THE AMERICAN OPERA PROJECT SELECTS EMERGING COMPOSERS AND LIBRETTISTS FOR TWO YEAR FELLOWSHIPS IN THE FUNDAMENTALS OF OPERA |
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The 11th season of "Composers & the Voice" begins Fall 2021
September 14, 2021
Brooklyn, NY - The American Opera Project (AOP) announces the newest class of composers and librettists to receive fellowships for its 11th cycle of the Composers & the Voice (C&V) program. Created and led by Composers & the Voice Artistic Director Steven Osgood, C&V is a two-year, tuition-free fellowship that provides experience writing for the voice and lyric theater stage.
“Hearing singers discuss in detail their experience learning and performing a new piece revolutionized the way I write for the voice.” - Gregory Spears
The Composers & the Voice fellowships include a highly structured year of working with the company's Resident Ensemble of Singers and Artistic Team followed by a year of continued promotion and career development through AOP and its strategic partnerships. The workshop sessions between September 2021 and April 2022 include composition of solo works for six voice types (coloratura soprano, lyric soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, and bass). In addition, over 45 hours of "Skill-Building Sessions" – including Acting with Mary Birnbaum (Associate Director, Opera Studies program at Juilliard), Theatrical Improvisation with Terry Greiss (Co-Founder, Ensemble Actor, Executive Director of Irondale Ensemble Project), and Libretto Development with librettist Mark Campbell (As One, Silent Night) – will provide in-depth knowledge of how singers build characters, act in scenes, and sing text.
Fellows will also receive individual guidance from "Artistic Chairs," sponsorships named in honor of mentors and their support of Composers & the Voice. Artistic Chairs for this upcoming season include composers Huang Ruo (Paradise Interrupted, An American Soldier), David T. Little (Dog Days, JFK), Missy Mazzoli (Breaking the Waves, Song From the Uproar), Nkeiru Okoye (Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom, Invitation to a Die-In), Tobias Picker (An American Tragedy, Emmeline), and librettists Kimberly Reed (As One) and David Cote (Blind Injustice, Three Way).
At the end of the workshop sessions, AOP will present selections from the participants' work in public performances – First Glimpse (May 2022), a concert of songs, and Six Scenes (January 2023), an evening of short opera scenes.
Since launching in 2002, C&V has fostered the development of 79 composers and librettists. Alumni works that continued through AOP's opera development program and went on to a world premiere include Companionship (Fort Worth Opera 2019, Rachel Peters), Love/Hate (ODC/San Francisco Opera 2012, Jack Perla), Paul's Case (UrbanArias 2013, Gregory Spears), The Scarlet Ibis (PROTOTYPE 2015, Stefan Weisman), Three Way (Nashville Opera and AOP 2017, Robert Paterson), The Summer King (Pittsburgh Opera 2017, Daniel Sonenberg), and Independence Eve (UrbanArias 2017, Sidney Marquez Boquiren), and The Echo Drift (PROTOTYPE 2018, Mikael Karlsson).
Composers & the Voice is made possible in part by a generous multi-year award from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and a Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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ABOUT COMPOSERS & THE VOICE |
AOP's Composers & the Voice is a two-year, tuition-free fellowship for composers and librettists that provides experience writing for the voice and lyric theater stage. The Composers & the Voice training program is a competitive biannual fellowship offered to composers, librettists, and composer/librettist teams. Created and led by Composers & the Voice Artistic Director Steven Osgood, the two-year fellowship includes a year of working with the company’s Resident Ensemble of Singers and professional instructors followed by a year of continued promotion and career development through AOP and its strategic partnerships. Since launching in 2002, C&V has fostered the development of 79 composers and librettists.
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During his tenure as Artistic Director of American Opera Projects (2001 to 2008), Steven Osgood created Composers & the Voice and conducted the premieres of over two dozen operas, including the world premieres of Paula Kimper and Wende Persons' Patience & Sarah at the Lincoln Center Festival and Janice Hamer and Mary Azrael's Lost Childhood at the International Vocal Arts Institute (Tel Aviv). He has conducted the premieres of over a dozen operas, including As One, The Scarlet Ibis, Thumbprint, Peony Pavilion, Oresteia, Song from the Uproar, Breaking the Waves, JFK, and Little Nemo in Slumberland and has served as Conductor Mentor for Washington National Opera's American Opera Initiative. As General and Artistic Director of The Chautauqua Opera Company he has programmed Song from the Uproar, As One, Hydrogen Jukebox and The Ghosts of Versailles as an ongoing commitment to contemporary repertoire. He created the company’s Composer-in-Residence position in 2016 as a partnership with AOP and Composers & the Voice.
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ABOUT THE AMERICAN OPERA PROJECT |
Founded in 1988, The American Opera Project (AOP) has been at the forefront of contemporary opera for over 30 years. The Brooklyn-based producing organization commissions, develops and produces lyric theater projects, trains emerging composers and librettists, and creates personal connections within its community. Its works have received critical acclaim at opera companies and venues around the world, establishing a new musical canon that recognizes the operatic story in every life. AOP further expands the operatic field through its training programs The NYU Opera Lab, in partnership with NYU and for students and alumni in The NYU/Tisch Opera Lab; and Composers & the Voice, AOP’s in-house, two-year fellowship program for emerging composers and librettists.
Press for AOP:
"known for bringing cutting-edge vocal productions to the masses" — New York Magazine
"a perfect first exposure to opera." — Time Out NY
"Bravo to AOP for supporting such controversial and ultimately important work." — Opera Today
"The future of American opera is in good hands." — Opera News
Media Contact: Meagan Brus, Director of Marketing and Communications
email: mbrus@aopopera.org
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