February 1, 2013                                                                         Media Contact: Kathleen Allen

 

Partner to Premiere Our Earth Opera Trilogy

 

February 10th Concert Premieres first Our Earth Opera and Reprises

Performance with Acclaimed Soprano Adina Aaron

 

Seattle, WA - Seattle Opera and Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras are excited to announce a new partnership.  Throughout 2013, these two important Seattle musical groups will collaborate to create compelling new work and introduce young musicians and audiences to the world of opera.

 

The partnership between Seattle Opera and Seattle Youth Symphony began on January 13, 2013 with SYSO's Benaroya Hall concert featuring former Seattle Opera Young Artist Adina Aaron who joined the orchestra to sing Wagner's "Liebestod" from Tristan und Isolde and the Wesendonck Lieder and kicked-off the Seattle area celebrations of the composer's bicentennial.

 

The partnership continues on February 10, 2 p.m. at Town Hall Seattle when Ms. Aaron returns to reprise the Wesendonck Lieder and also perform Wagner's "Siegfried Idyll". Audiences will then be treated to the premiere of the first opera in the Our Earth trilogy, The Heron and Salmon Girl. All three operas in the cycle were composed by Eric Banks with libretti written by Irene Keliher. 

 

"We are thrilled with this wonderful new collaboration," says Sue Elliott, Director of Education for Seattle Opera.  "The talented young musicians of Seattle Youth Symphony bring great vitality to our program and these new operas."

 

Says Stephen Rogers Radcliffe, Music Director of Seattle Youth Symphony, "The Seattle Youth Symphony continues to broaden and enrich its educational and artistic curriculum with this remarkable partnership.  Through our work with the Seattle Opera team, the creative process manifests in deep and meaningful ways and this is the essence of real arts education.  It is incredibly exciting for our students and our community, and a wonderful way to celebrate the SYSO's 70 year legacy of musical excellence."

 

The stories of the three Our Earth operas follow a quest for missing salmon from the open marine environment of Puget Sound all the way upstream to a mountain watershed.  Each is about 30 minutes long; they are sung in English with some character names in Lushootseed, the first language of the Puget Sound region, spoken by Coast Salish tribes.  The Seattle Youth Symphony, conducted by Stephen Rogers Radcliffe, will play the first performance of each of the three new operas, which also feature Seattle Opera's adult soloists and the Our Earth Youth Chorus. 

 

The second opera comes to life Saturday, April 20, as part of the Earth Day celebrations in the Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center.  And the third opera, Every River Has Its People, will be performed-along with its two siblings-first on August 1, at Marrowstone Music Festival held at Western Washington University in Bellingham; the trilogy is then repeated immediately on August 3, at McCaw Hall in Seattle, as part of Seattle Opera's day-long "Make Some Noise!" open house celebrating the performances of Wagner's Ring, which opens Seattle Opera's 50th Anniversary season the next day.

 

Bio Information

 

Stephen Rogers Radcliffe, Music Director of Seattle Youth Symphony
Stephen Rogers Radcliffe made his Lincoln Center conducting debut with Metropolitan Opera singers Jan DeGaetani, Susan Graham, and Dawn Upshaw.  Since then Mr. Radcliffe has conducted orchestras on four continents, produced compact disc recordings of operatic, orchestral, and chamber music works, and has fostered the development of audiences through innovative educational and artistic programs.  An Assistant Conductor of the Boston Lyric Opera, Radcliffe was Founder and Music Director of the New York Chamber Ensemble, Artistic Director of the Cape May Music Festival, Principal Guest Conductor of the Hungarian Virtuosi, Director of Orchestral and Operatic Activities at the University of Massachusetts, and Music Director of the Five College Opera Project.

 

Adina Aaron, Soprano
Adina Aaron had the honor of performing the title role in the Aida production created by famed director Franco Zeffirelli for Verdi's hometown, Bussetto, which was then telecast throughout Europe and released on DVD.  Opera magazine recently called her "the most convincing Aida singing today." As a Seattle Opera Young Artist, she sang Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro.

 

Eric Banks, Composer

Eric Banks has garnered significant acclaim as one of the most creative choral composers and directors in the United States for his unwavering commitment to new music for unaccompanied voices.  In 1992, he founded The Esoterics, a professional-caliber chamber chorus of volunteers in Seattle whose mission is to perform and perpetuate contemporary choral music beyond the scope of the established a cappella canon.  He has been a visiting scholar at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Stockholm and Swedish National Radio as well as at the Cama Oriental Institute in Mumbai, India.  In 2010, Banks received the Dale Warland Commission Award for a choral cycle based on climate-change statistics.

