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April 16, 2013                                                                              Media Contact: Kathleen Allen
 
For Immediate Release                                                              [email protected]
 

 

 Free Family Earth Day Celebration
April 20 at Seattle Center

World Premiere of New Our Earth Opera

Producing Partners Include Seattle Opera, Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras, The Nature Conservancy, Seattle Center, Classical KING FM 98.1

Seattle, WA -Seattle Opera, The Nature Conservancy, Seattle Youth Symphony, Classical KING FM 98.1, and Seattle Center are celebrating Earth Day in style. The public is invited to a fun, free, family-friendly celebration, from noon to 4 pm in Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center on Saturday, April 20. Central to the program are performances of Heron and the Salmon Girl and Rushing Upriver, two of Seattle Opera's new Our Earth operas, which showcase the talents of more than one hundred young area musicians.

This innovative partnership, the first of its kind for Seattle Opera, reaches across disciplines to bring together arts groups and an environmental agency. "The Nature Conservancy has played a critical role in the development of Seattle Opera's new Our Earth program," says Sue Elliott, Director of Education for Seattle Opera. "Thanks to The Nature Conservancy, these operas-which tell the story of a network of ecosystems turned upside down when one species disappears-inspire us all to think differently about our relationships with the environment and with each other."

"Opera is a place where we share wonderful stories, and nature is full of wonderful stories," says James Schroeder, salmon scientist with The Nature Conservancy's Washington chapter. "I hope young people will love the music and stories of these operas and will understand that everything is connected; that in our watershed, what happens downstream affects what's upstream, and the reverse."

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. As they rehearse and perform these brand-new operas, our students are learning first-hand valuable lessons about the creative process. It is incredibly exciting for our students and our community."

This April 20 Earth Day celebration is a Seattle Center Community Created Event. "The Earth Day celebration represents the best of what we do at Seattle Center. It brings together a partnership of leading organizations to offer the community an afternoon of live performance and family activities that draw attention to the importance of environmental sustainability, a fundamental value for us at Seattle Center," said Seattle Center Director Robert Nellams.

Classical KING FM's Program Director, Bryan Lowe, points out that "This unique joint project shows that classical music remains alive, relevant, engaging, and impactful. Through this program, and through our youth broadcasts, the Exploring Music program, and the KING FM Young Artist Awards, it's clear today's youth have a great interest in classical music and all the arts."

For the Earth Day celebration, Fisher Pavilion will open to the public between noon and 4 pm. Performances of the new Our Earth operas will take place at 1:30 (Heron and the Salmon Girl) and at 3:00 (Rushing Upriver). In addition to these opera performances, families can enjoy such activities as planting seeds and face-painting based on the animal characters of Our Earth. Have your photo taken against iconic Pacific Northwest landscapes at our photo booth, and enter The Nature Conservancy's Facebook sweepstakes for a brand-new kayak.

Our Earth isa trilogy of new operas with music by Eric Banks and libretti by Irene Keliher. The stories of these operas follow a quest for missing salmon from the marine environment of Puget Sound all the way upstream to a mountain watershed. In the first opera, Heron and the Salmon Girl, animals such as Heron, Orca, Turtle, and the fisherman Tayil travel from the open water of the Sound to an estuary in search of the missing fish. Meanwhile Alitsa, a young woman who is also a salmon, searches for her brother, Parr, who has left their small fishing village only to fall ill in the big city.

In Rushing Upriver, the second opera of the series, the journey continues. Salmon siblings Parr and Alitsa continue upstream, searching for a unique white flower with healing properties, closely pursued by a hungry coyote, a mischievous raccoon, and a wise raven. The cast of animal and human characters solve the mystery of the missing salmon in the final opera of the trilogy, Every River Has Its People.

Each of the Our Earth operas is approximately 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, plays the world premiere performance of each of these new operas, which also feature Seattle Opera's adult soloists and Youth Chorus. The works are perfect for children of all ages.

The complete cycle of three operas will be performed on August 1, at Marrowstone Music Festival at WWU in Bellingham, and 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.

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.

Seattle Opera's 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 ([email protected]) for more information.

#OurEarthOpera

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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 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. For more information visit: www.syso.org

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. The Conservancy and its more than 1 million members have protected nearly 120 million acres worldwide. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.

Classical KING FM 98.1 is the Northwest's leading classical radio station, serving the greater Puget Sound since 1948. As a listener-supported public radio station, Classical KING FM's mission is to support the broadcasting of classical music, to further the education and involvement of the general public with classical music, and to advance the appreciation and performance of opera, symphonic music, and chamber music using a wide spectrum of technologies. Listen at www.king.org.

Since its beginning 50 years ago, Seattle Center has served as an arts, civic, and family gathering place in the core of our region. The more than 30 cultural, educational, sports, and entertainment organizations residing on the 74-acre campus, together with a broad range of public and community programs, create nearly 5,000 events attracting 12 million visitors each year. Seattle Center's purpose is to create exceptional events, experiences and environments that delight and inspire the human spirit to build stronger communities. Activities at the Center generate $1.15 billion in business activity and $387 million in labor income. For more information, visit www.seattlecenter.com.

 

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Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras

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