthur (Merton Arts Space); The Secretary Turned CEO (Edinburgh Fringe); Voicing and Salty Sarah (Freathy Tippett/Tête à Tête Opera Festival); Eros and Psyche (/Grimeborn); A Night in Sevilla (Shoreditch Church); also movement consultant, (English Touring Opera, Britten Theatre and tour).

Theatre: 20:40 (Alex Pearson Productions/Omnibus Clapham); Caring and Sharing (, Millennials showcase); Gay Pride and No Prejudice (Grand Saloon, Theatre Royal Drury Lane: staged reading); Theatre Uncut (Theatre Delicatessen); Breathless (Bread & Roses); Three Minute Hero (Cock Tavern), Turning Point (Theatre 503 platform); The Phallic Earth Society and The Empire Strikes Back (Bread & Roses, new writing showcase); Licence My Roving Hands and Your Objects Move Us (Freathy Tippett/); co-director of the new musical City Girls ( Theatre).

Also directed Extant’s Pathways showcase at RADA Studios with eight young visually-impaired actors, and was a mentor on their Write Stage project for VI emerging playwrights.

122 KIRSTIN SHARPIN ANNA – NEW ZEALAND/GERMANY

The winner of the International WagnerStimmen Wettbewerb in Karlsruhe in 2015, Kirstin read English & Italian at the University of Auckland before graduating from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland as Master of Opera with Distinction. Further study followed at the Cardiff International Academy of Voice with Dennis O’Neill, as an Independent Opera Postgraduate Fellow and Samling Artist.

Recent operatic engagements include a critically acclaimed role debut as Senta Der Fliegende Holländer for Longborough Festival Opera, the title roles in Beethoven’s for Melbourne Opera and Leonore (1805) for the Buxton Festival, and Smetana’s Libuše in the work’s British staged premiere. Other engagements have included Tove Gurrelieder under the baton of Martyn Brabbins, and Isolde in an adaptation of Wagner’s at Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre.

Future plans include debuts as Isolde in Germany (Theater Nordhausen) and a concert of Wagner Arias with the Thüringer Symphoniker. Engagements postponed due to COVID include, among others, Brünnhilde Die Walküre in the United Kingdom (semi- staged) and Australasia (staged), and a workshop production of Strauss’ Elektra. Further engagements in 20/21 and 21/22 await confirmation.

Previous roles include Elettra Idomeneo (Blackheath Halls Opera), and Gertrud Hänsel und Gretel (Garsington Opera at West Green), the title role in , Ada Die Feen and Mariana for Chelsea Opera Group, and Gerhilde Die Walküre for Saffron Hall Opera. Other engagements include Samaritana Francesca da Rimini (Opera Holland Park), Helmwige Die Walküre (St Endellion Festival), Donna Anna Don Giovanni, Vitellia La Clemenza di Tito, Angelica Suor Angelica. At the RCS, Kirstin sang Tatyana Eugene Onegin, Fiordiligi Cosí fan Tutte, and Nella Gianni Schicchi, and covered Magda La Rondine for British Youth Opera. Kirstin has made several appearances with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and her concert repertoire ranges from Handel to Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, Tove in 's Gurrelieder and beyond, including key cycles such as Vier Letzte Lieder, Shéhérazade, Wesendonck Lieder and Nuits d’été.

Kirstin has competed successfully in a number of international competitions, and was awarded an International Opera Awards Bursary in 2016. She is also a Britten Pears Scholar, and past recipient of Goodall, Countess of Munster Trust, Miriam Licette and Sybil Tutton Scholarships.

123 PHILIPPA BOYLE CHORUS

Winner of the Emmy Destinn Award for Czech opera and song, Philippa Boyle trained in Rome at Conservatorio di Musica Santa Cecilia, graduating with full marks and distinction, and Opera Studio Santa Cecilia, where she studied with world-renowned soprano Renata Scotto. Prior to her studies in Italy she was a choral scholar at Clare college, Cambridge, where she read Classics.

Opera engagements in 2020 included Santuzza (, Cavalleria Rusticana), The Opera Makers; Nella (Gianni Schicchi), Five Senses Music, and she was scheduled to make her company debut with English Touring Opera this autumn as Mum (Turnage Greek). Philippa is a 2020/21 Nevill Holt Opera Young Artist and will perform Annina and cover Violetta for them in their new production of La Traviata in 2021.

Other recent engagements include Angrboda/Nanna (cover) Gavin Higgins The Monstrous Child, ROH Linbury; Mum/Waitress 2/Sphinx 1 (Mark-Anthony Turnage Greek, directed by its librettist and original director Jonathan Moore), Arcola Theatre; Elizabeth 1st (Donizetti’s ), OperaUpClose; Elisabetta di Valois (Verdi Don Carlo), Eva (die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) and the title roles in concert performances of Janáček's Kát'a Kabanová and Jenůfa, all for Fulham Opera; Salome (Oliver Brignall Roles), MettaTheatre in residency at the Victoria and Albert Museum; the title role in Puccini's Tosca, King’s Head Theatre (winner of OFFIE Award for Best New Opera Production); Cathleen (Vaughan Williams Riders to the sea, Wexford Festival Opera); semi- chorus soloist ( Hamlet), cover Cockerel (Janaček Cunning Little Vixen), both for Glyndebourne Festival Opera.

124 VICTORIA BARBE CHORUS

Trained primarily at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Victoria is an experienced performer and teacher, equally passionate about both disciplines. Performances have been in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, , St David's Hall and for Chandos Recordings and under the batons of Sir Colin Davies, John Owen Edwards and Richard Hickox.

Roles played in Opera, Operetta and Musicals include Mimi in La Boheme, Zorah in Ruddigore for the International Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company, Mrs Beguildy in the Demo of the New Musical, Harvest Home by Bernard Irvin, performance collaborations with Zoë Gadd’s company, ‘Dance Ahead’, bringing historical figures to life in new performances, and working projects with Andy One inc for online music media and live concerts.

As a young singer she was awarded the Elias Singing Prize for , a Sir Geraint Evans Scholarship and a Philip Langridge Bursary.

Victoria is also a Senior Lecturer of Performing Arts and Programme Leader of Musical Theatre at the University of Cumbria Institute of the Arts and enjoys being based in such a beautiful part of the UK.

Outside of professional interests, she loves to read, travel, dance, and even dabbles in travel writing for her blog.

Victoria is very pleased to be part of this new and exciting online project, especially given the current challenges with Covid-19 for both performers and students.

125 ELIZABETH SILLO CHORUS

Elizabeth Sillo, a member of the BBC National Chorus of Wales studied singing in the Conservatoire, in Budapest. After obtaining her musical degree, she joined as a singer the Budapest National Opera and later the Szeged National Opera.

Thanks to the flourishing operatic tradition of Central-Europe, she has performed in several opera houses, including , Nabucco and Tosca in , Italy, France and Germany. As a devotee of the Austro- Hungarian operetta, she has sung in Lehar’s Merry Widow, in Emerich Kalman’s Csardas Queen and Countess Marica. In the UK she has participated in various oratorios with the Royal Academy of Music in London, and with the Keele Bach Choir in the North of England. As a former member of the City of Manchester Opera, she performed with great success in the Buxton Fringe in 2014. She has been a member of the Saturday Voice Academy in Cardiff and has taken part in their productions.

Over the last 2 years she has sung in several concerts with the Welsh National Opera and the BBC National Chorus of Wales, including the BBC tour in Brittany and the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall in London.

She is a concert organiser as well. Last summer she organised Master Classes for singers with a French conductor, Vincent Monteil from the Strasbourg Opera and has been the co-organiser of the Welsh – Hungarian concert series. She was the main singer of the Bards of Wales ( Karl Jenkins) project supported by the University of South Wales last year and she has organised four Welsh – Hungarian concerts so far. The first two took place in Cardiff in the URDD Centre ( Wales Millennium Centre) and two other concerts were held in .

She is the International PR Manager of the Simandy Singing Competition and in December she is going to sing with Adam Diegel, American tenor from the New York Metropolitan.

126 ALESSANDRO MARICALASO VIDEO EDITOR – ITALY/UK

Alessandro Mariscalco is a London based videographer and photographer. Born in Palermo, he moved to Rome in 2008 to study Journalism. After a brief period as camera operator for Sky News, he moved to London in 2011. He has worked there as Head of Communications, Web Content Editor and researcher for documentaries such as: Influx (2016), Girlfriend in a Coma (2012) and The Great European Disaster Movie (2015). In 2015 he travelled to Japan with the Italian rock band Utveggi to film his first documentary Kings of Konbini (2017) that was premiered in his hometown, Palermo, on the 20th December of 2017. He has extensively worked as videographer for big brands in the hospitality industry, he has collaborated in a variety of artistic and social projects with Immuto Collective, Riccardo Buscarini, Mode and Motion, Stratford Original. In 2019 he looked after, together with Federico Sigillo, all the video and photo material for the Festival di Lampedusa, a cultural festival that promotes integration and environmentalism in the southeast island in Europe.

127 EDGE OF TIME

Composer, Songwriter, Co-Editor – Daisy Boulton

Director – Ella Marchment

Song Producer, Co-Editor – Johnny Stanley

Beach Choreography – Jo Meredith

Beach Videography – Scott Howard

Further Information

128 SYNOPSIS – EDGE OF TIME

In 1965, Hannah Gavron – a bright, sophisticated, young writer and wife to a rising entrepreneur – gassed herself in Primrose Hill, north London. She left behind a suicide note, two small children, and an about-to-be-published manuscript: 'The Captive Wife'.

