San Francisco Chronicle Hails Jamie Barton's Work Speaking Out for Women
“Jamie Barton has an obvious affinity for strong, confident and outspoken women — both on and off the operatic stage. Perhaps that’s because, well, she’s one herself.” The American mezzo talks with Joshua Kosman about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Carmen, and other fierce feminist role models.
July 29, 2019
““Jamie Barton has an obvious affinity for strong, confident and outspoken women — both on and off the operatic stage. Perhaps that’s because, well, she’s one herself.””
The “extravagantly gifted American mezzo-soprano” Jamie Barton spoke with Chronicle critic Joshua Kosman in a wide-ranging interview addressing all things fierce and feminist.
“I wouldn’t mind finding a little more balance between life and career. I have what I call the rule of three when I’m looking at gigs, and an offer has to satisfy at least two of these three or it’s off the list. It has to be a location I want to go to, Carnegie Hall or San Francisco or something like that. It has to be a project that I am really interested in. Or it has to pay all of the money.”
In the meantime, Barton has her eye on some dream projects. She still hopes to get mandolinist and composer Chris Thile to write some music for her, and to accompany her in a program that also includes the lute songs of the Renaissance Englishman John Dowland.
And she wants to sing Carmen.
“I’d like to do something that celebrates people of all different shapes, sizes, colors — and I think that is who Carmen and her people are. Whereas Don José is leading a very conservative, very Birmingham, Ala., kind of existence. Now, I come from that world. I understand it. But also I am of the more colorful liberal world now, so I’ve got a specific understanding of who that character is — and quite honestly I think I could sing the snot out of it.”
Chicago Opera Theater Joins Verismo Roster
Led by millennial women, Chicago Opera Theater is emerging from the recent leadership transition as a company laser-focused on living its values.
July 26, 2019
Chicago Opera Theater brings a demonstrated commitment to equity, a multi-pronged approach to nurturing new works and creators, and a boldly millennial voice to the industry. Verismo Communications is proud to be representing COT for a full season of Chicago premieres, including a double bill of Everest / Aleko, the world premiere of Dan Shore’s Freedom Ride, and Nathan Gunn’s role debut in David T. Little’s Soldier Songs.
Company Overview
Led by millennial women, Chicago Opera Theater is emerging from the recent leadership transition as a company laser-focused on living its values:
• expanding the tradition of opera as a living art form
• producing high-quality works that are new to Chicago audiences
• identifying top-tier casts and creative talent at the beginning of grand operatic careers
• leading the industry in Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility initiatives
Since its founding in 1973, COT has staged over 125 operas, including 66 Chicago premieres and 36 operas by American composers. COT is led by Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson General Director Ashley Magnus and Orli and Bill Staley Music Director Lidiya Yankovskaya, who is the only woman to hold the title of music director at a multimillion-dollar opera company in the United States.
In addition to its mainstage season, COT is devoted to the development and production of new opera in the United States through its three-pronged Vanguard Initiative, launched in 2018. The Vanguard Initiative mentors emerging opera composers, invests time and talent in new opera at various stages of the creative process, and presents the Living Opera Series to showcase new and developing work.
Committed to leading the charge to increase representation onstage and behind the scenes. In the coming season, 47% of artists (singers/conductors/directors) are ALAANA; 20% of staff are people of color; 27% of staff identify as LGBTQIA; 37% of board members are female-identified.
Refugee Orchestra Project's UK Debut Featured in Classical Music Magazine
“In these divisive times, vocal support of refugees has become critical – and musicians are uniquely well-positioned to address this issue,” explains founder Lidiya Yankovskaya. “Our art form crosses linguistic and cultural boundaries, and so much of what we do is rooted in collaboration.”
July 25, 2019
Photo by Jill Steinberg
The U.S.-based Refugee Orchestra Project, founded by conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya to proclaim the cultural and societal relevance of refugees through music, will makes its UK debut September 1st at LSO St Luke’s in London.
“Founded in 2015 by conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya, who also serves as music director of Chicago Opera Theater, the ROP has taken its message of inclusion to hundreds of thousands of listeners around the world via live and streamed performances in New York, Boston, Washington D.C. and at the United Nations. The UK debut concert will raise money for London-based charity Refugee Action.
‘In these divisive times, vocal support of refugees has become critical – and musicians are uniquely well-positioned to address this issue,’ explains Yankovskaya. ‘Our art form crosses linguistic and cultural boundaries, and so much of what we do is rooted in collaboration.’
