Opera Parallèle Premieres AMAZING GRACE, Based on Mary Hoffman's Book, Tonight

San Francisco -- As part of its unique annual Hands-on-Opera education and youth performance program, Opera Parallèle (OP) will present the world premiere of Amazing Grace, by OP composer-in-residence Christopher Pratorius. Based on the children's book of the same name by Mary Hoffman and with a libretto by Opera Parallèle's Brian Staufenbiel and Roma Olvera, three free performances will be presented this weekend, November 12 & 14, at the African American Art & Culture Complex in San Francisco. T

he fully staged and costumed production will be developed during an innovative eight-week residency with fourth and fifth grade students at Saint Martin de Porres Catholic School in Oakland, assisted by the Opera Parallèle creative team and professional singers. The production will be directed by Krista Wigle, and conducted by David Gordon.

Performances will be given tonight, November 12, at 6 pm and Saturday, November 14, at 11 am and 1 pm at the African American Art & Culture Complex, 762 Fulton Street (at Webster) in San Francisco. Admission is free; past Hands-on-Opera performances have filled up quickly, so audience members are encouraged to arrive early. For more information, visit www.operaparallele.org .

Each year as part of its growing outreach program, Opera Parallèle presents a work with young performers expressly designed for families and children. "For our Hands-on-Opera, we treat our young participants as collaborators and develop works that are both accessible and sophisticated," says Artistic Director Nicole Paiement. "These productions are extensions of our vision to present new and less-known works as well as more familiar opera in new interpretations." Opera Parallèle Educational Programs Director Roma Olvera adds, "We try to choose themes for our Hands-on-Opera productions that revolve around children's journeys of awareness and self-discovery. When the kids in the program identify with the characters in the operas, this self-affirmation through artistic engagement can be an amazing experience for the cast and audiences alike. Rehearsals and performances are filled with wide-eyed curiosity and the confident and original perspectives of nine- and ten-year old students." Last year, Hands-on-Opera produced Pratorius' My Head is Full of Colors and in 2013 Peter Maxwell Davies' The Spiders' Revenge, in which all parts were taken by 4th-grade students and guest soloists.

Hands-on-Opera is funded by the Kimball Foundation, Aroha Philanthropies, and the Bill Graham Memorial Foundation.

About Amazing Grace: Opera by Chris Pratorius, based on the book by Mary Hoffman

Grace loves stories. She loves listening to them, she loves reading them, and she loves making them up. Most of all, Grace loves to act them out - and she has always given herself the most exciting role.

So when her class decides to put on a play of Peter Pan, Grace knows exactly which part she wants. But her classmates don't understand - how can a girl be Peter Pan? When her Nana tells her a true story of her Aunt Janet, based on the life of Janet Collins, the first African American to be a principal ballerina for the Metropolitan Opera, Grace's confidence is restored and she sets out to prove she can do anything she puts her mind to... and the results are amazing indeed!

About Mary Hoffman
Mary Hoffman is a prolific and beloved British writer of award-winning books for youth, children, and adults, including Amazing Grace and the Stravaganza series.http://www.maryhoffman.co.uk/

About Christopher Pratorius

Chris Pratorius Gómez is a composer and pianist based in Santa Cruz, California. He has written pieces for solo voice, choir, chamber ensembles, orchestra, and electronic media that have been performed in San Francisco, Istanbul, New York, Guatemala, and other spots around the world.

A recent highlight is Claroscuro en Flor, a concerto for harp commissioned by the American Harp Society and San José Chamber Orchestra which saw its premiere in 2013. Other projects include the chamber concerto Untogether, not Apart, commissioned and premiered by New Music Works, a fresh setting of Pablo Neruda's Poema XX, commissioned by Nicole Paiement for the BluePrint project; Contraponientes, a choral song-cycle based on poetry by Federico García Lorca commissioned by Ariose Singers; and Being of One's Hour, commissioned by Robert Kelley for Santa Cruz Ballet Theater.

As composer-in-residence for Opera Parallèle, he is currently writing a trio of children's operas for their Hands-on-Opera educational program. The first opera, My Head is Full of Colors, premiered in 2014, and the second, Amazing Grace, is slated to open fall 2015 in San Francisco.

He teaches theory, history, composition, and piano at the University of California, Santa Cruz and at Cal State Monterey Bay.

About Roma Olvera

Educational Programs Director Roma Olvera oversees the three-tiered outreach program for Opera Parallèle. In addition to creating the fully staged Hands-on-Opera production for elementary age, she develops interactive workshops for high schools and universities in the Bay Area. The workshops are unique to the main-stage performances OP produces each year. Roma is a lyric soprano with extensive experience teaching in the classroom. She specializes in integrating opera and the arts into general education. Amazing Grace is her first libretto.

About Krista Wigle

Director Krista Wigle has been teaching and directing in the Bay Area for the past 15 years. She has taught numerous musical theater and cabaret classes for the Young Conservatory at A.C.T. and was the music director for 7 of their musical productions, including "I'm Still Standing" this past summer. She also teaches vocal master classes for the youth choir, Cantabile, based in Los Altos, and teaches and directs at the San Francisco School of the Arts(SOTA). Krista earned her Bachelor's and Masters of Music degree in Vocal Performance at The San Francisco Conservatory of Music and she maintains a private vocal studio in San Francisco.

About David Gordon

Conductor David Gordon comes to Opera Parallèle by way of DePauw University where he recently graduated with a degree in Music and an additional major in Psychology. In his time at DePauw, he founded and maintained the student-run DePops orchestra. A Bay Area native, he has returned to pursue a career in conducting with an internship under OP Founder and Artistic Director Nicole Paiement.

About Saint Martin de Porres

St. Martin de Porres Catholic School provides Northern and Western Oakland communities with a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multicultural K-8 educational experience. Mutual friend Frederica von Stade, who is both an Advisory Council member at Opera Parallèle and a Board of Trustees member at St. Martin de Porres, encouraged and helped develop this partnership.

About Hands-On-Opera

Opera Parallèle's innovative program gives students from various age groups the opportunity to participate in producing and performing an opera. The students experience the complete operatic experience by

• Learning and preparing the music, accompanied by orchestral instruments.
• Telling a story and developing a character with singing and movement.
• Designing costumes and make-up.
• Working with a conductor and a stage director.
• Performing on stage in front of a live audience.

To post a comment, you must register and login.