Jeremy Gavron was the youngest of Hannah's children, just four years old when she tragically took her own life, and as an adult came to write a searching examination of the events that led to he suicide. He pieces together – from letters, diaries, and the memories of old friends – a picture of a brilliant but complex young woman grappling to find an outlet for her intelligence and sexuality as she carved out her place in a man's world.

The 'Edge of Time' team are currently in the process of creating a one-woman show inspired by Jeremy's book, and here is their musical summation of this portrait of Hannah.

A film made in isolation and with social distancing measures on Daisy Boulton’s iPhone, created by Daisy Boulton and Ella Marchment.

129 FEATURING…

• Domi Hawken • Arjin Celik

• Olivia Marrie • Berenice Stegers • Alexandra Dowling • Ella Marchment • Zainab Hasan • Magha Shah • Kate Boulton • Edith Gill • Kay Marchment • Viktoria Patsios • Anna Patsios • Tarika Gidwaney • Lottie Emck

130 DAISY BOULTON COMPOSER, SONGWRITER, CO-EDITOR – UK

Daisy Boulton trained at RADA.

She represented by ITG ltd in the UK and Elevate Entertainment in the US.

Most recently Daisy played Laurel in Torch Song at the and she is currently developing a one woman musical play with director Ella Marchment based on the book “A Woman on the Edge of Time” by Jeremy Gavron.

Her theatre credits include: Shakespeare in Love in the West End. Additionally Daisy has played Daphne Stillington in Present Laughter opposite for Bath Theatre Royal, directed by Stephen Unwin, Catherine in A View From The for the Touring Consortium, Trouble in Mind at the Coronet Theatre.

Daisy’s TV and film credits include: Yonderland for Sky, The Exception for Egoli Tossell, and Price Of Life directed by B Welby Delimere.

Daisy is also a singer–songwriter and composer and has composed for The Globe Theatre, worked as MD for an all-female musical, and co-written, recorded and performed with members of Mumford and Sons, Faithless, and Alex James (producer), as well as playing in Eliot Summer’s band, formerly known as I Blame Coco.

131 ELLA MARCHMENT DIRECTOR – UK

Ella Marchment is an opera director, the stage director of The International Opera Awards, and the artistic director of Opera Festival of Chicago, as well as being a cultural leader, public speaker, and lecturer. She is currently under commission for Nick Hern Books and is producing a series of twenty new operas for Opera Vision as a reaction to Covid-19. At this time she should have been directing the Royal College of Music’s production of Jonathan Dove’s The Enchanted Pig and the 2020 International Opera Awards.

Ella was the first opera director to receive an International Opera Awards bursary. In 2018 she was a finalist in the Women of the Future Awards – in recognition of her exceptional achievements in the arts – and a semi-finalist in the European Opera-Directing Prize.

Ella has worked throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, and America with companies including Wexford Festival Opera, The Mariinsky, Bury Court Opera, Dutch National Opera, The Royal Opera House, and Copenhagen Opera Festival.

Ella was associate director of Mary Birnbaum’s production of Dido & Aeneas at Juilliard Opera and led the tour to Opera Holland Park in London and The Royal Opera of Versailles in France. In 2020 Ella was part of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama vocal-studies faculty, teaching drama and directing opera scenes. She also directed at the Royal College of Music.

Ella is a committed campaigner for equality in the arts. As well as co-founding the UK-based charity SWAP’ra (Supporting Women and Parents in Opera), she has been a principal speaker at events held at the Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera, the Wiener Institute, Opera Europa (the Netherlands), Arts Council England, and the Southbank Centre. Ella was an associate artist of Artistic Directors of the Future in 2019, an organisation dedicated to promoting ethnic diversity in British theatres.

Ella is represented by Day Macaskill of Cruickshank Cazenove in London. www.ellamarchment.org

132 JOHNNY STANLEY SONG-PRODUCER & CO-EDITOR – UK

After studying Audio Production at SAE Institute London in 2017, Johnny has since composed music for film and television projects, many of which in collaboration with Mario Grigorov.

He has provided additional music for feature films including Kill Chain (Millennium Films) starring Nicolas Cage, The Dare (Millennium Films) starring Richard Brake, and Line of Descent starring Brendan Fraser.

He recently worked on Liars & Cheats directed by Jacob Migicovsky, his first solo score for a feature film.

Johnny also composes for television, including the 2020 sci-fi series Spides for NBCUniversal. He scored the documentary series Infinity: What on Earth Are We Thinking?, and has written music for TV movies in the US (Lifetime) and Germany (ZDF).

133 JO MEREDITH BEACH CHOREOGRAPHER – UK

Jo Meredith is a movement director and choreographer. Credits include: I Masnadieri for Teatro Alla Scala Milan, Director David McVicar, Drot Og Marsk for Royal Danish Opera, Directors Amy Lane and Kasper Holten, Rigoletto for Savonlinna Opera, Director David McVicar. Tosca, Icelandic Opera, Director Greg Eldridge. Royal Opera House, Main Stage, Jette Parker Young Artist Summer Concert, Director Noa Naamat, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, Alte Munze, Berlin, Director Julia Burbach. Royal Opera House, Main Stage, Jette Parker Young Artist Summer Concert, La Scala Di Seta and The Lighthouse, Linbury Studio Theatre, Director Greg Eldridge. Macbeth directed by Bruno Ravella and A Fairy Queen and Un Ballo in Maschera directed by Tim Nelson at Iford Arts. Siegfried and Gotterdammerung, Longborough Festival Opera.

134 SCOTT HOWARD

BEACH VIDEOGRAPHER – UK

Scott is a passionate, full time professional photographer and videographer.

He is based on the south coast of England.

When he isn’t behind the camera, he is exploring his other love for travel. www.howardvisuals.co.uk

135 WEEK 4 – AUGUST 25

– MY NEIGHBOUR FIGARO (Glickman/Gallagher)

– LA SOLITUDINE (Sever/Lemieux)

– WALK OUT OF YOURSELF (Voicings Collective)

– GRIEF (Holger Petersen/Holden)

– APART/MENTAL (Steen/Birnbaum)

136 MY NEIGHBOUR FIGARO

Composer & Piano – Caleb Glickman

Libretto & Soprano – Emily Gallagher

Director – Rebecca Marine

Mezzo-Soprano – Charlotte Badham

Tenor – Andrew Irwin

Baritone & Audio Engineer – Joseph Sandler

Video Editor – Hannah Marine

Further Information

137 SYNOPSIS – MY NEIGHBOUR FIGARO

Alone in lockdown and living below three opera singers “working from home”, one woman decides to document this extraordinary moment in time.

138 CALEB GLICKMAN

COMPOSER & PIANO – USA

Caleb Glickman is a composer, conductor, and baritone from Los Angeles. He is currently studying for a Master’s in Orchestral Conducting at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.

His recent conducting endeavors include Music Director of Handel’s at CCM’s Studio Opera, and assistant conducting the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s Ellen West at Opera Saratoga as a Conducting Fellow. Last year he received a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University in Vocal Performance.

At Carnegie Mellon, Caleb worked as the Assistant Conductor of the All University Orchestra from 2017 until 2019. During that time, he also led both of the organization’s chamber groups. In both 2017 and 2018, he conducted world premieres of operas at the Composit-Opera Music Festival. He also led a full production of a performance of Handel’s Judas Maccabeus in memory of those lost at the Tree of Life shooting.

He is the only baritone worldwide who has performed Cimarosa’s opera, Il di Capella, as both conductor and baritone. His other recent stage credits include Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro and premiering the role of Andy in the opera, languagemachine, at the Co-Opera Festival.

This is his first foray into the compositional realm, and he is incredibly grateful to those at Opera Harmony for this opportunity to continue collaborating with fellow artists even during this challenging time.

139 EMILY GALLAGHER LIBRETTIST & SOPRANO – USA

Emily is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Vocal Performance. She has performed around The United States, Vienna, Austria, and , Serbia. Role highlights include Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Carolina in , Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica, and Nada in Ana Sokolović’s Svada.

Emily is passionate about contemporary opera and has performed in several world premieres with festivals such as the Pittsburgh Co-Opera Festival in collaboration with Pittsburgh Opera and the Compōs-it Festival at Carnegie Mellon University.

A life-long lover of the written word, Emily has always wanted to write a book, a play, or a libretto; and what better time to begin this journey then while forced to socially isolate indoors? My Neighbour Figaro is Emily’s first libretto of many yet to come.

140 REBECCA MARINE DIRECTOR – UK

Rebecca is a British Opera Director. Based in London, she trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She has most recently returned from Vienna where she assisted Keith Warner on the world premiere of his production of “Egmont” at . Prior to this she worked as the Assistant to Keith Warner at the National Opera Studio. Rebecca has worked at the Royal Opera House and with Welsh National Opera.

Rebecca is passionate about devising “in situ” work. She devised and directed an “in situ” opera scenes performance for the Cardiff based Opera Company Opera’r Ddraig at the Wales Millenium Centre and assisted on their in- situ production of “Die Fledermaus” at DEPOT Warehouse.

At the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Rebecca directed ’s “Trouble in Tahiti” for their “REPCO” repertory festival, directed a devised opera scenes performance for final year undergraduate students and assisted Polly Graham on an opera scenes performance with singers from the David Seligman Opera School.

141 CHARLOTTE BADHAM

MEZZO-SOPRANO – UK

Charlotte Badham graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music in 2018 and is taught taught by soprano, Mary Plazas.

Her operatic roles include Hansel / Hansel and Gretel for which she received The Eunice Pettigrew Prize, Hippolyta / A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Willie / Street Scene, and Léonie / La Vie Parisienne in RNCM productions. As well as Dido / Dido and Aeneas in concert with the and Otley Choral society, Olga / Eugene Onegin on the Opera Holland Park Young Artist Programme and Cretan Woman / Idomeneo with Buxton Festival Opera. Furthermore, Charlotte has enjoyed working as a chorister with companies including Buxton Festival Opera (2017 / 18) and Garsington Opera on the Alvarez Young Artist Programme (2019).