The evening will feature Belize-born British composer and pianist Errollyn Wallen MBE performing her Concerto Grosso with the orchestra, as well as a piece called Freedom by Afghan composer Milad Yousufi and The Metamorphosis of Narcissus by Iranian composer Gity Razaz alongside works by Rachmaninov and Bartók. The artistic line-up will include bassist and Chineke! founder Chi-Chi Nwanoku, violinist John Mills and soprano Sarah-Jane Lewis.
‘The Refugee Orchestra Project’s mission resonates just as strongly in the UK as it does in the United States,’ says Wallen. ‘I’m proud to be contributing music from this time and this place.’
Yankovskaya adds: ‘My life and career would not be possible without the generosity of the refugee aid organisations who helped my family. But many friends and colleagues who met me as an adult had no idea of the circumstances that brought me to America. I hope audiences walk away from our concert understanding that refugees are everywhere – and we are just like you.’
Lidiya Yankovskaya Recognized as One of Chicago's Top Musical Leaders
"After only a single season in her new role, her musical presence has revitalized a company that had become a shadow of itself.” Lidiya Yankovskaya’s work at Chicago Opera Theater has earned her a coveted spot on Newcity’s Music45 list.
July 25, 2019
Photo by Kate Lemmon
Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya has been recognized as one of Chicago's top musical leaders across all genres by Newcity Magazine.
“The figures most associated with Chicago Opera Theater across its forty-five-year history have been male impresarios such as founder Alan Stone and Brian Dickie. With the 2017 appointment of Lidiya Yankovskaya as COT music director, a conductor is the face of the institution and, in fact, the only female music director of a major American opera company. None of that would mean much if the Russian-born Yankovskaya couldn’t deliver the goods. But after only a single season in her new role, her musical presence has revitalized a company that had become a shadow of itself. The Chicago premiere of Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick in April was a major event, in no small part because of Yankovskaya’s elucidation of the score. Russian operas are also a specialty, and the Chicago premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta was no less revelatory.”
On the classical side, the 2019 Music45 list also included Welz Kauffman of the Ravinia Festival, Riccardo Muti and Jeff Alexander of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Seth Boustead of Access Contemporary Music, and Jim Hirsch and Mei-Ann Chen of the Chicago Sinfonietta.
Citizen Artist Lidiya Yankovskaya Featured in 'Girl Activist' Book
Designed to motivate the next generation of activists, the book features Lidiya’s work with Refugee Orchestra Project and highlights her as the only woman music director of a multimillion-dollar opera company in the United States.
July 16, 2019
Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya is featured in Girl Activist, a new book spotlighting icons like Eleanor Roosevelt, Billie Jean King, Gloria Steinem, Lady Gaga, and Malala Yousafzai. Designed to motivate the next generation of activists, the book features Lidiya’s work with Refugee Orchestra Project and highlights her as the only woman music director of a multimillion-dollar opera company in the United States.
Eun Sun Kim Makes San Francisco Opera Debut of "Astonishing Vibrancy and Assurance"
“Everything from the highly characterized singing to the lush yet keenly honed reading of the score, under Kim’s baton, registers in a vividly visceral, emotionally penetrating way. Nothing feels or sounds gratuitous; just about everything, across three-and-a-half musically and dramatically absorbing hours, seems essential.” Eun Sun Kim’s house debut in San Francisco earns widespread critical acclaim.
June 28, 2019
Photo by Cory Weaver
Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim has earned widespread critical acclaim for her house debut at San Francisco Opera, where she leads a Rusalka cast that includes Rachel Willis-Sorensen, Jamie Barton, Brandon Jovanovich, and Kristinn Sigmundsson.
Read reviews:
“Magnificent musical values on display from top to bottom. Presiding over everything, in a company debut of astonishing vibrancy and assurance, was conductor Eun Sun Kim, who drew glorious playing from the Opera Orchestra and paced every scene freely but precisely.”
San Francisco Chronicle
“In her San Francisco Opera debut, conductor Eun Sun Kim assuredly drew splendid playing from an ensemble that proved its versatility (the instrumentalists spent the prior night playing Baroque). She brought forward the music’s visceral quality laying deep under the folkloric connotations. More, she succeeded to balance Wagnerian-like statements with subtle invocations of Mendelssohnian delicacy.”
Bachtrack
“A detailed and beautifully paced interpretation of the lovely score. Dvorak must have been thinking of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" for his passionate final duet between the Prince and Rusalka, and he was probably aiming for some Verdian flavor with scenes between the water nymph and her Water Goblin dad (think "Rigoletto") and appearances by the hideous witch Jezibaba ("Il Trovatore"). Regardless of theatrical influences, Eun Sun Kim underscored [Dvorak’s] unmistakable musical sound with sympathetic support from the orchestra.”
