The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music presents Rhymes with Opera as part of its popular Parlour Room Sessions series on Saturday, February 22, 2020 at 5:30pm at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online at: https://bkcm.org/event/parlour-room-sessions-rhymes-with-opera/.
For this performance,RWO will present a retrospective of the ensemble's recent chamber opera premieres from 2012 to 2019, including excerpts from their May 2020 mainstage production of Adam Matlock and Brian Slattery's Red Giant at The Flea Theater. Other selections include their 10th-anniversary opera Rumpelstiltskin (music by Ruby Fulton and George Lam), On Lonelinessand Solitude (music by Colin Read), and their critically acclaimed 2019 production of The Impossible She (music by Daniel Thomas Davis). This special performance will feature RWO ensemble members Elisabeth Halliday-Quan, Bonnie Lander, and Robert Maril, pianist Christopher Wilson, and saxophonist Zach Herchen, as well as conversations with the ensemble hosted by co-artistic director George Lam.
In a review of Rhymes With Opera's recent mainstage production of Daniel Thomas Davis's opera The Impossible She, Parterre Box called RWO "a leading voice in the performing and commissioning of contemporary opera." RWO includes founding company members Ruby Fulton (composer); Elisabeth Halliday (soprano); George Lam (composer); Bonnie Lander (soprano); and Robert Maril (baritone). During the 2012-2013 season, Rhymes With Opera expanded to include a house band, the Rhymes With Orchestra, a chamber ensemble comprised of some of this generation's most exciting contemporary instrumentalists. With the addition of the RWOrchestra, RWO has become a self-contained contemporary opera machine, commissioning and producing works that can be performed whole-cloth by the company. Since 2007, RWO has commissioned more than 17 new operas, ranging from one-minute "signature" pieces to evening-length productions. New operas commissioned and produced by RWO include Travis Sullivan's Three Modern Pieces, Thomas Limbert's Numbers / Dates, Jenny Olivia Johnson's Book of Gazes, Kathleen Bader's Leads, Douglas Buchanan's Goblin Market, David Smooke's Criminal Element, Adam Matlock's Red Giant, and Erik Spangler's Cantata For A Loop Trail, an outdoor hiking opera set in Gwynn Falls Leakin Park in Baltimore and Inwood Hill Park in New York City. https://www.rhymeswithopera.org/
We envision a world where every New Yorker, regardless of age, income or level of ability, has access to high-quality music instruction and music therapy. We believe that neighborhoods traditionally under-served by New York City cultural institutions need and deserve hands-on musical experiences, and that by creating these opportunities we are building a more vibrant, interconnected city. We have grown to become one of the largest providers of music education in the New York City public schools, reaching 4,500 students by placing top-notch music educators in 24 schools and 11 youth and senior centers citywide. Our cutting-edge music therapy program, in which clinically trained professionals use the therapeutic powers of music to address clients' needs, serves 1,400 New Yorkers - making us a leading provider citywide and a training ground for professionals in this burgeoning field. Each week, 600 students stream into our Park Slope headquarters for private lessons or group classes in every major musical instrument, taught by a faculty comprised of world-class musicians and educators. We are Brooklyn's top destination for the Suzuki method, an immersive approach based on the concept that all children can master the language of music, just as they master their mother tongue.
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