New Visual Rendition Of Poe's THE RAVEN By Zachary James And Kristin Hevner Now Available
THE RAVEN is part of James' upcoming album CALL OUT, a series of simultaneous visual and audio albums of works composed by women, to be released mid December, 2020.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Dec. 03, 2020
Broadway, opera, and television star Zachary James has partnered with acclaimed composer Kristin Hevner to release an original rendition of Edgar Allen Poe's THE RAVEN. The visual experience, which fuses song, film, and theatrics, is available online today, Thursday, December 3, 2020. THE RAVEN can also be downloaded and streamed on Apple Music, Spotify, and other music services.
THE RAVEN, performed by James, is a full interpretation of Poe's work, a multi-dimensional experience that doesn't fit neatly in one genre. Hevner's score could easily be at home on an opera stage, or equally suitable for the theater or cinema. Created and filmed in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic, James and Hevner hope that THE RAVEN pushes boundaries and shows the possibilities of creating art during the current global health crisis.
THE RAVEN is part of James' upcoming album CALL OUT, a series of simultaneous visual and audio albums of works composed by women, to be released mid December, 2020. James is joined on the album by pianist Charity Wicks, cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, theorboist Brandon Acker, steel guitarist Kevin Skrla, guitarist Frederick Poholek, and vocalist Megan Nielson.
In the tradition of visual albums like The Beatles' Yellow Submarine and A Hard Day's Night, Daft Punk's Interstella 5555, Prince's Purple Rain, Pink Floyd's The Wall and Beyonce's recent hit, Black Is King, James' album is comprised of music videos conceived by the singer as visual vehicles for the music. The musical program originally planned as a live solo recital for Carnegie Hall for November 2020 has been reimagined, adjusting to the challenges of the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic and the mass closure of live performance venues.
Zachary James has appeared with The Metropolitan Opera (Akhnaten, Wozzeck), Teatro Real (the world premiere of Philip Glass's The Perfect American), Minnesota Opera (the world premiere of Edward Tulane), Opera Philadelphia (the world premiere of Breaking The Waves, The Love For Three Oranges), English National Opera, Opera Queensland, Los Angeles Opera, Arizona Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Des Moines Metro Opera, Virginia Opera, Union Avenue Opera, Opera Roanoke, Shreveport Opera, Opera Ithaca, Sun Valley Opera, Central City Opera, Ash Lawn Opera, The Prototype Festival, The New York Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and The Philadelphia Orchestra.
James created the role of Lurch in the Original Broadway Cast of The Addams Family, played Hassinger in the Lincoln Center Theater Revival of South Pacific, and made his Broadway debut in the play, Coram Boy. Off-Broadway credits include Pasquale in The Most Happy Fella and Jo-Jo in Irma La Douce both with Encores. He has appeared on the sitcoms, 30 Rock and Murphy Brown. A frequent interpreter of new music, James premiered operas by Philip Glass, Missy Mazzoli, Kristin Hevner, Paola Prestini, Dana Wilson and Andy Teirstein and serves as an Ambassador to Opera America. James was named the Most Innovative Opera Singer of 2019 by Classical Post, Breakout Artist of the Year by Verismo Magazine and one of the top 30 most influential LGBTQIA artists by OperaWire. More at https://www.zachjames.com.
Kristin Hevner's compositions have been performed internationally and throughout the United States at venues from Carnegie Hall to Lincoln Center, Crash Mansion to Birdland and span the musical genres of classical and contemporary opera, symphonic music, electronic dance music, hip-hop, rap and atonal rock. Kristin's opera, Il Sogno, a contemporary Italian-language opera based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, had its Italian premiere at the Teatro Communale Citta della Pieve in Umbria, Italy in 2004. Il Sogno had its NYC premiere in 2009 with Metropolis Opera Project and its regional professional company premiere with Opera Ithaca in 2015. The Metropolis Opera Project cast recording of Il Sogno was produced at NYC's Clinton Recording Studio and the Opera Ithaca production was filmed for worldwide online release. Kristin's additional operatic works include three works with librettist Royce Vavrek - The Wednesday Before Last (Musaic Concert Series, Crash Mansion; Metropolis Opera Project; Ithaca College Opera Workshop), Unsaid in a Field of Wildflowers (Opera Shorts, Carnegie Hall; Metropolis Opera Project; Ithaca New Music Collective; Ithaca College Opera Workshop) and Bully Pulpit (Metropolis Opera Project; Opera Ithaca), as well as One Hot Kitchen with librettist/playwright David Caudle (Metropolis Opera Project; Ithaca College Opera Workshop) and Epilogue (Metropolis Opera Project; Ithaca College Opera Workshop). Kristin's commercial, film and tv work includes national commercials for GEICO and several indie films. A classically-trained pianist, Kristin composed and played musical accompaniment tracks for Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra's Miraculous Relationships: 21 Day Meditation Challenge, available on CD and streaming on demand from the Chopra Center.
A Philadelphia native, Kristin holds degrees from The Esther Boyer School of Music at Temple University, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and the School for Audio Engineering (SAE), NYC. As a steward of the performing arts and a stalwart contributor to the NYC contemporary music scene, Kristin serves as a Founding Director and the Resident Composer of Metropolis Opera Project, and has previously served on the board of directors for The Look and Listen Festival, an annual event dedicated to the performance of contemporary music in art galleries. She is also the head of composition at Next Level Sound. More at https://kristinhevner.com and nextlevelsound.com.
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