Bay Area Reporter
“A gripping company debut, bringing out the Czech pulse and phrasing under a shiny surface of supple orchestral playing. The Korean-born artist maintained impeccable balances with all the singers and kept the score unfolding with a sense of inevitability. She wrangled the big cast into a cohesive, propulsive engine.”
Seen and Heard International
“Kim draws warm incisive playing from the orchestra, adding to the dramatic impact and underpinning the moving final scene…”
Classical Voice
“Lush, accessible, frequently moving. The dependable San Francisco Opera orchestra, conducted by Eun Sun Kim in her company debut, outdoes itself, especially as the opera soars to its demonic climax.”
Theatrius
“Kim made a strong impression with her company debut, leading a performance that was powerful and passionate. She coaxed glorious playing from the Orchestra…an auspicious debut for her, and the audience responded enthusiastically.”
Parterre Box
“Kim’s shimmering, beautifully contoured performance of the Dvorak’s melody-immersed operatic masterpiece, elicited a brilliant response from the San Francisco Opera Orchestra.”
Opera Warhorses
“Kim drove the emotional flow, pulling the vibrant Dvorak colors from the triple winds of the opera orchestra, urging full-throated force from its strings.”
Opera Today
“Musically and vocally, too, it is carried off with highly impressive results. Within Dvořák’s lush orchestration there’s a whiff of Wagner, a sense of Strauss and a touch of Tchaikovsky among his influences and conductor Eun Sun Kim, in her company debut, captures the darkness, the gossamer-like, the bombastic and mystery of the score with elan.”
OperaChaser
“In this capacious and captivating production at the War Memorial Opera House, everything from the highly characterized singing to…the lush yet keenly honed reading of the score, under conductor Eun Sun Kim’s baton in her fine company debut, registers in a vividly visceral, emotionally penetrating way. Nothing feels or sounds gratuitous; just about everything, across three-and-a-half musically and dramatically absorbing hours, seems essential. The music has a cumulative force, culminating in a duet for Rusalka and the Prince of such excruciating tenderness and bone-deep truth that the Liebestod of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde can’t help but come to mind. Everything has amplitude and authority… Rusalka, the last and clearly best of the company’s three summer productions, is a triumph in all ways. This wonderfully wrought work, last seen her 24 years ago, has returned to the San Francisco Opera stage in a stirring, disturbing, exhilarating way, sure to etch itself in the audience’s memory.”
San Francisco Classical Voice
Orchestra Maverick Aubrey Bergauer Goes Solo
“Aubrey Bergauer is the dynamic and innovative administrator whose five-year tenure as executive director of the California Symphony in Walnut Creek helped revitalize the orchestra’s audience base and bottom line…” The data-driven leader will launch a consultancy intended to replicate her game-changing strategies across a broad range of arts organizations.
June 26, 2019
Photo by The Morrisons
Credited by Southwest Magazine with “redefining the classical concert experience as we know it,” departing Executive Director Aubrey Bergauer has catapulted the California Symphony onto the national stage. Outlets ranging from the Wall Street Journal and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to San Francisco Chronicle, Symphony Magazine, and NPR have turned their attention to Walnut Creek and the industry-leading efforts of the California Symphony team. The orchestra, which had been contemplating closure before Bergauer came aboard, has experienced a remarkable turn of fortunes during her five-year tenure.
That change in the bottom line is due to the deliberate and adventuresome partnership between Bergauer, Music Director Donato Cabrera, and Symphony Board President Bill Armstrong, who have collectively embraced a data-driven mission. Taking a cue from neighboring tech hotbeds, this approach has focused on user experience research, iterative design, and perhaps most daringly, transparency with audiences and the public. In an industry with a tendency to bemoan the state of audience attendance and demographics, California Symphony has punched through with actual solutions.
“As a person on a mission to change the narrative for orchestras, I have been exceedingly lucky to be able to partner with Donato and Bill, along with our fantastic staff and board,” said Bergauer. “Fueled by our dogmatic focus on patron retention, the California Symphony is now nationally known for a concert experience that welcomes newcomers and loyalists alike. I’m confident I am leaving the organization in a position of strength.”