As an enthusiast oratorio soloist, Charlotte has performed with numerous choral societies across the UK, most recently, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle with the Welsh Choral and Bach’s Magnificat with the Amici Singers in Somerset. Internationally, Charlotte has sung in Florence for the VenCap annual opera gala dinner, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées with Garsington Opera and the Notre Dame Cathedral to commemorate the Holodomor in Ukraine.

142 ANDREW IRWIN

TENOR – IRELAND

Following his studies at Chetham’s School of Music and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with Adrian Thompson Northern Irish tenor Andrew Irwin completed his training at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Bartholdy, under the tutelage of Prof. KS Roland Schubert.

Andrew won the 2017 Forde Taylor prize for Gilbert & Sullivan at the Feis Ceoil (Dublin) and the E.A. Redman prize for German Lieder performance at the RWCMD. He is grateful for the loyal support of The Fermanagh Trust, The Viola Westminster Bursary, The Joan Trimble Award and Mr Christopher Ball.

Andrew recently made his Welsh National Opera début in the role of Amelia’s Servant Un Ballo in Maschera andalso sang Cecil for the company. He performed Jan in HMT Leipzig’s production of Millöcker and an Opera Highlights tour for Scottish Opera. His opera engagements have also included Christoph in Maxwell Davies Kommilitonen! with Welsh National Youth Opera, Conte Almaviva in Paisiello Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Junge Mitteldeutsche Kammeroper, Don Ottavio Don Giovanni and Die Knusperhexe Hänsel und Gretel with the Leipzig Sommerorchester and Don Basilio and Don Curzio Le Nozze di Figaro with Clonter Opera.

Equally at home on the concert platform Andrew has performed works by Schütz, Mozart, Rossini and Stainer. A keen recitalist, his repertoire includes Schubert Die Schöne Müllerin, Schumann , Britten Winter Words, Vaughan Williams Songs of Travel and Finzi Oh Fair to See.

143 JOSEPH SANDLER

BARITONE & AUDIO ENGINEER – USA

An avid performer of works ranging from Baroque to Avant-Guard, Joseph Sandler is a baritone based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Recent engagements include the world premieres of Ivan Plazacic and Alex Taylor’s PETROV in the 2018 Compos-It Opera Festival and Marina Lopez and D.T. Burns’ Not Our First American in a collaboration between Carnegie Mellon University and Pittsburgh Opera. Between these two productions he sang Simon in Handel’s Judas Maccabeus at Carnegie Mellon University in a production honoring the lives of those lost in Tree of Life Shooting of 2018. While at CMU he could also be seen performing with the university’s Contemporary Music Ensemble as well as with the Exploded Ensemble, CMU’s experimental music ensemble. Other past performances include the titular role CMU’s production of Le nozze di Figaro, Argante in Handel’s Rinaldo, and Mercutio in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette with the Janiec Opera Company.

With fellow musicians Caleb Glickman and Emily Gallagher, he co-founded Perfect Harmony at Carnegie Mellon. Perfect Harmony is an organization committed to creating a sustainable future for classical music by bringing new life to old works and commissioning new ones. Past productions include a site-specific staged performance of J.S. Bach’s Coffee , and benefit recitals raising money for various causes and charitable organizations including VH1 Save the Music and UNESCO.

144 HANNAH MARINE

VIDEO EDITOR – UK

Hannah Marine is a London based artist working with video and sound. hannahmarine.co.uk

145 LA SOLITUDINE

Composer – Harry Sever

Librettist – Suzanne Lemieux

Director – Giulia Giammona

Soprano – Esther Mallett

Actors – Markus Müller, Carolin Kaiser, Lena Weissinger, Dariusz Voltra

Further Information

146 SYNOPSIS – LA SOLITUDINE

A journey of four individuals who, running away from their lives, get caught in a state of isolation. In the search of an exit they are confronted only with the reflection of themselves - the mirror. Within this vacuum, as they pass through different emotions, we begin to observe a growing connection between them…

147 HARRY SEVER COMPOSER – UK

Harry Sever is a conductor and composer with a wide-ranging repertoire and a fluency in both operatic and orchestral style. His musicals Mr Men & Little Miss, James and the Giant Peach and Guess How Much I Love You have toured internationally with Sell A Door productions. Other scores for the theatre include The Kreutzer Sonata (Arcola Theatre), Sleeping Beauty and My Mother Said I Never Should (The Theatre Chipping Norton), King Lear, As You Like It, Love’s Labours Lost (The Minack Theatre), and for screen, Stalker (CBS). Harry is regularly in demand as an arranger and conductor for session and film recording; credits and collaborators include EMI, Nathan Klein (Air Edel), Jon Moon (Sensible Studios), Shadow Child, Flyte, and Brainstorm (Courtyard Studios). Harry has performed with Jools Holland, Sir Cliff Richard, Olivia Newton-John, and with Ella Janes at TEDx Roma and The Royal Albert Hall. He is passionate about community music-making, and is a regular collaborator with English National Opera's Baylis department and Opera Holland Park's Inspire programme.

Recent and upcoming conducting engagements include Il Barbiere di Siviglia (WNO) , Fantasio (Garsington), La Traviata (Opera Holland Park Young Artists), Cendrillon (Bampton Classical Opera), The Nutcracker (Peter Schaufuss Balletten), as well as projects with ENO, The Royal Opera Academy, Copenhagen and Birmingham Conservatoire. As an assistant conductor, he has worked with Den Jyske Opera, the Grange Festival, and the Britten Sinfonia. Harry studied at the Queen's College, Oxford and trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

148 SUZANNE LEMIEUX LIBRETTIST – UK

Suzanne Lemieux was co-owner/producer of Bury Court Opera which had its last performance, The Turn Of The Screw directed by Ella Marchment, in March 2019.

Bury Court Opera had twelve wonderful years of performing its own productions of ‘grand opera’ on a small scale and worked throughout those years with some of the best up-and-coming singers, directors, musicians, designers and tireless production teams. In recent years we had commissioned two new operas by composer Noah Mosley and greatly enjoyed the whole process from exploring ideas to final performance.

I’m now looking forward to supporting and collaborating with other people’s projects.

149 GIULIA GIAMMONA

DIRECTOR – GERMANY/ITALY

Giulia Giammona is a young director with German and Italian background.

Growing up in Berlin she quickly developed a love for classical music and opera. She was a young student at ‚Hochschule für Musik Berlin’ for singing and made her first experiences on stage of the ‚Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin‘ as part of their Young- Chorus. The process of creating and staging an opera fascinated her so she turned herself towards directing. She made a directing internship at ‚Deutsches Theater Berlin‘ and was an assistant director for two opera productions at ‚Theater an der Wien’. She is deeply connected with the ‚Bayerische Staatsoper‘ in Munich where she worked as an assistant director from 2016 till today. She assisted and was responsible for the revival of Krzysztof Warlikowski’s ‚Die Gezeichneten‘, Romeo Castellucci’s ‚Tannhäuser‘, La Fura dels Baus’ ‚Karl V‘, Lotte de Beer’s ‚Il Trittico‘, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s ‚Alceste‘, Christof Loy’s ‚Le Nozze di Figaro‘ and many more. Giulia staged at the Sommer Festspiele 2018 of the ‚Bayerische Staatsoper‘ a scenic concert of the piece ‚Match’ by and ‚Vanitas. Natura morta in un atto‘ by Salvatore Sciarrino. In June 2019 she staged one of several dramaturgical events at the ‚Museum Brandhorst‘ in Munich on the topic of ‚Power Structures‘. Her latest project in 2020 was directing an open day of the opera house for about 500 young children with workshops and an interactive show on stage. At the ‚Hidalgo Festival München’ She created the concept and directed an installative performance of Schubert’s Songcycle ‚Schwanengesang‘. In Summer 2019 she was part of a Masterclass by Thom Luz at the Biennale College Teatro in Venice. The performance was shown at the festival. Giulia studies theatre directing at the University ‚Mozarteum‘ in Salzburg.

150 ESTHER MALLETT SOPRANO – UK

Soprano Esther Mallett studied at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama and English National Opera on their Opera Works programme. Prior to this she read music at The University of Oxford where she held a choral scholarship.

Whilst at the GSMD, Esther was selected by Graham Johnson for his Song Guild, performed a role in A Midsummer Night's Dream with the prestigious Opera Course department, and coached contemporary repertoire with , Lana Bode and Judith Weir. She made her professional debuts with and the Tête-à-Tête festival whilst still studying.

Upcoming performances include Georgette La Rondine for West Green House Opera. Recent engagements have included (Barnes Music Festival), Barbarina (Grimeborn Festival), Emmie Albert Herring (Hampstead Garden Opera), Belinda Dido and Aeneas, Tullia in Villa (Oxford Opera), Marie Celeste/Eos Gailileo Galilei, and Cupid Orpheus in the Underworld ( Studio).

Concert appearances have included Poulenc Gloria (Downside Abbey), Mozart Requiem (Cadogan Hall) Mozart Exultate Jubilate/Mahler Symphony No.4 (Frome Symphony Orchestra), Brahms Requiem (Keynsham Symphony Orchestra), Haydn The Creation (Lymington Choral Society), Vivaldi Gloria (National Symphony Orchestra), Fauré Requiem (St Martin-in-the-Fields), Haydn Nelson Mass (Bristol Cathedral), Britten Les Illuminations (Brunel Sinfonia), and Handel Dixit Dominus/ Vaughan Williams Benedicite (City of Bristol Choir).

