Podcasts about opera theater

Fire up the Key Change time machine! We're charting our course for the collaborative partnership between Santa Fe Opera and the University of New Mexico (UNM).  Never experienced time-machine travel before? No problem! Key Change co-hosts Olga Perez Flora and Anna Garcia are experienced pilots. They introduce us to students participating in the Young Voices residency and steer our audience through an exciting day of master classes and workshops on the UNM campus. And don't worry if you're new to this bold, creative initiative. Olga and Anna provide episode recommendations to help you navigate the journey.  “It's such a wonderful opportunity,” says Jamie Flora, esteemed tenor and professor at UNM, of the university's collaboration with Santa Fe Opera. The dynamic program includes master classes on technique, audition logistics, performance critique, and resumé building, all designed to bridge the academic and professional opera worlds.  “We're planting seeds in their minds that this is possible!” explains Kristin Ditlow, Associate Professor of Vocal Coaching at UNM and Music Director of its Opera Theater. “We have pathways and relationships that get you from school to being a working singer.” Quiara Cortez followed one of those pathways to UNM, where she is now studying. She credits the collaboration with Santa Fe Opera for nurturing her artistic development. “Being able to talk with the best of the best and seeing what our next steps as people who are already in college might be. And having something big and professional to look forward to is wonderful.” KEY CHANGE RECOMMENDED PLAYLIST Where Talent Meets Opportunity: Career Trajectories in Opera with Kristin Ditlow & Jamie Flora What's Opera to a Bunch of High School Students? Young Voices, “The New Crop” Taking Care of the Art with Chandler Johnson, Director of the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program for Singers Rise to the Occasion of Your Opera Career with Chandler Johnson, Director of the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program for Singers Safe Space for Creative Risks with Community Engagement and Education Hometown to the World: Discovering "Postville" with Laura Kaminsky and Kimberly Reed Making Learning Sticky: Creative Compassion for Kids & Educators Through Opera with Charles Gamble Harmony in Process: The Young Voices of the Santa Fe Opera with Amy "Process" Owens An Opportunity to Encounter Excellence (and Big News!) FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE Kristin Ditlow - Associate Professor of Vocal Coaching, University of New Mexico; Music Director, University of New Mexico Opera Theater James Flora - Lecturer II in Voice and Opera, University of New Mexico Opera Theater Michael Hix - Chair, Department of Music University of New Mexico; Professor of Voice, University of New Mexico Andrea Klunder - Producer, Key Change Podcast Amy Owens - Director of the Young Voices of Santa Fe Opera Santa Fe Opera Young Voices participants – Rylee Baca, Elsa Dhonau-Egan, Landen Kessler, Eleanor Lucas, Ava Mitchie, Alexander Nicholas Neas University Of New Mexico participants - Maria Bollinger, Quiara Cortez, Alexandra King, Ryan Lopez, Taylor Stanley MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE La Traviata | Santa Fe Opera Hometown to the World | Santa Fe Opera Eugene Onegin | Santa Fe Opera University Of New Mexico - Department Of Music Apprentice Program for Singers | Santa Fe Opera Opera Storytellers Summer Camp | Santa Fe Opera Opera Makes Sense | Santa Fe Opera The Philadelphia Orchestra The Inner Voice: The Making Of A Singer Classical Singer Music Awards Paula Corbin Swallin *** Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera, Department of Community Engagement & Education. Share your favorite opera moments and questions with Community Engagement: agarcia@santafeopera.org Produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios Hosted by Anna Garcia & Olga Perez Flora Audio Engineering: Collin Ungerleider & Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe Technical Director: Edwin R. Ruiz Production Support from Alex Riegler Show Notes by Lisa Widder Theme music by Rene Orth with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe Becktell, cello Cover art by Dylan Crouch This podcast is made possible due to the generous support of the Hankins Foundation, Principal Education Sponsor of the Santa Fe Opera. To learn more, visit SantaFeOpera.org/KeyChange  