Hailed as “the most forward-looking music organization around” by the San Jose Mercury News, the symphony’s accomplishments over the past few years read like an orchestra board’s wish list:
• doubled the audience, increasing annual tickets sold by 97%
• achieved a first-time audience retention rate triple the industry average
• increased subscribers by 42%, with 19/20 subscriptions tracking up 21% year over year
• grew donor households by 180%
• more than doubled the number of performances offered per year
• increased operating budget by 50%
• expanded performances beyond Walnut Creek to Napa Valley, Concord, Oakland, and Berkeley
• balanced or surplus budgets in 4 of 5 years, while eliminating a portion of past accumulated debt
• secured $1 million gift for endowment, the largest in the orchestra’s history
In a recent profile, the San Francisco Chronicle described Bergauer as “a quick-talking dynamo [who] bristles with statistics, ideas, and sharp new perspectives on the challenges facing symphony orchestras in the 21st century.” Indeed, California Symphony has been at the forefront of many industry trends, spearheading initiatives that inspire other orchestras to follow suit:
• first professional orchestra to make a public commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion across staff and board members, in addition to musicians and programming
• committed to 20% of programming by women, people of color, living composers (vs. 2% nationwide average)
• achieved 46% programming by women, POC, and living composers in upcoming 19/20 season
• first orchestra to collaborate with the band Postmodern Jukebox
• created “Symphony Surround” benefit, placing audience members among the orchestra
• moved to anonymous review process (inspired by blind auditions) for acclaimed Young American Composer-in-Residence program, which led to selection of current resident composer Katherine Balch
• 50% increase in Latinx audiences, driven by bilingual education and advertising
Music Director Donato Cabrera noted, “Aubrey’s groundbreaking leadership has transformed the California Symphony, dramatically increasing our audience through enriching concert experiences of inclusive and diverse programming. Our work to honor Aubrey’s legacy here will continue to set the standard of how an orchestra can be an integral, meaningful, and contemporary facet of our cultural landscape.”
Board President Bill Armstrong agreed, “As much as we’d love to keep Aubrey, we understand that change-makers thrive on new challenges, and we are grateful for the extraordinary growth we’ve experienced under her leadership. She has made an indelible impact on the California Symphony, and I’m confident she will have great success as she brings her expertise to a broader array of arts organizations.”
Bergauer began devising strategies in the realms of audience development, revenue generation, and the creation of inclusive cultures over a decade of work at Seattle cultural institutions, including the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, and the Bumbershoot Festival. The California Symphony’s openness to collaborative experimentation proved the ideal incubator for these approaches, including Bergauer’s signature Long Haul Method, which will now be shared with an array of arts institutions via consultancy.
“What we’ve done at California Symphony is extraordinary,” said Bergauer. “It is also replicable. Nothing is limited to this market or this community, and the proof of concept has been authenticated. I’m looking forward to deploying the strategies tested here to empower arts organizations from a variety of regions and budgets. While I certainly intend to return to running an orchestra one day, I’m eager to make an impact beyond one organization in this critical moment for our industry.”
Bergauer’s tenure concludes on August 15; the California Symphony’s 2019/20 season will open on September 14 with an “Iconic Beethoven” program. The wide-ranging season will also include Lyric for Strings by George Walker, the first African-American composer to win a Pulitzer Prize, a flute concerto by Kevin Puts, the commissioned world premiere of Katherine Balch’s Cantata for Orchestra and 3 Voices, and a Gabriela Lena Frank vocal work that imagines Frida Kahlo returning from the dead during the Día de los Muertos festival. The recruitment and selection committee for the new executive director has been formed, and the search is underway.
Verismo Joins Opera in 21st Century at Banff
Verismo Founder Beth Stewart joins Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity’s Opera in the 21st Century program as guest faculty this week.
June 20, 2019
Verismo Communications founder Beth Stewart serves as guest faculty this week at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, where the Opera in the 21st Century residency is challenging the conventions of opera performance, production, and design.
The stellar faculty, led by Banff Opera Artistic Director Joel Ivany, is comprised of Against the Grain artists and other internationally recognized professionals from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines.
Emerging artists are developing concurrent new works from Paola Prestini & Royce Vavrek and Nicole Lizée. Their work with Beth will include overviews of public relations, media, personal branding, arts entrepreneurship, and arts activism.
Verismo Founder Speaks at Opera Conference 2019
Beth Stewart joined San Francisco Chronicle critic Joshua Kosman, Opera Philadelphia VP of Marketing & Communications Frank Luzi, and composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh in a panel discussion on the state of media and promotion in 2019.
June 14, 2019
Verismo Communications founder Beth Stewart spoke on the “Media in 2019” panel at the Opera America Conference in San Francisco, California, alongside San Francisco Chronicle critic Joshua Kosman, Opera Philadelphia VP of Marketing & Communications Frank Luzi, and composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh.
Moderated by Boston Lyric Opera’s Jeila Irdmusa, the panel addressed shifts in traditional and digital media coverage in the arts and entertainment market. Panelists shared perspectives on self-promotion, the role of start-up outlets and social influencers, and other DIY media strategies.
