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P e r e l m a n t h e a t e rP a r t o f t h e k i m m e l c e n t e r f o r t h e P e r f o r m i n g a r t s

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c o m P o s e r i n r e s i d e n c e

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Opera Philadelphia Lab. One of the great joys of my job as General Director is working with some of the most incredibly talented people in the field of opera. Tonight, I invite you behind the curtain as one of the leading voices in opera today, the acclaimed soprano Dawn Upshaw, conducts a Master Class with three talented young musicians from our Composer in Residence program: David T. Little, Andrew Norman, and Missy Mazzoli.

Tonight, we will hear new music currently being written by David, Andrew, and Missy, performed by singers Lauren Eberwein, Emily Pogorelc, Jazimina MacNeill, and Evan LeRoy Johnson from the Curtis Institute of Music, accompanied by Lisa Keller on piano.

Dawn will work with our composers and performers on vocal technique, musical expression, interpretation, stage presence, and more, while we observe along with an international audience joining us tonight via a live webcast. This is a process, not a performance, but I’m sure it will prove to be a highly enlightening and engaging musical conversation for both participants and audience.

Over the past four years, the Composer in Residence program has quickly grown into a central element of Opera Philadelphia’s commitment to the creation of new operatic work and our deeply held belief in supporting composers with equal measure as we do performing artists. None of this important work would be possible without the generosity of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the incredible partnership we enjoy with Gotham Chamber Opera and Music-Theatre Group of New York.

Thank you for joining us tonight for a glimpse into the creative process.

Sincerely,

d av i d B . d e va ng e n e r a l d i r e c t o r a n d P r e s i d e n t@ d d e v a n

w e l c o m e

masterc lass

c o m P o s e r i n r e s i d e n c e

a n o p e r a f r o m t h e l a b i n i t i a t i v e

“You Shiver” from Act II of JFKcomPoser David T. Littlel i B re t to By Royce Vavrek

commiss ioned By Fort Worth Opera and American Lyric Theaters inger Jazimina MacNeil

“Lullaby”comPoser Andrew Norman

text By W.H. Audencommiss ioned By Young Concert Artists

s inger Lauren Eberwein

“Goodness, what Powers you Possess” from Act II of Breaking the WavescomPoser Missy Mazzolil i B re t to By Royce Vavrek

commiss ioned By Opera Philadelphias inger Evan LeRoy Johnson

“Your Body is a Map” from Act I of Breaking the WavescomPoser Missy Mazzolil i B re t to By Royce Vavrek

commiss ioned By Opera Philadelphias inger Emily Pogorelc

col laBorat ive P ian is t Lisa Keller | stage manager Sara Prince

dawn uPshawsoPrano

Dawn Upshaw has achieved worldwide celebrity as a singer of opera and concert repertoire ranging from the sacred works of Bach to the freshest sounds of today. A five-time Grammy Award winner, she most recently received the 2014 Best Classical Vocal Solo Grammy for Maria Schneider's Winter Morning Walks on the ArtistShare Label. Her ability to reach

to the heart of music and text has earned her both the devotion of an exceptionally diverse audience, and

the awards and distinctions accorded to only the most distinguished of artists. In 2007, she was named a Fellow

of the MacArthur Foundation, the first vocal artist to be awarded the five-year “genius” prize, and in 2008 she was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Dawn’s acclaimed performances on the opera stage comprise the great Mozart roles (Susanna, Ilia, Pamina, Despina, and Zerlina) as well as modern works by Stravinsky, Poulenc, and Messiaen. From Salzburg, Paris and Glyndebourne to the Metropolitan Opera, where she began her career in 1984 and has since made nearly 300 appearances, Dawn has also championed numerous new works created for her including The Great Gatsby by John Harbison; the Grawemeyer Award-winning opera, L’Amour de loin and oratorio La Passion de Simone by Kaija Saariaho; John Adams’s Nativity oratorio El Niño; and Osvaldo Golijov’s chamber opera Ainadamar and song cycle Ayre. She furthers her work in master classes and workshops with young singers at major music festivals, conservatories, and liberal arts colleges. She is Artistic Director of the Vocal Arts Program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, and the recently announced Head of the Vocal Arts Program at the Tanglewood Music Center. Dawn holds honorary doctorate degrees from Yale University, the Manhattan School of Music, the Juilliard School, Allegheny College, and Illinois Wesleyan University. She began her career as a 1984 winner of the Young Concert Artists Auditions and the 1985 Walter W. Naumburg Competition, and was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Young Artists Development Program. She has recorded extensively for multiple labels.

dav id t. l i t t l ecomPoser in res idence | year 1

David T. Little is “one of the most imaginative young composers” on the scene (The New Yorker) with “a knack for overturning musical conventions” (The New York Times). His operas Soldier Songs (PROTOTYPE Festival) and Dog Days (Peak Performances/Beth Morrison Projects) have been widely acclaimed, proving “beyond any doubt

that opera has both a relevant present and a bright future” (The New York Times).

