Press Release November 26, 2019

Washington National Opera expands American opera repertory during American Opera Initiative Festival January 10, 2020 Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

Featuring the World Premiere of Three one-act operas: Woman of Letters by Sokunthary Svay and Liliya Ugay Admissions by Kim Davies and Michael Lanci Night Trip by Sandra Seaton and Carlos Simon

(WASHINGTON)—With three original stories—one set in the cramped Bronx apartment of a first-generation immigrant, one following a Beverly Hills family in hot water, and one tracking an eye-opening road trip from a 1958 Chicago neighborhood to Tennessee—Washington National Opera (WNO) presents the eighth season of its acclaimed American Opera Initiative (AOI) with three world premieres January 10, 2020, in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

The three one-act operas featured this season illuminate the complex narratives that permeate the fabric of American life and culture. The three composer-librettist teams—Michael Lanci and Kim Davies, Carlos Simon and Sandra Seaton, and Liliya Ugay and Sokunthary Svay— collaborated with distinguished mentors who have each enjoyed professional success in the field: composer Laura Kaminsky, librettist Kelley Rourke, and conductor Anne Manson. Amanda Consol directs these three semi-staged concert performances, with Anne Manson conducting a chamber orchestra of WNO Orchestra members.

“America is renowned for its appetite and support of contemporary opera. The American Opera Initiative has now supported the work of some 50 young American composers and librettists in that area. This program helps them develop their craft, gain invaluable experience, and receive

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guidance from some of the leading American creative artists,” says Robert Ainsley, AOI program director. “Under the leadership of Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, the WNO relentlessly pursues its mission to be a beacon for the field in American repertoire. We are immensely proud of the initiative’s contribution to the canon of contemporary American Opera, and to the experience and guidance it has provided to a young generation of composers and librettists.”

American Opera Initiative (AOI) A comprehensive commissioning program that originates and develops new works, AOI provides rare opportunities for emerging composers and librettists to partner and write for the opera stage. The Initiative encourages and ensures the future of contemporary American opera through development, mentorship, and performance, with works based on American themes and stories. Since its inception, the annual program has commissioned 31 chamber operas, with some going on to future productions around the country; notables include last summer’s successful production by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis of An American Soldier, an AOI commission in 2014, and Opera Omaha’s and Miller Theater’s recent productions of AOI’s 2018 commission, Proving Up, and Rice University’s recent double-bill of Proving Up and Taking Up Serpents, a 2019 AOI commission.

AOI 20-Minute Operas January 10, 2020, at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Terrace Theater

Woman of Letters Music by Liliya Ugay Libretto by Sokunthary Svay

Synopsis Sam is a first generation immigrant who works as a janitor at a local university in Manhattan. He brings home books for his daughter, Sonya, which help educate her and give way to daydreams of far-off places in their cramped Bronx apartment. She learns she has received a scholarship to study in England. Will her immigrant father, a survivor of war and his wife’s death, be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to let his daughter, his only family, go? Will Sonya finally be allowed to see the world she’s only read about in her father’s books?

Cast Sonya: Marlen Nahhas Dara: Alexandra Nowakowski Sam: Samuel J. Weiser

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Admissions Music by Michael Lanci Libretto by Kim Davies

Synopsis They’re the perfect American family: Mother, a TV star...Father, a business tycoon...their kids on track to go to the best colleges. But one night Mother and Father come home and have to explain to their kids that there’s been a little misunderstanding, maybe a little money laundering, maybe an indictment. And suddenly their plans aren’t quite so on-track after all...

Cast Daughter: Marlen Nahhas Son: Matthew Pearce Mother: Amanda Bottoms Father: William Meinert

Night Trip Music by Carlos Simon Libretto by Sandra Seaton

Synopsis On a July evening in 1958, Wesley and Mack, black World War II veterans, arrive at their sister’s apartment in Chicago to pick up their niece. Conchetta has been waiting all summer to see her relatives—her grandmother, her aunts, her “play aunts.” The 16-year-old’s vision of small town life in Tennessee stands in sharp contrast to the world of steel and concrete she is about to leave. On her journey, she comes face to face with a new reality, one that her uncles, who have survived the brutality of war, refuse to accept. In Night Trip, a young girl’s dreams collide with harsh truths that will change the way she sees her world.

Cast Conchetta: Rehanna Thelwell Uncle Wesley: Joshua Conyers Uncle Mack: Joshua Blue Gas Station Attendant: Matthew Pearce Police Office: Samson McCrady

TICKET INFORMATION Tickets to Three 20-Minute Operas ($19–$35) are available by visiting the Kennedy Center box office, by calling (202) 467-4600, or through the Kennedy Center website. Groups of 10 or more may contact the Group Sales office at (202) 416-8400.