The Opera Conference attracts more than 700 attendees, including opera company general directors, staff members, trustees and volunteers, as well as artists and other industry professionals. Each year, Opera America partners with a host opera company in a different city to offer nearly 100 events over five days. The conference offers inspiring general plenary sessions, informative breakout sessions, exciting performances, and abundant networking opportunities.
Resonant Bodies Festival Announces NYC 2019 Lineup
“A festival suffused with purpose and ambition.” ResBods returns to Brooklyn’s Roulette Intermedium for its 7th annual festival this September 3-5, 2019. Featured artists include Kate Soper, Arooj Aftab, Anthony Roth Costanzo, and Charmaine Lee with guest artists Conrad Tao, Vijay Iyer, Wet Ink Ensemble, Ashley Bathgate.
May 29, 2019
DETAILS
NYC 2019 RESONANT BODIES FESTIVAL
Roulette | 509 Atlantic Ave | Brooklyn, NY 11217
FESTIVAL PRICING
$50 Festival Pass for all three nights
$75 Superfan Festival Pass includes VIP seating + drink ticket
PER NIGHT PRICING
Presale tickets: $20 standard; $30 Superfan presale with VIP seating + drink ticket
Door tickets: $20 student; $25 general
““In equal measures intelligent, playful, ambitious and moving, the program illuminated the shape-shifting power of the human voice.” ”
That intoxicating review of the inaugural Resonant Bodies Festival in 2013 marked its arrival as an immediately valuable contributor to the city’s music scene. The festival has since evolved into something akin to New York Fashion Week for the new music set, offering a chance for buck-the-trendsetters to experience the high-energy epicenter of experimental vocal music.
The flagship festival returns to Roulette this September 3-5, kicking off the concert season with three fast-paced nights of vocal luminaries and artistic renegades converging in the best “see and be seen” creative energy New York has to offer.
LINEUP
September 3
Charmaine Lee • Anthony Roth Costanzo • Jane Sheldon
September 4
Anaïs Maviel • Kate Soper • Ted Hearne
September 5
Stephanie Blythe • Arooj Aftab • Erin Gee
"From Song Came Symphony" is 'A Wide-Ranging Night of African-American Music Served up with Fire And Feeling'
The Burleigh Society and Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra co-production “landed with earth-shattering force.”
May 9, 2019
Photo by Richard Burrowes, International Center of Photography alum
“From Song Came Symphony,” a co-production of the Harry T. Burleigh Society and Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra, has earned critical acclaim. The performance, tracing the symphonic influence of Burleigh’s compositions, included the NYC premiere of Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and William Grant Still’s rarely heard oratorio And They Lynched Him on A Tree.
““The baleful concluding oracle landing with earth-shattering force.””
The New York Classical Review praised Still’s piece, saying it “does indeed still pack a wallop” as it “provides a new context for Still’s account of a black life that mattered, and his fervent words of warning at the end.”
San Francisco Classical Voice hailed Burleigh as a “titanic figure in U.S. music history,” praising the performance of his “work’s deft inner voices with great clarity” and the “rich and seamless sound” of the orchestra’s string section. In the Price Concerto, “Kelly Hall-Tompkins covered the solo part with unflappable poise, bringing a luscious radiance to her lower register. The orchestra swooned and incandesced with theatrical fervor.”
Read the full review from New York Classical Review >
Read the full review from San Francisco Classical Voice >
Russell Thomas 'Imbues Otello with Vocal and Psychological Nuance'
“Otello requires a dramatic tenor with a wide vocal range, the power to cut through heavy orchestration, and the skill to make the long, declamatory passages sing – ideally, a voice that marries Wagnerian stamina and Italianate beauty. Russell Thomas is one of them.” The American tenor’s staged role debut as Otello is met with critical acclaim across North America.
May 5, 2019
Photo by Michael Cooper
American tenor Russell Thomas has made his highly anticipated staged role debut as the title character in Verdi’s Otello, earning critical acclaim across North America.
Thomas stars alongside soprano Tamara Wilson as Desdemona and baritone Gerald Finley as Iago, in a new David Alden production at Canadian Opera Company. Performances run through May 21, with tickets available via COC.
Read reviews:
“A rare black tenor to be cast in the part, Russell Thomas imbues Otello with vocal and psychological nuance. Otello requires a dramatic tenor with a wide vocal range, the power to cut through heavy orchestration, and the skill to make the long, declamatory passages sing — ideally, a voice that marries Wagnerian stamina and Italianate beauty. Russell Thomas is one of them. His assured vocalism and theatrical acuity were central to the success of the Canadian Opera Company’s chilling new production. This was an insightfully psychological portrayal…”
Wall Street Journal
“Thomas brings [Otello] to life on stage in the most compelling and authentic way. While there are many stunning and familiar arias in this magnificent opera, some of the most captivating and interesting moments lie in the duets.”