David is currently writing the opera JFK with librettist Royce Vavrek, co-commissioned by Fort Worth Opera and American Lyric Theater. Other recent and upcoming works include AGENCY (Kronos Quartet), CHARM (Baltimore Symphony/Marin Alsop), Hellhound (Maya Beiser), Haunt of Last Nightfall (Third Coast Percussion), and the music-theatre work Artaud in the Black Lodge with Outrider legend Anne Waldman (Beth Morrison Projects). His music has been heard at Carnegie Hall, the Park Avenue Armory, the Bang on a Can Marathon, and elsewhere.

Educated at the University of Michigan and Princeton University, Little is co-founder of the annual New Music Bake Sale, has served as Executive Director of the MATA Festival, is currently Director of Composition at Shenandoah Conservatory, and was recently signed on to develop new work through the Met/Lincoln Center Theater New Works Program. The founding artistic director of the ensemble Newspeak, his music can be heard on New Amsterdam and Innova labels. He is published by Boosey & Hawkes.

u P c o m i n g e v e n t s

Arias from Dog Days | March 25 | University Club, New York, NY

Hellhound | April 15 | Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, Evanston, IL

To a Stranger | April 22 | Arts Club of Washington, Washington D. C.

Dog Days | April 24-May 2 | Fort Worth Opera, Fort Worth, TX

andrew normancomPoser in res idence | year 2

Andrew Norman is a composer of orchestral, chamber, and vocal music. He uses a wide variety of sonic resources to explore the physicality and theatricality of live instrumental performance. His work has been praised by The New York Times for its “daring juxtapositions and dazzling colors,” and by The Los Angeles Times for its “Chaplinesque” wit.

Andrew’s work has been performed by many of the

world’s leading orchestras, including the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He has served as composer in residence with Young Concert Artists, the Heidelberg Philharmonic, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and Opera Philadelphia. Andrew is the recipient of the 2006 Rome Prize, the 2009 Berlin Prize, and in 2012 he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music. A native Midwesterner raised in central California, Andrew studied the piano and viola before attending the University of Southern California and Yale University. He teaches at the University of Southern California and his works are published by Schott.

u P c o m i n g e v e n t s

Piano Concerto World Premiere | April 24-May 2 | Fort Worth Opera, Fort Worth, TX

Moving Parts World Premiere | May 30 | Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA

The Companion Guide to Rome | August 4 | Salt Bay Chamberfest, Damariscotta, ME

Switch World Premiere | November 6 & 7 | Utah Symphony, Abravanel Hall, Salt Lake City, UT

missy mazzol icomPoser in res idence | year 3

Recently deemed “one of the more consistently inventive, surprising composers now working in New York” (The New York Times) and “Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart” (Time Out New York), Missy Mazzoli has written music performed globally by the Kronos Quartet, eighth blackbird, the Minnesota Orchestra, and many others.

Missy is currently writing the opera Breaking the Waves, based on the 1996 film by Lars von Trier,

with librettist Royce Vavrek. Commissioned by Opera Philadelphia and co-commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects, the opera will premiere in 2016 in the Aurora Series at the Perelman Theater. In February 2012, Beth Morrison Projects presented Song from the Uproar, Missy’s first multimedia chamber opera, in a sold-out run at New York venue The Kitchen, and recent months included the premiere of works for Kronos Quartet, pianist Emanuel Ax, and the Detroit Symphony. Missy is an active performer, and often performs her music with her ensemble Victoire. This spring, the group will release Vespers for a New Dark Age, an album of her works performed in collaboration with Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche.

Missy attended the Yale School of Music, the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, and Boston University. She recently joined the composition faculty at Mannes College of Music, and her works are published by G. Schirmer.

u P c o m i n g e v e n t s

Song from the Uproar | March 20 | Da Camera, Houston, TX

Meredith Monk and Friends | March 22 | Carnegie Hall, New York, NY

Vespers for a New Dark Age CD Release | March 31

New York Philaharmonic CONTACT! concert | April 18 | London, UK

art i s ts

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e m i ly P o g o r e l c s o P r a n o

l i s a k e l l e r c o l l a B o r at i v e P i a n i s t

e va n l e r o y j o h n s o n t e n o r

l a u r e n e B e rw e i n m e z z o - s o P r a n o

Evan LeRoy Johnson is a first year graduate student at the Curtis Institute of Music where he studies with Marlena Malas. He recently was an Apprentice Artist at Central City Opera and this summer will be a Gerdine Young Artist at Opera Theatre St. Louis. He has been seen in Curtis Opera Theatre’s productions of Iolanta as Godefroy de Vaudémont, Gianni Schicchi as Rinuccio, and other lead roles in productions with the University of Kentucky Opera Theater.