Passionate about community music-making, Esther has collaborated with ENO Baylis on schools' singing projects and with Bristol-based composer Mark Lawrence on a series of community operas in the South West.

151 WALK OUT OF YOURSELF WITH VOICINGS COLLECTIVE

Composer/Vocalist/Piano – Michael Betteridge

Writer/Illustrator– Rebecca Hurst

Director/Editor/Vocalist – Freya Wynn-Jones

Vocalist/Co-creator – Robert Gildon

Vocalist/Co-Creator– Robine Landi

Oboe/Co-Creator – Beatrice Hubble

Finishing Editor – Nick Light

Sound Designer– Jonas Rose Høeg

Further Information

152 VOICINGS COLLECTIVE

The Voicings Collective was co-founded in 2016 by Freya Wynn-Jones (director), Michael Betteridge (composer), and Rebecca Hurst (writer) to interrogate the democratic possibilities of devising as an ensemble. The group have developed work supported by Dartington Arts, Rough For Opera and ACE. www.voicingscollective.co.uk/

153 SYNOPSIS – WALK OUT OF YOURSELF

When all you can do is walk...

In the height of lockdown, Voicings Collective used their interdisciplinary devising process to capture the thoughts of their artists based across England: from urban Manchester and seaside Brighton, to rural Suffolk. Part- diary, part-drama, Walk out of yourself features elements of verbatim technique collected on our daily walks as we coexist alongside the anxiety, boredom, loneliness and joy of isolation. Probing attitudes and emotions in the wake of quarantine, the piece explores our uncertainties as we try to carve a new path for society, community and identity. It delves into the rituals and routine of pacing and retracing our steps and finding room to breathe. As we tune into a world fallen silent we are reminded that, in times of uncertainty, out of the dark the dawn chorus begins.

The Voicings Collective is an interdisciplinary devising company composing contemporary opera in the ensemble. It applies a classical treatment to cross-arts approaches.

154 MICHAEL BETTERIDGE

COMPOSER – UK

With his work being described as ‘inventive’ (The Financial Times for Thousand Furs), ‘bold’ and ‘colourful’ (The Times for Across the Sky) Michael creates work that challenges and inspires audiences and performers alike. His work has been performed by London Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, violinist , amongst others, as well as having been performed on BBC Radios 3 and 4. Recent large works include: the Anglo-Icelandic Twitter opera #echochamber that premiered in Reykjavik in May 2018 and was nominated for ‘Event of the Year’ at the Icelandic Music Awards, as well as a collection of songs for male voices and piano with words by poet Andrew McMillan entitled the body is a choir room of which one movement was shortlisted by the British jury for the ISCM World Music Days. 2019 saw the premiere of Across the Sky – a new community opera commissioned by Cheltenham Music Festival as the finale to their 75th anniversary. Future work includes a new collaboration with the Opera North Youth Chorus with director Anna Pool, a short new opera for young voices in Birmingham commissioned by welsh National Opera and a chamber dance-opera inspired by the notion of protest and governance created by the same Anglo-Icelandic team that produced #echochamber.

155 REBECCA HURST LIBRETTIST & DESIGN – UK

Rebecca Hurst writes poetry, essays, and libretti. Her poetry has appeared in various international magazines including: The Rialto, PN Review, Agenda, Aesthetica, The Clearing, and Magma Poetry. In 2019 her collection Mapping the Woods was shortlisted for The Rialto pamphlet prize. Written with Zoe Palmer and Dani Howard Robin Hood: an Opera in Three Courses, premiered in London in February 2019. Other staged works include the chamber opera, Isabella London 2015; London and Budapest, 2016), with the composer Oliver Christophe Leith; Tatort: Märchenland (Munich, 2015), a fairy-tale detective story co-written with Stephen Plaice for the Munich Radio Orchestra; After the Fall (London, 2017; Reykjavik, 2020), a chamber opera based on Oliver Sack’s Musicophilia, with composer Helgi Rafn Ingvarsson; and ‘The Handbag Aria’, written with composer Samantha Fernando for the National Opera Studio (London, May 2018). Forthcoming work includes: a choral work commissioned by the Greater Manchester- based Sunday Boys and Meraki (Jul 2020), with composer Michael Betteridge; and a song cycle on the ecology of gardens with composer Lucy Armstrong, commissioned by the Salford Choral society (Nov 2020). Rebecca has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Manchester, and is an external moderator on the MA in Opera Making at The Guildhall School Of Music And Drama. As artist in residence in Manchester’s John Ryland’s Library Rebecca is working on a new book-length poem based on her own family archive, Speaking Russian in Coulson: Between Countries and Between Forms.

156 FREYA WYNN-JONES DIRECTOR & VOCALIST – UK

Freya Wynn-Jones is a director and opera maker working across a wide range of professional, educational and community settings. Recent credits include devising and directing How It Came To Be with English National Opera’s Youth Company for the , creating It Takes A Village from a selection of operatic repertoire for the Royal Opera House Thurrock Community Chorus and directing Streetwise Opera during their Royal Opera House residency in Carmen: Fire, Frailty and Freedom.

With a particular interest in the relationship between theatre and vocal art, Freya has worked with companies including English National Opera (Some Truth, The Marigold That Goes To Bed With The Sun, Threads Of The Past, Stand As One, How It Came To Be).The Royal Opera House (It Takes A Village, A Day Dawns), Glyndebourne Opera (Tycho’s Dream, Into The Harbour, Until The Summer Comes Again), Aurora (Tchaikovsky and The Marvellous Kingdom, Pepper and The Monkey, Beethoven and The Dinosaurs; Bach and The Noisy Nighttime) Garsington Opera, The Southbank Centre, The Guildhall and Opera North. In 2017 she directed the world premiere of hunger alongside Helios Collective and ENO and was selected as a Spitalfields Music’s Open Call Artist to develop Mother Daughter a cross- discipline vocal work. In 2020 she joins Streetwise Opera as an Associate Director for their upcoming production After Winter.

157 ROBERT GILDON

VOCALIST & CO-CREATOR – UK

Robert studied singing at Manhattan School of Music, New York, the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival and the Britten Pears School in Snape. Recent work includes Wise Man in Moon Hares (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment), Calcus in Offenbach’s La Belle Hélène ( New Sussex Opera) Hortensius in La Fille du Regiment (Opera della luna at Buxton Festival), The Fairy Queen Project (Orchestra Age of Enlightenment), Time Capsule Project (Grange Festival), Manz in Delius’s A Village Romeo and Juliet (New Sussex Opera), Beautiful World Opera and Water in the Desert Projects in Abu Dhabi, Villon in Ezra Pound’s Le Testament de Villon (London Contemporary Music Festival) Wigmaster Ariadne auk Naxos and Starvelling A Midsummer Night's Dream (Garsington Opera) He has also performed roles for London Symphony Orchestra, Grange Park Opera, Opera Project, Opera Group, Cambridge Handel Opera, Bampton Classical Opera and Pimlico Opera’s Prison Project. He lives in Suffolk with 4 dogs, 9 goats, 4 peacocks, chickens, bees and a tortoise.

158 ROBINE LANDI VOCALIST & CO-CREATOR – UK

Robine's work includes collaborations with leading artists from film, theatre, opera and dance and she enjoys a varied career as an actress, singer and animateur. An experienced coach and workshop leader, Robine has worked alongside the National Theatre, The Birmingham Stage Company, Soho Theatre, Opera Holland Park and Pegasus Opera. As a lecturer of voice and acting she has worked at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, the Urdang Academy, Millennium Performing Arts, Mountview Academy and Italia Conti. Robine is a trustee for the Fergal O’Mahony Foundation, a charity providing financial support for young musicians. Performance credits include: Theatre: Songs from Sondheim (The Lowry, Manchester), Masterclass (English Theatre Frankfurt), Sweeney Todd (West End and Chichester Festival Theatre), Laugh and Be Happy (Minerva Theatre, Chichester), Coco (Sadlers Wells), The Vaudevillains ( and The Lowry), State Fair (Finborough and Trafalgar Studios), First Lady Suite (Union Theatre), Me and My Girl (London Palladium), Dust (Tricycle Theatre), Tiny Shows (The Copenhagen Interpretation), The Dots (Touring Cabaret). Opera: La Rondine, Le Nozze di Figaro (Opera Holland Park), The Clothesburger (Southbank Centre), Dancing on Armistifce Day (UK/France tour), Hear Them Roar, Walk Out of Yourself (The Voicings Collective) Film/Television: Hope and Glory (BBC), Interference (Short Film) Workshops: Hallowed Ground, The Miller’s Wife, The Ruby Necklace, The Man in the Room. Voice artist work: Tubby and Enid (BBC), Sweeney Todd (West End Cast Recording), Cool Rider (West End Cast Recording), Singleton Whiskey (Advert), Ronseal (Advert)

159 BEATRICE HUBBLE OBOE & CO-CREATOR – UK

Beatrice studied at the Royal Northern College of Music. Whilst there she performed as a soloist with many of the college ensembles and won the June Emerson chamber music prize with the oboe trio, Les Trois Canards.

After graduation she was accepted as a musician with Yehudi Menuhin’s charity, LIVE MUSIC NOW where she performed across the country in care homes, special schools and respite facilities with her trio, Vista. She later began working for the charity as a solo artist and mentor.

Passionate about increasing access to music for all, Beatrice works as a specialist music tutor for disabled children and young people and has been appointed to the role of Musical Inclusion Practitioner and Manager at Drake Music in London, is the Music Leader for the National Open Youth Orchestra at the Barbican and is in demand as a workshop leader and inclusive practitioner across the country. Beatrice is a dedicated chamber musician and holds the position of oboist with the award-winning reed trio, Trio Volant. This ensemble performs at venues widely across the country and were Making Music selected Artists in 2018-19.