Mooney on Theatre
“A subtle and exceptionally nuanced performance; his voice explored Otello from a profoundly internal space.”
Plays to See
“Thomas’s performance is carefully thought out, his authority established from his clarion-call opening notes onward, his jealous fury building gradually and inevitably… Make no mistake. It’s in the music that this Otello triumphs.”
Now Toronto
“Never has his tenor sounded so heroic and Italianate nor has his acting shown such intensity as it does in this role.”
Stage Door Review
“Anchored by a mesmerizing performance by Thomas in the title role, the production takes you on a journey of true love, revenge, and morality. Thomas’ performance oozes sophistication and considering the vocal challenges that a production like Otello throws at a performer, Thomas pulls it off with ease as he brings the title character to life with steadfast devotion, strong vocal delivery, and exceptional stage presence. A tour-de-force experience with exceptionally authentic performances by Thomas…”
Aesthetic Magazine
“Inhabiting Otello’s namesake principal, Russell Thomas crafts a tense, tortured Moor… His well constructed, fine-tuned instrument with its shiny array of top notes is more than sufficiently assertive. Thomas electrifies in a moving, superbly proportioned rendition of the composer’s supercharged lament.”
Opera Going Toronto
Harry T. Burleigh's 'Pioneering Influence' Recognized by All Arts
“Organizers have sought to recognize creators who unflinchingly detailed Black experiences despite the risk of offending a powerful white establishment.” An All Arts preview examines the influence of Harry T. Burleigh on generations of African American classical musicians.
May 3, 2019
Photo by Shateek Mitchell, International Center of Photography alum
““’Burleigh wrote music that was both immediately recognizable to the ear as having African-American music idiom influence — and music that was not,’ explained Marti Slaten, the executive director of the Harry T. Burleigh Society. She said his success in skirting that delicate line between two seemingly disparate genres created space not only for him, but also for future generations of Black artists and creatives.””
Ahead of their May 8 concert at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Harry T. Burleigh Society spoke with All Arts about their second collaboration with the Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra.
The concert, to include the NYC premiere of Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2, and the rarely performed William Grant Still oratorio And They Lynched Him on A Tree, is designed to showcase symphonic composers influenced by Burleigh’s work.
All Arts wrote that the concert will “recognize creators who unflinchingly detailed Black experiences despite the risk of offending a powerful white establishment.”
Read the preview >
Moby-Dick Is 'Masterfully Led' by Lidiya Yankovskaya
“Musical mastery that turns both this massed ensemble and superb orchestra, conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya, into forces of nature in their own right.” The Chicago premiere of Heggie’s Moby-Dick is led by Music Director Lidiya Yankovskaya.
April 30, 2019
Photo by Michael Brosilow
Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya has just led the Chicago premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s operatic adaptation of Melville’s epic novel Moby-Dick. The production, acknowledged by Chicago Reader as “a major undertaking for Chicago Opera Theater and one of its best ever,” has earned particular acclaim for Yankovskaya’s leadership in the pit.
Read reviews:
“But the ultimate star here was the production itself, a tour de force for Chicago Opera Theater with many moving parts. Conductor and COT music director Lidiya Yankovskaya brought forth brilliantly colored accompaniment from the orchestra, where the most exciting musical action takes place. The chorus, too, proved resplendent, onstage and off.”
Chicago Tribune
“…An ideal cast who can act their roles with impressive style, as well as sing them with authority and exemplary diction. Lidiya Yankovskaya, COT’s young and exceptionally talented music director, elicits all the feverish beauty of the score from her superb orchestra, and from the male chorus that is more than three dozen strong.”
WTTW News
“A defining success in the history of the company... Perhaps most memorable is a gentle, affecting meditation on the sea as night slowly changes to morning. This section and the rest of the score are handsomely realized by the Chicago Opera Theater’s pit orchestra, masterfully led by music director Lidiya Yankovskaya, who never allows the momentum to flag.”
Chicago Sun-Times
“A winning operatic experience with stimulating music and touching portrayals, all against the backdrop of an epic sea story. COT has assembled a large cast and a good-sized orchestra who all contribute to an astonishing night at the opera. Lidiya Yankovskaya, COT’s music director, got things off to a propitious start on opening night at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance on Thursday, with orchestral sound that began quietly, establishing a mood of eeriness and hinting at the adventure and danger to come. All night long the sound from the pit was glorious, from playful allurings to leviathanic threats.”
Hyde Park Herald
“A powerful experience, well worth chasing down. COT music director Lidiya Yankovskaya conducts a 60-piece orchestra. This co-production with four other opera companies is a major undertaking for COT and one of its best ever.”