 

Irene Keliher, Librettist

Irene Keliher's first opera libretto, A Way Home, was premiered by Houston Grand Opera in 2010.  Keliher writes short stories and essays, has just completed a novel, and has published in several literary magazines, among them the New Ohio Review, Quarterly West, the Bellingham Review, and the Mississippi Review.  She has been a teaching artist with Writers in the Schools for six years, teaches college-level composition, and is a 2012 Made At Hugo House writer.  She has received grants and fellowships from the Ragdale Foundation, Houston Arts Alliance, Inprint, and the Thomas J. Watson Foundation.  Awards include the 2010 Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction and the 2009 Potomac Review Fiction Award, and she placed twice in the Atlantic Monthly Student Writing Contest.

 

Our Earth 2013 Community Event Schedule

 

February 10, 2 pm: World Premiere Performance of Heron and the Salmon Girl

What: When salmon fail to return to the sea one spring, animals such as Orca, Heron, Turtle, and a greedy fisherman embark on a journey upriver to find the missing fish. The first Our Earth opera is performed by Seattle Opera's soloists and Youth Chorus, with the Seattle Youth Symphony conducted by Stephen Rogers Radcliffe. The program also includes Wagner's "Siegfried Idyll" and Wesendonck Lieder, sung by Adina Aaron.

Where: Town Hall, 1119 - 8th Avenue, Seattle
Tickets: $10/$20 student/adult; available at seattleopera.org/ourearth or by phone (206.389.7676 or 800.426.1619)

 

April 20, 12 - 4 pm: Earth Day Celebration at Seattle Center with The Nature Conservancy

What: Celebrate Earth Day with Seattle Opera, Seattle Youth Symphony, and The Nature Conservancy with the world premiere of the second Our Earth opera, and an encore performance of Heron and the Salmon Girl.
Where: Fisher Pavilion, Seattle Center

Tickets: Free

 

August 1, 7:30 pm: Marrowstone Performance of Complete Our Earth Trilogy

What: The first performance of Every River Has Its People, the third and final opera, as well as encore performances of the others in the series. With Seattle Opera soloists, Youth Chorus, and Seattle Youth Symphony.

Where: Marrowstone Music Festival, Western Washington University Performing Arts Center, 516 High St., Bellingham

Tickets: Available at tickets.wwu.edu and by phone (360.650.6146), and at Village Books in Fairhaven and the Holly Street Community Food Co-op

 

August 3, 10 am - 3 pm: "Make Some Noise!" Open House

What: An all-day operatic affair featuring a performance of the complete Our Earth opera trilogy. With Seattle Opera soloists, Youth Chorus, and Seattle Youth Symphony. Join us to explore creative ways of making music and uncovering the ingredients of theater magic in this fun day of discovery at the opera.

Where: McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer Ave., Seattle

Tickets: Free

 

The new Our Earth operas are also available for in-school residencies and performances (with piano accompaniment). Contact Seattle Opera's Youth Programs Manager Barbara Lynne Jamison (barbara.jamison@seattleopera.org) for more information.

 

###

 

Founded in 1963, Seattle Opera is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. The company is recognized internationally for its theatrically compelling and musically accomplished performances, especially the Opera's interpretations of the works of Richard Wagner. Since 1975, Seattle Opera has presented 38 cycles of the Ring (three different productions), in addition to acclaimed productions of all the other major operas in the Wagner canon. Seattle Opera has achieved the highest per capita attendance of any major opera company in the United States, and draws operagoers from four continents and 50 states.

 

Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras has a 70 year tradition of life-changing excellence and innovation. Founded in 1942, the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras (SYSO) is one of the premiere, and largest, youth orchestras in the nation. SYSO now serves over 1,500 diverse students a year through four full orchestras, two summer programs (Marrowstone Music Festival and Marrowstone-in-the-City), and partnerships with local public schools. SYSO's flagship orchestra, the Seattle Youth Symphony, is made up of the finest young classical musicians in the region and it delivers performances of professional caliber with the unrivaled energy and passion of youthful artistry. Internationally recognized guest conductors and soloists frequently perform with the orchestra, and members receive regular coaching lessons with distinguished artists from the Seattle Symphony and other regional orchestras and ensembles.  Seattle Youth Symphony is also committed to engaging in partnerships that broaden young musicians' understanding of other creative disciplines as well as deepen their own knowledge of their art form.