Beatrice has worked as a freelance orchestral oboist and played with orchestras including Manchester Camerata and The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. She performs and regularly records new music with the vibrant Kaleidoscope Orchestra, a breakaway orchestra fit for the 21st Century.

@beahubble www.triovolant.co.uk

160 NICK LIGHT VIDEO EDITOR – UK/CANADA

Based in Vancouver, Canada, and London, UK, Nick is an AWARD WINNING Editor with a strong record of Editing high quality music, entertainment and factual productions.

Nick began working in the TV and Film industry in 2004, working as a Junior Editor at Superkrush, a boutique production company in the North East of England, on commercials and corporate films, and quickly rose to become a full Editor, delivering 100s of projects for Sky, BBC, ITV, DCM, Disney and Channel 4.

After leaving Superkrush Nick gained more experience working in Post Production, working as an Assistant Editor on productions for BBC, and ITV, as well as holding positions at various Post Production Companies, and Video Games Companies.

In 2010 Nick began working for BBC Factual in the Post-Production Department, designing and implementing workflows for major UK Factual series, and providing technical support to all onsite edit suites, and his assistance here helped deliver well over 100 hours of programmes to air.

Alongside retained positions with well-known Production organizations in London, he maintained a Wide client base, and complete work for Lowe Superculture, Vice Media, The BBC, and Creative England.

Nick has been working in Canada since 2013, and is a Permanent Resident of Canada.

161 JONAS ROSE HØEG SOUND DESIGNER – DENMARK

Jonas Rose Høeg is a Copenhagen based sound designer and sound engineer working with live music, theatre, musical theatre and live streaming. Jonas runs the company SOUNDSRIGHT in Denmark, that has quickly transformed to facilitate online or social distancing art experiences during the current global situation. Jonas also writes and plays pop folk music under the name Jonas Rose, primarily using vocals and stringed instruments such as acoustic and electric guitar, electric bass and double bass, but also occasionally trumpet and piano.

162 GRIEF

Composer – Nils Holger Petersen

Librettist –

Director – John Savournin

The Old Master – Andrew Slater

A Pupil – Joel Williams

Flute/Piccolo – Katie Saznova

Viola – Bart Folkers

Harpsichord – Jane Chapman

Sound Editor – Jonas Rose Høeg

Further Information

163 SYNOPSIS

Part 1. Duet: In writing him a letter, the Pupil expresses his concern for his Master and friend whose wife has recently died. He assumes his wise Master will endure this catastrophe with moderation and wisdom, and that in contemplating the human condition he will rise above it. Simultaneously the Master gratefully responds to the letter, while voicing his abject pain and sorrow as well as his doubts about the usefulness of his faith at this time.

Part 2. Soliloquy: In which the Master considers his loss and decides that there is no cure for his pain. He needs to mourn and to share this state with his dead wife. By spending his time in contemplation, he can be in harmony with his earthly life than he would be in trying to overcome his grief.

164 NILS HOLGER PETERSEN COMPOSER – DENMARK

Nils Holger Petersen, born in Copenhagen 1946. Alongside academic training in mathematics (M.Sc. 1969) and later Church History (PhD 1994), I studied composition with Danish composer Ib Nørholm. Also (indirectly) with Per Nørgård creating mathematic formulas for his Calendar Music (1970), a computer-generated electro-acoustic work for Danish TV. Working at universities (first in Mathematics, later as a lecturer in Church History) and in between as a Lutheran Church Minister, I continued musical composition, including much music for the piano. (I studied the piano with my mother, Hungarian pianist Elisabeth Klein, born 1911, pupil of Béla Bartók, a performer of contemporary piano music). Further: piano trios, music for wind quintet, a concerto for clarinet in B and Octet, solo works for violin, cello, organ, as well as vocal compositions). Commissions from the Danish National Radio include two electro- acoustic compositions, Joseph in the Well (1971, realized at EMS, Stockholm) and Fragments of a Distant Voice (1992, realized at DIEM, Aarhus). Two medievalist church operas, A Vigil for Thomas Becket (1989, first performed 1990) and Praises for Queen Ingeborg (1991, first performed 1992) were honoured with the Hakon Børresen Memorial Prize (1993). A Vigil for Thomas Becket was partly performed at a Studies in Medievalism conference in Canterbury, 1997, and staged again in 1998 in Copenhagen. Recent works include Clamavit Ihesus magna voce: Lost Voices of the Passion, 2011, performed at a conference on early music notation in Auxerre, France, and Miracle for tenor, violin and organ, 2015 to a poem by Seamus Heaney) as well as various instrumental compositions.

165 AMANDA HOLDEN

LIBRETTIST – UK

Amanda Holden studied and taught at the Guildhall, and worked as an accompanist but, over the last 35 years, has written as well as translations ranging from Monteverdi to today. Last December her English version of Hans Abrahamsen’s The Snow Queen was premiered in Munich. Many translations were commissioned by ENO, e.g. Rameau’s Castor and Pollux (translation was nominated for an Oliver award, 2012) , Jonathan Miller’s production of La bohème, Glanert’s Caligula… Her librettos include Bliss for Brett Dean (), and The Silver Tassie (ENO) for Mark-Anthony Turnage (Olivier Award, Outstanding Achievement in Opera, 2001). She is also founder- editor of the Viking/Penguin Opera Guides. The latest edition, The Opera Guide, 100 Popular Composers, is available online. www.amandaholden.org.uk

166 JOHN SAVOURNIN DIRECTOR – UK

John enjoys a varied career as an opera singer, director and writer.

A busy 19/20 season saw John singing Priest Fotis (The Greek Passion) and Carl Olsen (Street Scene), both for Opera North and Zuniga (Carmen) for WNO. He was scheduled to return to Opera Holland Park before the lockdown, as Baron Zeta (The Merry Widow) and to direct The Pirates of Penzance in a co-production with Charles Court Opera, of which he is the Artistic Director.

In recent seasons he has sung Leporello (Don Giovanni), Alidoro (La Cenerentola), Angelotti (Tosca), Sarastro (The Magic Flute) all for ON; 2nd Gunman (Kiss me, Kate) for ON/WNO; Leporello (Don Giovanni), Colline (La bohème), The Immigration Oficer (Flight), Count Horn (Un ballo in maschera), and the silent role of Sante (Il Segreto di Susanna), all for OHP. Recent concert engagements include Fortitudo (Applausus), Classical Opera Company, Cadogan Hall; Baron Kelbar (Un Giorno di Regno), Chelsea Opera Group, Cadogan Hall; Wigmore Hall / Purcell Room recitals and Eight Songs for a Mad King (Ossian Ensemble, Lands End Ensemble, Canada).

Recent directing/writing engagements include his main stage debut for ON with ; ON’s 'Whistle-stop' productions to date as part of their Outreach programme; adaptations for ROH’s ‘Opera dots’ series, and an abridged Pirates for OHP's Inspire Programme. John is also the Education Manager for the Concordia Foundation. He founded CCO in 2005, directing numerous , including his Ofie award winning production of HMS Pinafore, Boutique pantomimes, in which he often appears as the Dame or Villain, and co-productions with the Iford Arts Festival. He also directed an evening entitled ‘Avant-garde', featuring works by Schoenberg, Peter Maxwell- Davies, Ligeti and Beckett.

167 ANDREW SLATER BASS-BARITONE – UK

For more than a quarter of a century Andrew has been singing principal roles with the UK opera companies - also sometimes in Europe and America.

Thanks to the solid singing technique provided by the Royal Northern College Music in the 1980s his voice has remained fresh as the odd grey has arrived, and he now looks and sounds ideal for the low voice roles of nobility or malevolence which abound in the repertoire. He is also good as the fat funny bloke. There is, in fact a role to suit him in almost every opera.

He is eternally good-humoured - taking as a blessing that his job is the activity he would do for fun around a conventional career. Being married to a soprano whose international career allows him to travel the world in style, and teaching a few students at the University of Huddersfield puts glorious icing on his cake.

168 JOEL WILLIAMS

TENOR – UK

Described by Opera Magazine as a singer "with flair, his tenor simultaneously caressing and resilient", Joel Williams is a graduate of King's College Cambridge, the Royal College of Music International Opera Studio and is now a member of the Centre Perfeccionament Plácido Domingo at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Valencia. Joel is the recipient of an Independent Opera Fellowship.

Joel made his debut in Valencia performing Basilio Nozze di Figaro under Christopher Moulds. He made his debut for Garsington Opera as Facio Fantasio (Offenbach), for Opera Holland Park as Don Ottavio Don Giovanni and for Opéra de Paris as Le Ruisseau Les Fêtes D'Hébé (Rameau). As a member of the RCMIOS Joel performed as Lysander A Midsummer Night's Dream, Count Belfiore , Mayor Albert Herring, and Hexe Hänsel und Gretel. Joel has won the Somerset Song Prize, the Sir Anthony Lewis Memorial Prize, second prize in the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards and was a finalist in the Royal Over-seas League Competition.

Joel's concert engagements include Stravinksy Threni (LPO, ), Cilea Adriana Lecouvreur (Verbier Festival, ), Verdi Otello (Cambridge University Musical Society, ), and Pärt Passio (Choir of King's College Cambridge, ). tenorjoelwilliams.com

169 KATIE SAZANOVA FLUTE – UK

Katie Sazanova has recently completed her Master of Arts degree with Distinction at Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance. Katie won the in Tuscany Young Artist competition 2018, where she performed a solo recital and gained a sponsored place as part of her award. She has also performed in the final rounds of the Harold Clarke Woodwind Competition 2018 and 2019. In recent years, Katie has won the Birmingham Conservatoire Woodwind Prize, has been Highly Commended in the British Flute Society Competition and performed as a finalist in the Doris Newton Club Prize. She was also a finalist in The Sylvia Cleaver Chamber Music Competition with The Mondelli Wind Quintet.