Chicago Reader
“Highly recommended – it’s rare to hear a more hauntingly beautiful and stylistically varied score… Chicago Opera Theater’s Music Director Lidiya Yankovskaya masterfully conducted the 60-member orchestra through Heggie’s score.”
Around The Town Chicago
“The enthralling immediacy of story and song is musical mastery that turns both this massed ensemble and superb orchestra, conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya, into forces of nature in their own right. COT’s labor of love abounds in thinking thrills, unforgettable stage tableaux, and monumental energy that always rises to Melville’s occasions.”
Stage and Cinema
“Lidiya Yankovskaya built on her strong debut last November leading Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta. She kept the momentum surging through the two long acts, balancing the principals, chorus and large orchestra with consummate skill and putting across all of the ingenuity, audacity and startling beauty of Heggie’s remarkable score.”
Chicago Classical Review
“Moby Dick was masterfully conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya. Under her baton the 60 piece orchestra played beautifully with a sumptuous sound. The positive influence of Ms. Yankovskaya’s direction continues to impress in a business which is highly competitive for better orchestra players. The commitment to excellence from COT is to be commended.”
Buzz Center Stage
“Heggie opens the score with an almost quiet contemplation of the sea, which you too might admire even more when the orchestra under Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya pours out turbulent storms. Every once in a while there is a fleeting phrase in the score with almost déjà vu familiarity of an aria Pavarotti might have sung, or even a show tune, but before this writer could register the when/where, it would be washed away by other musical currents rising in a new wave… It is the muscular male chorus – sometimes center stage and sometimes off stage—that perhaps most impresses. If the Soviet Army Chorus were unleashed to sing a wider range of melodies that weren’t all about military conquest and glory, one imagines they might sound just like this.”
Picture This Post
“Chicago Opera Theater music director Lidiya Yankovskaya led a first-class cast, a 60-piece orchestra, and an agile 38-member chorus in the service of this demanding opera. “Moby-Dick” doesn’t sound Italian at all, but it loves singers the way Verdi operas do, and Yankovskaya conveyed its Verdi-like sense of tension and forward motion, knowing where to dwell and reflect, how long to cower, when to pounce, how to switch gears and get on with it.”
Chicago on The Aisle
Jamie Barton to Headline Last Night of The Proms
The American mezzo will be the featured performer in classical music’s biggest party.
April 17, 2019
““Charismatic American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, whose lustrous voice has established her as one of the most exciting performers of her generation, joins Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus to lead the musical celebrations that bring the world’s greatest classical music festival to a spectacular close.””
Georgia native Jamie Barton will close out the 2019 BBC Proms in a Last Night of The Proms spectacular on September 14 at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
One of classical music’s biggest nights of the year, the performance will be televised live across the globe. Details and tickets are available via BBC.
Photo by BreeAnne Clowdus
Verismo Founder & Clients Featured in 'Instagram Moments' Story
“Instagram allows access for everyone, which is really important in a field that has traditionally been elitist. I believe very much that the future of opera is inclusivity, and Instagram provides a platform for that.” Star mezzo Jamie Barton, conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya, and Verismo founder Beth Stewart are all featured in the Spring 2019 issue of Opera America Magazine.
April 15, 2019
Verismo founder Beth Stewart and mezzo Jamie Barton are quoted in Opera America Magazine’s Spring 2019 issue. The “Instagram Moments” story examines the social platform’s dynamic possibilities for classical music, and also features images from the feed of conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya.
Peter Konwitschny Production of La Juive, Starring Corinne Winters, Now Streaming Online
“Nothing could have prepared me for the focused intensity of Winters’ performance as Rachel…” Opera Vlaanderen’s recent run of Halévy’s La Juive is now available to view online via OperaVision.
April 6, 2019
Photo by Annemie Augustijns
The Peter Konwitschny production of Halévy’s La Juive, which recently concluded its run at Opera Vlaanderen starring soprano Corinne Winters, is now available to view via OperaVision until October 5, 2019.
Read reviews:
”Winters made a magnificent role debut as Rachel, the burnished, purple shades of her lower register gorgeous in the romance “Il va venir.” Her confrontation with Léopold, when he confesses that he is not “Samuel”, but a Christian – sizzled with disbelief and scorn across the pit…”
Bachtrack
“Nothing could have prepared me for the focused intensity of Winters’ performance as Rachel, and the remarkable strength and evenness of her middle and lower registers; the way she sang the whole role with a feeling of intensely projected line. This Rachel felt things deeply and conveyed it through the music. Konwitschny asked a lot of his Rachel, she turned suicide bomber in Act Three, but Winters certainly delivered and did so with the music, not despite it.”