MENTOR BIOS

Laura Kaminsky Cited in The Washington Post as “one of the top 35 female composers in classical music,” Laura Kaminsky’s compositions are “full of fire as well as ice, written in an idiom that contrasts

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dissonance and violence with tonal beauty and meditative reflection. It is strong stuff.” (American Record Guide). With “an ear for the new and interesting” (The New York Times), the composer- activist frequently addresses sustainability, human rights, and war in her work.

Awarded the 2019 Visionary Award by Composers Now and the 2016 Polish Gold Cross of Merit (Zloty Krzyż Zasługi RP) by the President of Poland for exemplary public service and humanitarian work, as well as the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage 2010 Chopin Award, Kaminsky has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Opera America, and Chamber Music America, among others.

2019–2020 Composer Mentor for Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative, Kamansky is head of composition at the Conservatory of Music Purchase College/SUNY and serves on the boards of Opera America and the Hermitage Artist Retreat. Scores are available through Bill Holab Music; recordings are on the Albany, Bridge, CRI, Capstone, Mode, and MSR labels. Kaminsky is a BMI composer.

Kelley Rourke Kelley Rourke is a librettist, translator, and dramaturg. Her work been commissioned and performed by Washington National Opera, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, Young People’s Chorus of NYC, Seattle Opera, Minnesota Opera, Carnegie Hall, Urban Arias (Washington, D.C.), Met LiveArts, Houston Grand Opera’s HGOco, San Francisco Conservatory, Milwaukee Opera Theatre, American Opera Projects, Atlanta Opera, On Site Opera (NYC), The Caramoor Festival, and Nautilus Music-Theater, among others.

Kelley collaborates frequently with composer John Glover, with whom she has made Lucy, Natural Systems, and Guns n’ Rosenkavalier, among others. She has written libretti for three youth operas that have been performed across the country: Odyssey and Robin Hood (both with Ben Moore) and Wilde Tales (with Laura Karpman). Rourke's modern English adaptations of numerous standard and not-so-standard operas have been hailed as “crackingly witty” (The Independent) and “remarkably well wedded to the music and versification in arias” (New York Times).

Rourke has been engaged as a guest lecturer at Boston University, Carnegie Mellon University, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and Walnut Hill School for the Arts. She was founding editor of Opera America magazine and a contributor to the New Grove Dictionary of American Music. Kelley is resident dramaturg for The Glimmerglass Festival and Washington National Opera, and she has created English supertitles for more than 80 operas.

Anne Manson Conductor Anne Manson has served as Music Director of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra since 2008 and recently renewed her contract through 2024. Manson’s strong commitment to contemporary music has led to numerous commissions and recordings with the MCO. Among them are Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 3 and Piano Concerto, and the Juno and Western Canada Music award nominated Troubadour & the Nightingale with soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian. Their latest release is Mirage? Concertos for Percussion with Grammy®–winning percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie.

As a guest conductor, she has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Houston and Indianapolis Symphonies, the Residentie Orchestra of the Hague, the St. Paul Chamber 4

Orchestra, London Philharmonic, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Bournemouth Sinfonietta, Orquesta de Extremadura, BBC Proms, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and she has guest conducted regularly with many orchestras in Spain.

In addition to recordings with Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and Portland Opera, Manson has recorded with the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague, the BBC Scottish Symphony, the Iceland Symphony, the Singapore Symphony, and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra.

Before serving as the MCO’s Music Director, Manson was Music Director of London’s Mecklenburgh Opera (1987–96) and the Kansas City Symphony (1999–2004). She was the first woman to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival in 1994 (Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov).

COMPOSER & LIBRETTIST BIOS

Michael Lanci Michael Lanci is a composer and educator currently residing in Brooklyn, New York. His music is viscerally engaging and stylistically diverse, drawing from a wide range of influences. Most recently, he was a finalist for the Beth Morrison Projects Next Generation Competition that included the commissioning and premiere of his first opera Crude Capital, based on an original libretto by Ajax Phillips. Lanci was also awarded the 2017–2018 American Prize for his collection of five protest songs dedicated to late 19th–century singer-songwriter and labor rights activist Joe Hill.