Katie has recently completed a year-long training scheme, with opportunities to perform second flute, in the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. She enjoys giving recitals in and around London; recent highlights include the Benslow Music Trust, The Polish Hearth Member’s Club and Egham Music Club.

170 BART FOLKERS

VIOLA – NETHERLANDS

Bart Folkers is a Dutch violist. He studied viola at the Utrecht Conservatorium with Mikhail Zemtsov, and is now studying with Julia Dinerstein at Codarts in Rotterdam. Bart played numerous projects in the Dutch National Youth Orchestra (NJO) and participated in Spanish National Youth Orchestra (JONDE). Bart worked with famous soloists and conductors among which: Janine Jansen, David Grimal, Jules Buckly, Bas Wiegers and Gustavo Gimeno. Bart is especially fond of playing opera, having played several family operas with Leonard Evers in the Dutch National Opera.

Bart enjoys performing chamber music as well: He is part of Duo Stellina, a duo for violin and viola. This duo frequently performs outdoors, in special places like gardens, book stores and airplane hangars. Bart is also part of the Rodinia Trio, a trio for flute, viola and harp. This group set out to explore the 20th century gems of this repertoire, playing Debussy, Takemitsu and Ravel.

Apart from a classical background, Bart also likes to play other styles. Being part of the Metropole Orkest Academy, he played in Concertgebouw and at Tomorrowland with film music and Electronic Dance Music.

In the Opera Harmony project, you will find Bart playing in Grief by Nils Holger Petersen and Wisdom of Stone by Rose Hall.

Webpage: www.bartfolkers.nl

171 JANE CHAPMAN HARPSICHORD – UK

Equally passionate about baroque and contemporary music, Jane has collaborated with ground- breaking composers, artists and dancers, working with musicians from the worlds of Indian music, jazz, the avant-garde and HIP. Through innovative performances, she aims to bring the harpsichord to a wider public, and to combine repertoire in ways that engage and challenge her audiences.

Jane’s recordings of 18th-century English music, 'The Lady's Banquet', and of the 17th-century French Bauyn Manuscript, offered the first extensive overviews of important sources previously unexplored on disc. Her CD of transcriptions of Indian music from 1789, the ‘Oriental Miscellany’ (Signum), was awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik, as was her recording of Berio’s ‘Rounds’ (Mode). Described in on Sunday as 'Britain's most progressive harpsichordist’ Jane has premiered over 200 solo, chamber and electroacoustic pieces, and pioneered the first disc of electroacoustic works for harpsichord by British composers - WIRED (NMC). Forthcoming releases include a new album with electric guitarist Mark Wingfield and Brazilian percussionist Adriano Adewale (MoonJune).

Eager to support and encourage young players and composers Jane has adjudicated at many international competitions including the British Harpsichord Society, and the Horniman composition competitions, the Historical Keyboard Society of North America Jurow International Harpsichord Competition, and the Prix Annelie de Man, Netherlands. Jane is professor of harpsichord at the Royal College of Music, and Turner Sims Fellow at the University of Southampton, and recently artist in residence and King's College London, supported by the Leverhulme Trust.

172 JONAS ROSE HØEG SOUND ENGINEER – DENMARK

Jonas Rose Høeg is a Copenhagen based sound designer and sound engineer working with live music, theatre, musical theatre and live streaming. Jonas runs the company SOUNDSRIGHT in Denmark, that has quickly transformed to facilitate online or social distancing art experiences during the current global situation. Jonas also writes and plays pop folk music under the name Jonas Rose, primarily using vocals and stringed instruments such as acoustic and electric guitar, electric bass and double bass, but also occasionally trumpet and piano.

173 APART/MENTAL

Composer & Sound Editor – Ken Steen

Librettist, Video Editor, Co-Director – Mary Birnbaum

Dramaturg & Co-Director – Anna Pool

Puppets – Jojo Karlin

Sofia – Gilda Lyons

David – Benjamin Rauch

Nancy – Raehann Bryce-Davis

Theo – Will Liverman

Hope – Anna Laurenzo

Susan – Britt Hewitt

Skye – Jaylyn Simmons

Ming – Vivian Yau

Pablo – Santiago Pizarro

Electric Guitar – Thomas Schuttenhelm

Lever Harp – Haley Hewitt

MP2 DUO

Violin – Anton Miller

Viola – Rita Porfiris

Further Information

174 SYNOPSIS – APART/MENTAL

Two Jewish women in New York, one says, "Do you see what's going on in Poland?" The other says "I live in the back, I don't see anything." -Henny Youngman

Inspired by REAR WINDOW and a long stare-off with a neighbor through our respective windows one Tuesday afternoon, APART/MENTAL grew out of composer Ken Steen, writer Mary Birnbaum and director Anna Pool’s discussions of the people we unknowingly share our lives with and the secrets they may hold.

When visual artist Jojo Karlin sent Mary wry and whimsically crafted paper dolls of each character, our puppet opera concept was born: a remedy for how to film a cast who live across the world, from Hong Kong to Peru.

Within Ken Steen’s imaginative, foley-infused score, ensconcing each apartment in a unique sound world, APART/MENTAL asks: what leads to trust in a community? What incentive do we have to take care of each other? Oh, and how many times can you disinfect a doorknob?

Inside 88 west 66th street, the need to keep clean is making the apartment dwellers CRAZY! So crazy, in fact, that someone has stolen the concierge’s clorox wipes from the basement. In a series of scenes that are meant to be played in a random order, you’ll follow Sofia, the concierge, as she snoops on the inhabitants of the building, each more shady and motivated than her neighbour. Among this wacky and colourful cast of potential suspects. It’s hard to distinguish between who is a thief and who has simply lived in New York too long. Knock on their doors to find out: who did the dirty deed of lifting the cleaning supplies? Whose reputation will be stained? And how many times can you disinfect a door knob?

175 KEN STEEN COMPOSER – USA

Ken Steen's music and sound art is recognized internationally for its authentic vitality, remarkable range and distinctive personal vision: from Mumbai to Tripoli, Buenos Aires to Reykjavík, Melbourne, and NYC. Whether acoustic, instrumental or vocal, electronic, or some multimedia combination, his work is often characterized as being seductively gorgeous, featuring sumptuous textures of gradual yet unpredictable evolution. Since 2012 Steen's multifarious sound works have enjoyed over 100 performances worldwide.

Recent commissions/performances include: in afterness…(2020) for electric guitar, , cello and quadraphonic electronic sound, by Network for New Music, premiered at Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia, PA; ICE IS WATER IS ICE IS (2019) for piano, multichannel processed sound, and interactive video (designed by Gene Gort), for pianist Megumi Masaki premiered at Brandon University New Music Festival, Manitoba, Canada; Assumption (17.4) Tonband 2017 Fixed Media Festival at Audiorama, Stockholm, Sweden; and DĔPO FLUX concerto grosso for mixed ensemble by Foot in the Door Ensemble, premiered at the Dark Music Days Festival, Reykjavík, Iceland (2015).

Selected residencies, or fellowships have been received from: Drake Arts Residency, Kokkola, and Arteles Creative Center, Haukijärvi, Finland (2018), Elektronmusikstudion EMS & Audiorama, Stockholm, Sweden (2017 & 2018), Visby International Centre for Composers, Gotland, Sweden (2016 & 2019), Gullkistan: center for creativity, Laugarvatn, Iceland (2013), CAMAC, Marney-sur-Seine, France (2012), and MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH (2006).

Selected invitations to give masterclasses or lectures by: Sibelius Academy/Uniarts, Helsinki, and Nordic Art School, Kokkola, Finland, University of Wisconsin Creative Imperatives Festival (2018), University of Gothenburg, Sweden (2016), Iceland Academy of the Arts (2015), University of Maribor, Slovenia, and International School of Luxembourg (2012).

Ken Steen is Professor of Composition and Music Theory and director of Studio D at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School.

176 MARY BIRNBAUM LIBRETTIST & VIDEO EDITOR – USA

In the summer of 2019, Mary Birnbaum’s new production of La Bohème opened the season at the Santa Fe Opera and was the first new female- led production since 1997.

Mary’s passion for interdisciplinary art paired with her training in theater has informed the variety of projects she has undertaken. Her directing work includes pieces by composers from Purcell and Mozart to world premieres by Kristen Kuster and Megan Levad and Angela Sclafani. She has built new productions for Montclair Peak Performances, The Juilliard School, Opera Philadelphia, the Château de Versailles, Teatro Naçional in Costa Rica, Compañia Lirica in Guatemala, National Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan, Oregon Symphony, Pacific Coast Symphony, Virginia Arts Festival, The Ojai Festival, IVAI in Tel Aviv, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Kentucky, Opera Columbus, CalPerformances Berkeley, Boston Baroque, New World Symphony and Bard Summerscape. She just translated her first opera, "The Barber of Seville" at Opera Columbus, which she also directed.

She has developed new plays and theatrical events in New York. Mary founded and ran a theater company, Art Party. She has also worked with playwrights to develop new projects, most notably in the Soho Rep Writers/Directors Lab and at Ars Nova. Currently, she curates the Orchard Project’s Greenhouse, a collaborative group for multi-hyphenate artists in NYC.