Planet Hugill
“The voice of soprano Corinne Winters goes through marrow and bone… [This is] an intimate performance that crawls under the skin and asks questions about the present.”
NRC Handelsblad
“With her grand, dramatic sound, Corinne Winters shows what potential is in her voice, but also in her acting. It is Konwitschny’s style to step outside the frame of the stage, which feels uncomfortable because you are so directly addressed as an audience. But there was so much power and conviction in Winters' acting that this scene felt logical.”
Place de l’Opera
“Corinne Winters, in her role debut, delivers a powerful performance based on an unerring and penetrating timbre that is a little dark and very personal. Her aria ‘Il va venir’ is undeniably one of the evening’s high points.”
Ôlyrix
“The American Corinne Winters, in her role debut as Rachel has a wonderfully good sense of drama and timing… Winters‘ contribution is intimate, human, touchable.”
de Volkskrant
Russell Tenor Is Opera News Magazine's May Cover Story
“Thomas is an engaging, easy conversationalist; he admits with a grin that he has ‘a lot of opinions,’ but they are impressively well argued and delivered without a trace of arrogance.” The American tenor has landed his first Opera News cover.
April 2, 2019
Photo by James Foster
American tenor Russell Thomas is featured on the cover of the May issue of Opera News, America’s most widely read classical music magazine.
Life on the road is sometimes challenging for Thomas, a single father who lives in Atlanta with his four-year-old son. Thomas is an engaging, easy conversationalist; he admits with a grin that he has “a lot of opinions,” but they are impressively well argued and delivered without a trace of arrogance. He speaks frankly and thoughtfully about the challenges of being a gay black man in an industry that has not traditionally nurtured black men as performers—or celebrated them as stars. “When I was in college [at New World School of the Arts in Miami], I began to hear those things that a lot of gay men in opera and the arts hear—‘Keep your personal life to yourself, don’t talk about that whole gay thing.’ But I have always felt that if I were going to be a singer—and I have wanted this career since I was eighteen—that I needed to be open about myself. I believe that people who aren’t open about who they are don’t share as much, emotionally, onstage as the people who own who they are. Singing has always been therapeutic for me. It helps me to be free. If I were closed off about who I was, I don’t know if I would be able to do that.”
Read the full interview in the May issue of Opera News!
Burleigh Society Concert at Carnegie Hall Praised for Performance, Promise
“A stinging rebuke to still-active demeaning stereotypes that cast black people as sassy, loud, and unrefined.” The Harry T. Burleigh Society concert, featuring the Fisk Jubilee Singers, earned critical acclaim from the Log Journal.
March 6, 2019
Photo by Sara Beth Turner
““Burleigh’s spiritual arrangements are artful and jewel-like, deftly weaving voices into a seamless texture [with] aching suspensions and rich, surprising dissonances…””
The March 2 Harry T. Burleigh Society concert at Carnegie Hall, featuring the Fisk Jubilee Singers, earned critical acclaim from the Log Journal.
“While it would technically be accurate to call the Jubilee Singers a college a cappella ensemble, the designation does not do them justice. They sing, with uncanny precision, in a plush bel canto style… It allowed for the haunting, otherworldly conclusion to In Bright Mansions. In a haloed murmur, the basses sang a repeating descending figure, lingering on each note that rubbed against the diaphanous held chord in the upper voices – a frisson of quiet ecstasy, a premonition of Heaven."
“Wade in the Water is…a pungent, brooding arrangement of a tune laced with buried, righteous anger. In the quiet, refined style of the Fisk Singers, it was hair-raising. Other songs affirmed the necessity of hope, promising Heaven as a release from literal bondage; Wade in the Water affirmed the necessity of justice, promising a reckoning far too long overdue.”
Jamie Barton Subject of Opera Magazine's 'People' Feature
“A complete singer with a once-in-a-generation voice, a born communicator, a deeply compassionate human being with so much to give to audiences – Jamie Barton is an artist whose time truly has come.” The American mezzo earns a six-page feature in the March 2019 issue of Opera.
February 15, 2019
““Jamie Barton may hail from Rome, Georgia, not Rome, Italy, but she possesses an exceptional affinity for Italian style. The lustrous-voiced mezzo-soprano shapes her legato in Bellini and Donizetti with superb elegance. Turning to Verdi, She effortlessly masters the toughest vocal demands, and her detailed textual communication yields an interpretative subtlety that Verdi’s mezzo roles seldom receive.””
Photo by Wilfried Hösl
American mezzo Jamie Barton is the subject of a six-page ‘People’ feature in the March issue of Opera Magazine (UK). Read the wide-ranging interview with this “complete singer with a once-in-a-generation voice” via Opera.