[@ 3 min] It's an Opera Theater double-header! First we go ‘Inside the Huddle' with tenor Paul Groves who is set to sing the title role in Philip Glass' "Galileo Galilei", the OG science-denial show (before everyone was doing it...) [@ 27 min] Listen for the final field report from PJ as the Met's current season wraps… [@ 32 min] Then, Andrew Jorgensen is up to bat. The general director of Opera Theater of Saint Louis returns to OBS five years after he last stepped into the batter's box. We'll find out if our top draft pick from 2018 is still a wide-eyed optimist about the state of the industry, and we'll get an overview of the season which has already begun... [@ 51 min] In the ‘Two Minute Drill'… Just in time for Ashlee's return to the panel, it's the news about Men Behaving Badly... GET YOUR VOICE HEARD operaboxscore.com facebook.com/obschi1 @operaboxscore IG operaboxscore

SynopsisIt's a play both Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein wanted to make into an opera, but the playwright always said, “No.”We're talking about Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, a nostalgic but bittersweet look at life, love and death in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, set in the early 1900s, complete with white picket fences, boy meets girl, and a drugstore soda counter.It wasn't until decades after Wilder's death in 1975 that the executor of the Wilder estate, after a long search for just the right composer for an Our Town opera, settled on Ned Rorem, and a libretto crafted by poet J.D. McClatchy, who also happened to be an authority on Wilder's works.Rorem was in his 80s when the opera premiered on today's date in 2006 at the Opera Theater at the Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana.The New York Times thought the resulting opera was a success, writing, “Our Town opens with a hymn, and Rorem retained and refracted the familiar melody, turning pat modulations slightly bitter, as if the music were heard through a lens of nostalgia that turned it sepia. This nostalgia proved a hallmark of the score.”Music Played in Today's ProgramNed Rorem (b. 1923): Opening, from Our Town; Monadnock Music; Gil Rose, cond. New World 80790

Neil Martin is an Irish musical powerhouse. He's a musician and composer whose career encompasses dance, opera, theater, film, radio, TV, concerts and recordings. He's collaborated with artists like Bryn Terfel, Sam Shepard, Stephen Rea and Josh Groban. He's scored music for shows on Broadway, the West End and in Europe. His recent works include an opera, a violin concerto, theater scores and chamber music.My featured song is “New York City Groove” from the album Made In New York by my band, Project Grand Slam. Spotify link.—--------------------------------------The Follow Your Dream Podcast:Top 1% of all podcasts with Listeners in 200 countries!For more information and other episodes of the podcast click here. To subscribe to the podcast click here.To subscribe to our weekly Follow Your Dream Podcast email click here.To Rate and Review the podcast click here.“Dream With Robert”. Click here.—----------------------------------------Neil and Robert discuss the following:- Growing up in Belfast- His parents record collection- Bach B Minor mass- Taking up cello, tin whistle, uilleann pipes- City of Belfast music school- Oral tradition of Irish music- Tanglewood and John Williams- Silent movies- Subliminal effect of film music- “Knocknashee”    William Butler Yeats- “An Indigo Sky”    West Ocean String Quartet- Composing at the piano; Sibelius software- Mozart and Bach- “Sometimes”- “My Lagan Love”—-------------------------------------“IT'S ALIVE!” is Robert's new Project Grand Slam album. Featuring 13 of the band's Greatest Hits performed “live” at SteelStacks in Pennsylvania and The Nisville Jazz Festival in Serbia.Reviews:"An instant classic!" (Melody Maker)"Amazing record...Another win for the one and only Robert Miller!" (Hollywood Digest)"Close to perfect!" (Pop Icon)"A Masterpiece!" (Big Celebrity Buzz)"Sterling effort!" (Indie Pulse)"Another fusion wonder for Project Grand Slam!" (MobYorkCity)Click here for all links.—-----------------------------------------Audio production:Jimmy RavenscroftKymera Films Connect with Neil at:www.neilmartinmusic.com Connect with the Follow Your Dream Podcast:Website - www.followyourdreampodcast.comEmail Robert - robert@followyourdreampodcast.com Follow Robert's band, Project Grand Slam, and his music:Website - www.projectgrandslam.comPGS Store - www.thePGSstore.comYouTubeSpotify MusicApple MusicEmail - pgs@projectgrandslam.com