Lanci’s works have been performed at festivals such as the Cortona Sessions, Edmont Fringe Festival, Orford Festival, Detroit Bureau of Sound, Midwest Composers Symposium, and Vox Novus Festival. He has received commissions from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Beth Morrison Projects, Beyond Pluck, Unheard-of//Ensemble, Klangpar2 and the Vive! Ensemble. His works have been performed by the University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra, Contemporaneous, Hypercube, All of the Above, Buffalo Chamber Players, Duo d’Entre Deux, and Decho Ensemble.

Lanci holds a bachelor’s of music in piano performance from SUNY Albany, where he also studied composition with Max Lifchitz and a master’s of music in composition from SUNY Fredonia, where he studied with Rob Deemer and Karl Boelter. He completed his doctor of musical arts in composition at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, where he studied with Michael Fiday. (Michaellanci.com)

Kim Davies Kim Davies writes for theater, television, film, opera, and new media. She is a 2017–2019 librettist fellow with American Opera Projects and was a 2016 fellow in playwriting with the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her play Smoke, directed by Tom Costello, premiered at the Flea Theater in 2014 for a thrice-extended run and was a New York Times and Time Out New York Critics' Pick. Published by Playscripts and Overlook Press, it has since been produced in cities across the United States. Davies was one of eight international writers selected by Ibsen International for their 2015–2016 New Text, New Stage program, in which she developed a new theater work with local artists in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Her play Stet, developed by the Muse Project, had its world premiere at Abingdon Theatre Company in New York in 2016. In 2017, Davies wrote the text for Lisa Szolovits’s augmented reality experience The Homes of Our Superiors in New York, and contributed text to Hålogaland Teater’s Apene i Himilaya in Tromsø, Norway. In 2019, Smoke will make its European premiere in London, directed by Simon Usher, 5

and its South American premiere in São Paulo, directed by Otávio Martins and translated by Domingos Antonio. Davies is a member of Youngblood at Ensemble Studio Theatre and the New Georges Jam in New York, and received her MFA in playwriting from Mac Wellman and Erin Courtney at Brooklyn College.

Carlos Simon Carlos Simon is a native of Atlanta, Georgia and the son of a Pentecostal preacher. His music ranges from concert music for large and small ensembles to film scores with influences of jazz, gospel, and neo-romanticism.

Simon’s latest album, My Ancestor’s Gift, was released on the Navona Records label in April 2018. My Ancestor’s Gift incorporates spoken word and historic recordings to craft a multifaceted program of musical works that are inspired as much by the past as they are the present.

As a part of the Sundance Institute, Simon was named as a Sundance Composer Fellow in 2018, which was held at the historic Skywalker Ranch. His string quartet, Elegy, honoring the lives of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner was recently performed at the Kennedy Center for the Mason Bates Jukebox Series. With support from the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and US/Japan Foundation, Simon traveled with the Asia/America New Music Institute (AANMI) on a two-week tour of Japan in 2018 performing concerts in some of the most sacred temples and concert spaces in Japan including Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Japan.

Acting as music director and keyboardist for Grammy Award® winner Jennifer Holliday, Simon has performed with the Boston Pops Symphony, Jackson Symphony, and St. Louis Symphony. He has toured internationally with soul Grammy®–nominated artist, Angie Stone, and performed throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Sandra Seaton Sandra Seaton is a playwright and librettist. From the Diary of Sally Hemings, her collaboration with composer William Bolcom, was commissioned by mezzo soprano Florence Quivar. Seaton’s spoken word piece King: A Reflection on the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be performed this year with Met tenor George Shirley’s accompanying spirituals.

The first of Seaton’s 12 plays, The Bridge Party, portrays the strength of a group of black women as they cope with the news of a lynching. Other plays include Sally, a solo play about Sally Hemings with actor Zabryna Guevara, The Will, a drama about a black Tennessee family during Reconstruction, Music History, about college students during the Civil Rights era, Estate Sale, whose protagonist must confront memories of her father, and Chicago Trilogy, three one-act plays adapted from short stories by Cyrus Colter.

Liliya Ugay Described as “particularly evocative,” “fluid and theatrical...the music [that] makes its case with immediacy” (The Arts Fuse), as well as both “assertive and steely,” and “lovely, subtle writing” (Wall Street Journal) the music by the award-winning composer and pianist Liliya Ugay has been performed in many countries around the globe. Ugay has collaborated with the Nashville Symphony, Albany Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, New England Philharmonic, Yale Philharmonia, Raleigh Civic Symphony, Norfolk Festival Choir, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Molinari Quartet, Antico Moderno, Omnibus ensemble, and Paul Neubauer, among others. Her music has been featured at the Aspen, Norfolk, Cultivate, American Composers, New

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York Electroacoustic Music, June in Buffalo, and Darmstadt New Music festivals, as well as the 52nd Venice Biennale. Ugay received the awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Yale University, Woodruff Foundation in addition to many prizes of international composition and piano competitions. One of her passions as a pianist is to promote the music of repressed Soviet composers in her concert series Silenced Voices. Originally from Uzbekistan, Ugay is currently a composer-in-residence at the American Lyric Theater working on a full-length opera with Julian Crouch, and a DMA candidate at the Yale School of Music studying with Aaron Jay Kernis, David Lang, and Hannah Lash. In August, Ugay will start her work as an Assistant Professor of Composition at the Florida State University.