Teaching and working with young singers has been an important part of Mary’s career. She was invited to teach acting at Juilliard at age 26 and now holds the position of Associate Director of the Artist Diploma Program. In addition, she has taught classes to singers from the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Mannes/New School, Opera Workshop at Bard and the Santa Fe Apprentice Program. Mary Birnbaum holds an AB in English Language and Literature with a minor in French from Harvard College, and a certificate in movement and design from Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris.

Upcoming work includes: “Le Roi Arthus” at Bard Summerscape, "South Pacific" at UMich and Philadelphia Orchestra as well as a new opera by Christopher Cerrone.

Mary Birnbaum, whose stage direction of opera and theatre New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini called “viscerally overwhelming” (Rape of Lucretia at Juilliard) and “genuinely insightful ... vibrant” (The Classical Style at Carnegie Hall), works both internationally, from Taiwan (Otello) to Central America (L’Elisir and bohème at the National Theatre of Costa Rica and Querido Arte in Guatemala), Australia and Israel, and across the U.S. (Opera Philadelphia, Seattle Opera, Opera Columbus, Virginia Arts Festival (Kept), Ojai Festival, Boston Baroque). This summer, her production of Dido and Aeneas plays Opera Holland Park in London and Opera de Versailles, and her production of La bohème opens the season at Santa Fe Opera. In Opera Magazine George Loomis wrote that Mary Birnbaum’s “thoughtful direction [of Eugene Onegin at Juilliard] was rich with imaginative touches” and the Houston Press termed her Hansel and Gretel a “stunner, perhaps the company’s most perfect realization. [The Company] has found a director of real quality in Mary Birnbaum.” Currently Associate Director of the post-graduate Artist Diploma in Opera Studies program at Juilliard, Mary has taught acting for singers at Bard College and in the Lindemann Young Artists Program at the Metropolitan Opera. A graduate of Harvard College, Mary trained professionally in physical theater at Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris.

177 ANNA POOL DIRECTOR – UK

Anna Pool is a British theatre director, producer and writer whose innovative productions change perceptions of what music theatre is, how it is made and who it is for.

She has directed new plays, musicals and operas for organisations including the Barbican, English National Opera, Opera North, The Sage, Music Theatre Wales, Hall for Cornwall and English Touring Opera. Without Covid-19, she'd currently be creating A Little Night Music with James Brining for Leeds Playhouse and reviving Nicholas Hyntner's Don Carlo at The Royal Opera House.

Anna’s work is predominantly inspired by history, faith, myth and magic in the everyday. She regularly uses innovative storytelling mediums, incorporating puppetry, headphone technology and site-specific spaces to great acclaim. Her Mozart Double Bill for Pop Up Opera UK was a finalist for Best Opera at the 2019 Off West End Awards and she was nominated for a 2016 New British Music Theatre Award for her work in developing site-specific music theatre. Currently she is creating a new verbatim digital hybrid musical with East London residents for the 2020 Spitalfields Festival.

Anna’s composition and writing experience includes work for Shakespeare's Globe, Opera North, Marlowe Theatre Canterbury, English Touring Opera, Barbican Silent Film Club, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Tete a Tete Festival.

Anna is a member of the chart-topping Mediaeval Baebes. Her musical theatre song, Anything But Normal, has over 750,000 views on YouTube. She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music in Drama, winning the Edmund Rubbra Composition Prize in 2015.

178 JOJO KARLIN PUPPET MAKER – USA

Jojo Karlin (puppet illustrator) is an actress-artist-scholar. Currently completing her illustrated dissertation on the letters of at the CUNY Graduate Center, she works on the digital publishing platform Manifold Scholarship and will begin a Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in NYU’s Division of Libraries this fall. Performance credits include: Cabaret (Fräulein Kost/nat’l tour), TheatreworksUSA, Cherry Lane, Art Party, Musicals Tonight. She has been a line for Vanessa Redgrave, James Earl Jones, and Joely Richardson. She also sings with the Brooklyn College Conservatory Singers and participated in the NY Philharmonic’s virtual choir We Shall Overcome. Check out her art on her website jojokarlin.com and follow @jojokarlin on instagram.

179 GILDA LYONS SOFIA – USA

GILDA LYONS, composer, vocalist, and visual artist, combines elements of renaissance, neo-baroque, spectral, folk, agitprop Music Theater, and extended vocalism to create works of uncompromising emotional honesty and melodic beauty. A fierce advocate of contemporary music, Lyons has commissioned, premiered, and workshopped new vocal works by dozens of composers. Her works and performances are available on the Clarion, GPR, Naxos, New Dynamic, New Focus, and Roven Records labels. Lyons’ vocal collaboration with Laura Ward (Lyric Fest/Naxos) was described by Opera News as “winning delivery, full of character.” “Gilda Lyons's clear soprano compels admiration” writes David Shengold of Opera, UK of her performance in Hagen’s “Shining Brow” (Buffalo Philharmonic/Falletta/Naxos). Recent recording projects as composer include the release of Lyons’ works by Quince (Motherland); and entelechron (The Folk Tune Project); Lindsey Goodman's tour de force performance of Lyons' Chrysalis (reach through the sky); and Sing for Hope’s release of Lyons' Hold On (An AIDS Quilt Songbook). Lyons currently serves as Co-Chair of the Composition Program at Wintergreen Summer Music Academy and as Assistant Professor of Composition at The Hartt School. She is Artistic and Executive Director of The Phoenix Concerts, New York's "intrepid Upper West Side new-music series" (The New Yorker), and serves on the Board of Advisors of Composers Now, the Steven R. Gerber Trust, and Sparks & Wiry Cries. Lyons served as Composer-in-Residence of Chautauqua Opera in the 2019 season. In 2020, she returns as composition faculty for Connecticut Summerfest. Lyons’ music is published by Schott, E.C. Schirmer, and Burning Sled. www.gildalyons.com

180 BENJAMIN RAUCH

DAVID – USA

Benjamin Rauch leads a multi-faceted career as a , composer, conductor, and educator. He spent a year singing soprano with Chanticleer, America's premier a cappella vocal ensemble, performing on major concert stages across the United States, Europe, and Japan, including New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and Vienna's Musikverein. With the GRAMMY® awarding winning ensemble, Benjamin performed live on NBC’s popular morning television program “Today”. Solo engagements include Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Hamor in Handel’s , The Spirit in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, The Premiere of La Lombardesca with music of the Polish Baroque, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, and The Connecticut Premiere of David Briggs’ Requiem. He has performed as a soloist with numerous ensembles including Chanticleer, Crescendo, The Greater New Haven Community Chorus, The New Haven Chorale, CitySingers of Hartford, Chorus Angelicus, and Gaudeamus.

Benjamin is the founder and artistic director of VIP (Vocal Intensive Program), a summer festival that incorporates various styles of singing and career preparation. He also maintains an active private voice studio in Bloomfield, Connecticut. At The Hartt School, University of Hartford, Benjamin teaches undergraduate courses in ear training, commercial voice, and directs the Hartt Choir and Chorale. He has served as music director for over 20 musical theatre productions, and has also completed his 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training at West Hartford Yoga, focusing on teaching Yoga for Singers.

181 RAEHANN BRYCE-DAVIS NANCY – USA

Hailed by The New York Times as a "striking mezzo soprano" and by the San Francisco Chronicle for her "electrifying sense of fearlessness," Raehann Bryce- Davis opened the 2019/20 season singing Verdi’s Requiem with conductor and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal at the Olympic Stadium. She then returned to Opera Vlaanderen for her role debut as Eboli in Verdi’s and made her LA Opera debut in the World Premiere of Aucoin and Ruhl’s Eurydice, a coproduction with The Metropolitan Opera, followed by the role of Sara in Roberto Devereux opposite Angela Meade and Ramon Vargas. Past performances include: Unknown, I Live With You at the Festival Dessau, the world premiere of Sanctuary Road (Released by Naxos Records), Leonor in Donizetti’s La Favorite at the Teatro Massimo di Palermo and Marguerite in Berlioz’s conducted by Maestro with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica.

Ms. Bryce-Davis is a 2018 recipient of the prestigious George London Award, the 2017 Winner of the Concorso Lirico Internazionale di Portofino, Winner of the 2016 Richard F. Gold Career Grant, and Winner of the 2015 9th International Hilde Zadek Competition at the Musikverein in Vienna.

182 WILL LIVERMAN

THEO – USA

Called "one of the most versatile singing artists performing today, being equally skilled in classical repertoire and less mainstream works" (Bachtrack), Met Opera baritone Will Liverman is quickly gaining a reputation for his compelling performances, while making significant debuts at opera houses across the world. Liverman is recipient of a 2019 Richard Tucker Career Grant and Sphinx Medal of Excellence.

Liverman made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Malcolm Fleet in Nico Muhly's Marnie in 2018. In the 2019-2020 season, Liverman returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Papageno in its holiday production of The Magic Flute, in addition to singing the role of Horemhab in the Met's premiere of Philip Glass' Akhnaten. He also appears as Pantalone in The Love of Three Oranges at Opera Philadelphia, as Marcello in La bohème at Seattle Opera, and as Sylvio in Pagliacci at Opera Colorado and Portland Opera, in addition to performing Die Winterreise at The Barns at Wolf Trap Opera.