Joe Gfaller joined Metro Theater Company as Managing Director in the summer of 2019. In partnership with Artistic Director Julia Flood, since his arrival MTC has seen record growth in donor and audience households and developed innovative new programs responding to the COVID-19 pandemic from The COVID-19 Memory Project to an all-St. Louis virtual reading of A Christmas Carol featuring Ellie Kemper, Sterling K. Brown, first responders, and many others. ----- Prior to joining MTC, Joe served for 8+ years as Director of Marketing and Public Relations for Opera Theater of Saint Louis, where he received national recognition for his work in building young, diverse, and national travel audiences for the company and in expanding OTSL's civic footprint as producer of the company's Opera Tastings initiative, through artist community tours, and through the creation and growth of the company's Engagement + Inclusion Task Force and Young Friends Steering Committee. He has also served in marketing and/or development roles the Alliance Theater, the American Repertory Theater, and 7 Stages. As a consultant, he has worked with the National Blues Museum, the documentary Flint: The Poisoning of an American City, and the Utah Symphony, among others and served on a wide range of boards. As a professional stage director, he has directed over two dozen productions, including regional premieres by Caryl Churchill, David Mamet, Peter Sinn Nachtreib, and Addae Moon. He serves as adjunct faculty at Webster University in their Arts Management and Leadership MFA program, is a member of the Leadership St. Louis Class of 2013, the LEAD Atlanta Class of 2006, and graduated with honors from Harvard University. ------

This week, Opera Theater of Oregon is performing a scene from a brand new opera they've been working on about the life of Sacajawea, the Native American woman known for her role with the historic Lewis & Clark Expedition. The opera, called “Nu Nah-Hup: Sacajawea's Story,” has a libretto written by the great-great-grandniece of Sacajawea, Rose Ann Abrahamson. It also features music by OTO Artistic Director Justin Ralls and Native American flutist and composer Hovia Edwards. It will be sung in Agai-Dika/Lemhi-Shoshone, Québécois French and English. We talk to Rose Ann Abrahamson and Lisa Lipton, executive director of Opera Theater of Oregon.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://thecitylife.org/2023/04/08/the-little-opera-theatre-of-ny-in-association-with-national-black-theatre-and-harlem-opera-theater-presents-american-one-acts/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/citylifeorg/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/citylifeorg/support

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://thecitylife.org/2023/03/22/o-lan-jones-and-emmett-tinleys-iceland-a-re-creation-myth-interdisciplinary-opera-theater-work-at-lamama/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/citylifeorg/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/citylifeorg/support

Seán Curran began his dance training with traditional Irish step dancing as a young boy in Boston, Massachusetts. He went on to make his mark on the dance world as a leading dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for his performance in Secret Pastures. A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Curran was an original member of the New York City cast of the Off-Broadway percussion extravaganza Stomp, performing in the show for four years. He has performed his solo evening of dances at venues throughout the United States as well as at Sweden's Danstation Theatre and France's EXIT Festival.Current and recent projects for Curran include productions of Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream for The Shakespeare Theater, the twentieth anniversary production of Nixon in China and Street Scene at Opera Theater of St. Louis; choreography for the New York City Opera productions of L'Etoile, Alcina, Turandot, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Capriccio, and Acis and Galetea; the Playwrights Horizons' production of My Life with Albertine; Shakespeare in the Park's As You Like It. He recently made his Metropolitan Opera debut choreographing Romeo and Juliette. Curran's work has appeared on Broadway in James Joyce's The Dead for Playwrights Horizons and The Rivals at Lincoln Center Theater. He has created works for Trinity Irish Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre's studio company, Denmark's Upper Cut Company, Sweden's Skanes Dance Theater, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Ririe Woodbury Dance Theater, and Dance Alloy, as well as for numerous college and university dance departments.· www.seancurrancompany.com· tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/dance/109207637.html· www.creativeprocess.info· www.oneplanetpodcast.org