Sokunthary Svay Sokunthary was born in a refugee camp in Thailand shortly after her parents fled Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. They were sponsored to come to the United States and resettled in the Bronx where she grew up. She is currently poetry editor for Newtown Literary, the only literary journal for the borough of Queens, a founding member of the Cambodian American Literary Arts Association (CALAA), the recent recipient of the American Opera Projects' Composer and the Voice Fellowship for 2017–2019, and the 2018 Emerging Poets Fellowship at Poets House. Her first collection of poetry, Apsara in New York, is available from Willow Books. She is currently a doctoral student in English at the The Graduate Center, CUNY.

ABOUT WASHINGTON NATIONAL OPERA Washington National Opera (WNO) is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. Under the leadership of General Director Timothy O’Leary and world-renowned Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, the company presents a diverse repertory of grand opera across three main venues of the Kennedy Center. From classic operas to more contemporary pieces each season, WNO’s artistic output also includes several commissioned American works and a variety of special concerts, youth operas, and events.

Recent celebrated productions have included the WNO premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning Silent Night; the world premiere of Philip Glass’s reconceived Appomattox, presented in conjunction with cultural events throughout Washington, D.C.; the powerful performances of Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars; and the massive feat of WNO’s first-complete Ring Cycle, which was helmed by Zambello and played to sold-out houses following international acclaim.

Founded in 1956 and an artistic affiliate of the Kennedy Center since 2011, WNO has a storied legacy of more than 100 new productions, plus world premieres, international tours, live recordings, and radio broadcasts, as well as innovative education and community-engagement programs. Throughout its history, WNO has been led by titans in the opera field, including Plácido Domingo, who headed the company for 15 years, as well as luminaries such as Music Director Emeritus Heinz Fricke and former Director of Artistic Operations Christina Scheppelmann.

Among the company’s most successful programs is the American Opera Initiative (AOI), a commissioning program that develops new one-act works for WNO’s annual festival. By mentoring emerging composers and librettists, the Initiative works to expand the American operatic repertory and enhance its relevance to our time. Since its inception, AOI has commissioned 31 chamber opera world premieres, with some going on to future productions around the country.

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With a commitment toward youth, WNO contributes to the future of opera through two signature artist-development programs. The Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, now in its 18th season, is one of the nation’s most competitive professional training programs, providing two years of intensive study to a highly selective cadre of young singers and collaborative pianists. Alumni of the program have won major competitions and gone on to successful careers at major opera houses worldwide. The WNO Opera Institute nurtures the ambitions of high-school-age singers from across the nation during an intensive three-week summer program held at American University in Washington.

The most popular of WNO’s community-engagement programs is Opera in the Outfield®, a free Kennedy Center Opera House production broadcast on the high-definition scoreboard at Nationals Park. The company’s other education programs include the Kids Create Opera program at local elementary schools, Look-In performances for students in grades 3–8, and the Student Dress Rehearsal Program for middle and high school students. The company also offers free Opera Insights programs before every performance in the Opera House.

Discover Washington National Opera on social media:

#AmericanOperaDC

FUNDING CREDITS Major support for WNO is provided by Jacqueline Badger Mars.

David M. Rubenstein is the Presenting Underwriter of WNO.

WNO acknowledges the longstanding generosity of Life Chairman Mrs. Eugene B. Casey.

WNO's Presenting Sponsor General Dynamics

The Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program is made possible through the generous support of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, with additional funding provided by Susan Carmel, Judy and Billy Cox, Robert and Lynn Downing, The Carl M. Freeman Foundation, Virginia McGehee Friend, Mr. and Mrs. Geoffrey P. Pohanka, Mr. Alan J. Savada and Mr. Will Stevenson, Washington National Opera Council, and The Women’s Committee of Washington National Opera.

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PRESS CONTACT TICKETS & INFORMATION Chanel Williams (202) 467-4600; (800) 444-1324 (202) 416-8447 www.kennedy-center.org/wno [email protected]

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