Recent engagements include appearances with Tulsa Opera as The Pilot in The Little Prince; with Opera Philadelphia, Santa Fe Opera, and Dallas Opera as Schaunard in La bohème; and with Santa Fe Opera as the Foreman at the Mill in Jenůfa. Liverman has performed the leading role of Figaro in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia with Seattle Opera, Virginia Opera, Kentucky Opera, Madison Opera and Utah Opera. He originated the role of Dizzy Gillespie in Charlie Parker’s Yardbird with Opera Philadelphia. Other recent highlights include the role of Tommy McIntyre in the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of Fellow Travelers for its Lyric Unlimited initiative; Papageno in The Magic Flute with Florentine Opera and Central City Opera; his role debut as Marcello in La bohème with Portland Opera; his debut with Seattle Opera as Raimbaud in Le Comte Ory; Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia and Beaumarchais in The Ghosts of Versailles with Wolf Trap Opera; Andrew Hanley in the world premiere of Kevin Puts’ The Manchurian Candidate with Minnesota Opera; Sam in The Pirates of Penzance with Atlanta Opera; the Husband in Les mamelles de Tirésias with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago; the Protestant Minister in Menotti’s The Last Savage with Santa Fe Opera; and Mr. Noye in Noye’s Fludde as a guest artist at Wheaton College.

Expanding into the concert repertoire, Liverman performed the title role in Porgy and Bess with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, and was a featured soloist in the Brahms Requiem with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, in Handel's Messiah with the Seattle Symphony, in Carmina Burana with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, in Mozart's Mass in C with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with the South Dakota Symphony, and at the New York Festival of Song.

Liverman holds a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, and a Bachelor of Music degree from Wheaton College in Illinois.

183 ANNA LAURENZO HOPE – USA

Noted for her “lovely tone and convincing dramatic arc” mezzo-soprano Anna Laurenzo has gained experience in a wide range of repertoire over her diverse career. In the spring of 2021, Ms. Laurenzo will make her Off-Broadway debut understudying the role of Mrs, Van Buren and singing in the ensemble of the world premiere of Intimate Apparel (Lincoln Center Theater) by Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage. The original cast album of Ms. Laurenzo’s world premiere performance in Matthew Peterson’s Voir Dire will be released on listening platforms worldwide in August 2020.

Ms. Laurenzo recently joined Chicago Opera Theater, singing the role of Meg Weathers in the Chicago premiere of Jody Talbot and Gene Scheer’s Everest and covering the role of Brother in Stefan Weisman and David Cote's critically acclaimed The Scarlet Ibis in the work's Chicago premiere. In 2019, Ms. Laurenzo made her Carnegie Hall debut with MidAmerica Productions as the Mezzo Soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria and Haydn’s Mariazeller Mass. Noted especially for her performance of contemporary American works, Laurenzo is a veteran of multiple world premiere productions, including collaborations with composers David T. Little, Carlisle Floyd, Jeff Myers, and Libby Larsen.

184 BRITT HEWITT

SUSAN – USA

Britt Hewitt is an American soprano, actor, and singer/ songwriter. Based in NYC, Britt is currently completing her training at The Juilliard School, where she’s studied with Sanford Sylvan and William Burden. At Juilliard, Hewitt played Miles in The Turn of the Screw and the Spirit in Dido and Aeneas. She performed in two consecutive Juilliard Focus Festivals, and to fulfill her senior recital requirement, she curated an evening of music created by female composers. Britt recently sang the role of Dawn in Everything for Dawn: Part I at The Flea Theatre. Next summer, she expects to attend the Mostly Modern Festival and Kneisel Music Hall. Hewitt is a member of the New York Songwriters Circle, with which she performs her original work at The Bitter End. Find out more and take a listen at www.britthewitt.com.

185 JAYLYN SIMMONS SKYE – USA

Jaylyn Simmons, from Baltimore, is an undergraduate soprano at Juilliard studying with Amy Burton. Simmons was a soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana and has performed with conductor/composer John Williams and the Boston Pops. She was a featured soloist at the Kennedy Center and has been in the cast of Hairspray as Little Inez with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at the Strathmore. She attended CLA France, where she gave eight concerts and participated in a master class with conductor Gaspard Brecourt and tenor Stéphane Sénéchal. Last year at Juilliard, she performed in NYFOS’ Kurt Weill’s Berlin and a showcase performance of The Turn of the Screw as Miles. Jaylyn has also sung for the U.S. Embassy of France for their #EmbassyHappyHour. In October 2020 Simmons will sing her first professional engagement, as Flora for Illuminarts’ production of The Turn of the Screw in Miami.

186 VIVIAN YAU MING – HONG KONG

Hailed as “a light, silvery, bright soprano with impressive coloratura”(The Aspen Times), Hong Kong Soprano Vivian Yau has been voted “My Favorite Young Music Maker” on Radio Television Hong Kong by public audience. Ms. Yau holds a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, and a Master of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Highlights of Ms. Yau’s career include singing the role of Rosina in Aspen Opera Center’s production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, her Carnegie Hall debut as soloist in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Cecilia Chorus of New York, and her appearance on Radio Television Hong Kong’s Annual Christmas Concert as soprano solo in Handel’s Messiah. Ms. Yau’s other operatic roles include (Die Fledermaus), Tirésias (Les Mamelles de Tirésias), and Asteria (Tamerlano). Ms. Yau also enjoys actively collaborating with contemporary composers. She has premiered works with the New Juilliard Ensemble and the FOCUS! Festival, and was soloist at the premiere of Jakub Polaczyk’s “Missa Apuncta” at the XVIII International Chopin & Friends Festival in NYC. Earlier this year, Ms. Yau premiered Joan Huang’s “Eighteen Melodies for Hu-Jia” with West Edge Opera in the Bay Area. In 2021, Ms. Yau sings the role of Alice in the Asia premiere of Pierangelo Valtinoni’s “Alice in Wonderland” as part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

187 SANTIAGO PIZARRO

PABLO – PERU

Peruvian tenor Santiago Pizarro, is the first prize winner of the 2017 National Classical Singing Competition of Radio Filarmonía, Peru. Santiago is a creative, outgoing and passionate artist, as well as an advocate for intercultural communication.

He recently performed the role of Thaddeus Stevens in Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All, a collaboration among the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the , and The Juilliard School. He has portrayed the roles of Lysander in Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, in Monteverdi’s l’Incoronazione di Poppea, and Guglielmo in Donizetti’s Viva la Mamma. This past summer, he went on tour with the Juilliard Opera and Juilliard415, where he performed at Opera Holland Park, London, and the Opéra Royal in Versailles.

Santiago earned his bachelor’s degree in voice performance at the Oberlin Conservatory, and is currently a Master of Music student at The Juilliard School.

He has had private lessons with internationally renowned opera singers, such as Marilyn Horne, Juan Diego Flórez and Luigi Alva.

Santiago's commitment to innovation has taken him to commission and premiere several original pieces. As the world hears the future of music in new works, he is excited to be part of this fabulous team, and sing in his first puppet opera.

188 THOMAS SCHUTTENHELM ELECTRIC GUITAR – USA

Thomas Schuttenhelm is an American composer, guitarist, and scholar. He is the Artistic Director at Network for New Music and the Concerts and Artist Services Coordinator at Astral Artists. His music uses embodied programs that celebrate in allusions to the musical, literary, poetic, visual, and theatrical influences that resonate throughout his compositions and the music he writes is often as much ‘about’ the people he collaborates as it is for them to perform. In addition to his collaborations, he often curates and performs concerts in traditional and non- traditional platforms. In addition, he has worked with numerous choreographers and directors on various theatrical productions. He is the author of several books on the British composer and writes extensively on contemporary music.

189 HAYLEY HEWITT LEVER HARP – USA

Haley Hewitt is a New England-based performer, composer, arranger, educator, and harpist. Steeped in music from North America, Scotland and Ireland, her music has a distinctly traditional flavor. With a Bachelor’s Degree from the Hartt School of Music in pedal harp performance and a Master’s Degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Scottish Traditional Music, she has founded Celtic Harp departments at Quinnipiac University and the Neighborhood . Passionate about new music, she has also worked closely with composers including Michael O’Sullivan, Ken Steen, Robert Carl, and Dan Lis, to produce new literature for the harp. Her harp playing has taken her to Carnegie Hall, Benaroya Hall, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, and won her the New England Open Scottish Harp Competition in 2006 and the US National Scottish Harp Championship in 2013.

190 MP2 ANTON MILLER & RITA PORFIRIS – VIOLIN & VIOLA – USA

The Miller-Porfiris Duo has been delighting audiences since 2005. Recent seasons have seen tours around the United States, Europe, Taiwan and Israel; appearances on the Chamber Music of Little Rock, Chamber Music Pittsburgh, Tel Aviv Museum, and Sheldon Friends of Music series; and collaborations with Lynn Harrell, Jamie Laredo, and Joseph Kalichstein.

On faculty of the Hartt School in Connecticut, the duo has been in residency and given seminars and masterclasses at festivals and institutions such as New York University, Duke University, Kutztown University, Foulger Festival, St. George International Festival in , ARIA International Arts Academy at Mt. Holyoke College, Three Bridges International Chamber Music Festival at the University of Minnesota Duluth, the Festival Eterna Primavera in Cuernavaca Mexico, Conciertos de la Villa Santo Domingo, the Harpa International Music Academy, and the Iceland Academy for the Arts. They are co-directors of the Point Counterpoint Chamber Music camp for High School students in Vermont.

Committed to expanding the repertoire for violin and viola, in 2010 they commissioned and recorded 3 new works for violin and viola by Belize-born British composer Errollyn Wallen, Argentinean composer Mario Diaz Gavier, and American composer Libby Larsen for their debut CD “Five Postcards.” Their second CD, titled “Eight Pieces” and released in 2013, was deemed a “fine new recording” and praised for its “wonderfully smooth ensemble work” and “vibrant and focused” playing by Gramophone and Audible Audiophile Magazines. Recent acclaim from Fanfare for the Duo's third CD, entitled "Divertimenti" declares their playing "a lightning bolt" and speaks to the "color, fire, and passion.

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