A recent Curtis Institute of Music graduate, Jazimina MacNeil’s recent and upcoming performances include the roles of Subdominant in Steven Stucky’s The Classical Style, Mère Marie in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmèlites, and Kate in Britten’s Owen Wingrave. Other recent performances include a solo recital with the Sideman Projekt in Berlin and concerts with the Marlboro Music Festival. Jazimina received her Bachelors degree from the Manhattan School of Music.

Emily Pogorelc is in her first year of the BFA program at the Curtis Institute of Music. Recently, she has performed in Gianni Schicchi and Iolanta. She is also covering the role of Chan Parker in the World Premiere of Charlie Parker’s Yardbird with Opera Philadelphia. Emily won first place in the Classical Singer Magazine Competition, The Schmidt Competition, and The American Prize. She is the 2014 Gold Award winner in the Classical Voice division at NFAA YoungArts and was featured in June 2014 on NPR’s radio show, From the Top.

Lisa Keller attended Catholic University and the Brevard Music Center summer program, receiving a degree in piano performance, summa cum laude. She received her master’s degree from Duquesne University, where she studied with Metropolitan Opera coach Warren Jones. She has served on the music staffs of Opera Philadelphia, Opera Colorado, New Jersey Opera Theater, Wexford Festival Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and The Santa Fe Opera. Ms. Keller joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2004.

Lauren Eberwein is currently training at the Curtis Institute of Music under the tutelage of Mikael Eliasen and William Stone. She was recently seen in concert as an Emerging Artist with the New York Festival of Song, and as the Composer in the Curtis Opera Theatre’s Ariadne auf Naxos. This season Lauren begins a Residency as a Junior Fellow with the Marlboro Music Festival.

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Part of the k immel center for the Per form ing arts

Funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the program provides a highly individualized professional development path for today’s most promising opera composers, selected on a competitive basis from hundreds of applicants.

The composers who have taken up residency with Opera Philadelphia and our partner companies have been eager to step beyond their musical comfort zones and work zealously to take our timeless art form and infuse it with the artistic, technological, creative, and collaborative sensibilities most relevant to our time. They have exceptional access to observe and work hands-on in every aspect of creative development, production, and performance, learning from colleagues like composer Jennifer Higdon, librettist Mark Campbell, mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, dramaturge Cori Ellison, baritone Nathan Gunn, and opera/vocal coach Mikael Eliasen.

Tonight’s Master Class with Dawn Upshaw is the latest in a series of public programs spotlighting the work of our

Composers in Residence. In 2014, Double Exposure placed a spotlight on new operas being written by Lembit Beecher and Missy Mazzoli. Scenes were each staged twice, by two different teams of singers and musicians led by two stage directors. The resulting mini-productions were vivid, imaginative, and allowed both the composers and the audience to see how different directors and performers may interpret the same pieces of music.

Lembit, our first “graduate” of the program, continues to focus on vocal writing and dramatic works. Gotham Chamber Opera’s 2014 premiere of

w r i t i n go p e r a’ sf u t u r e

Soprano Ashley Milanese and mezzo-soprano Julia Dawson in Double Exposure. Photo by Dominic M. Mercier.

opera Philadelphia, in collaboration with gotham chamber opera and music-theatre group in new york, launched the nation’s first comprehensive, operatic composer in residence program in 2011.

I Have No Stories To Tell You at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was dubbed an “ingenious project” by The Wall Street Journal, which praised it for its “power” and “artful” use of baroque instruments. Missy, who concludes her residency in 2015, is writing Breaking the Waves, based on the 1996 film by Lars von Trier, with librettist Royce Vavrek, for a 2016 World Premiere with Opera Philadelphia.

Andrew Norman, now in his second year of residency, has been lauded recently for his first orchestral recording, Play, by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. It was hailed as “a sprawling, engulfing, furiously unpredictable piece” by Alex Ross and “something rare, something uninhibited” by WQXR. This residency, with its opportunities for experimentation and immersion, comes at the perfect time for Andrew as he dives into writing large-scale opera for the first time.

David T. Little, in his first year of residency, has been called “one of the most imaginative young composers on the music-theatre scene” by The New Yorker. His first full-length opera, Dog Days, was called “one of the most exciting new operas of recent

years,” by The Wall Street Journal. He is currently working on a new opera about the last day of John F. Kennedy’s life, with a libretto by Royce Vavrek, commissioned by the Fort Worth Opera and American Lyric Theater to premiere in 2016.

“These four young composers are writing the future of opera, and they’ll soon be joined by a fifth composer to be named this spring,” said David B. Devan, General Director & President of Opera Philadelphia. “Opera Philadelphia, along with our partners Gotham Chamber Opera and Music-Theatre Group, thank The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for its visionary support of such a comprehensive program to create future generations of great American opera composers.”

David T. Little, Andrew Norman, Missy Mazzoli, and composer Kevin Puts at the 40th Anniversary Gala. Photo by Dominic M. Mercier.

Breaking the Waves workshop, January 2015.

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