“I do feel that we are infinite choice makers. You make millions of choices all the time. Make the right choice and if you make the wrong choice, understand that mistakes are great teachers. Learn from that and move on. I do have this sense of responsibility of passing something on a love of dance history that really informs my process. Speaking in old language in a new way with a contemporary accent. Something so wonderful about dance and the arts is that you never stop learning. It is like always just this long process, and I continue. Students teach me every day. It is such a gift. It is probably the most important thing I can think of. Especially when I think of two things. In terms of history, the humanities show us how we were, why we were, and while we were...But then I also think about the future. What are we doing now? What seeds are we planting to inform the future?...And I said it earlier about making sense out of a chaotic universe where bad things happen to good people. Arts will help you figure that out.”Seán Curran began his dance training with traditional Irish step dancing as a young boy in Boston, Massachusetts. He went on to make his mark on the dance world as a leading dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for his performance in Secret Pastures. A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Curran was an original member of the New York City cast of the Off-Broadway percussion extravaganza Stomp, performing in the show for four years. He has performed his solo evening of dances at venues throughout the United States as well as at Sweden's Danstation Theatre and France's EXIT Festival. Current and recent projects for Curran include productions of Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream for The Shakespeare Theater, the twentieth anniversary production of Nixon in China and Street Scene at Opera Theater of St. Louis; choreography for the New York City Opera productions of L'Etoile, Alcina, Turandot, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Capriccio, and Acis and Galetea; the Playwrights Horizons' production of My Life with Albertine; Shakespeare in the Park's As You Like It. He recently made his Metropolitan Opera debut choreographing Romeo and Juliette. Curran's work has appeared on Broadway in James Joyce's The Dead for Playwrights Horizons and The Rivals at Lincoln Center Theater. He has created works for Trinity Irish Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre's studio company, Denmark's Upper Cut Company, Sweden's Skanes Dance Theater, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Ririe Woodbury Dance Theater, and Dance Alloy, as well as for numerous college and university dance departments.· www.seancurrancompany.com· tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/dance/109207637.html· www.creativeprocess.info· www.oneplanetpodcast.org

“I do feel that we are infinite choice makers. You make millions of choices all the time. Make the right choice and if you make the wrong choice, understand that mistakes are great teachers. Learn from that and move on. I do have this sense of responsibility of passing something on a love of dance history that really informs my process. Speaking in old language in a new way with a contemporary accent. Something so wonderful about dance and the arts is that you never stop learning. It is like always just this long process, and I continue. Students teach me every day. It is such a gift. It is probably the most important thing I can think of. Especially when I think of two things. In terms of history, the humanities show us how we were, why we were, and while we were...But then I also think about the future. What are we doing now? What seeds are we planting to inform the future?...And I said it earlier about making sense out of a chaotic universe where bad things happen to good people. Arts will help you figure that out.”Seán Curran began his dance training with traditional Irish step dancing as a young boy in Boston, Massachusetts. He went on to make his mark on the dance world as a leading dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for his performance in Secret Pastures. A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Curran was an original member of the New York City cast of the Off-Broadway percussion extravaganza Stomp, performing in the show for four years. He has performed his solo evening of dances at venues throughout the United States as well as at Sweden's Danstation Theatre and France's EXIT Festival. Current and recent projects for Curran include productions of Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream for The Shakespeare Theater, the twentieth anniversary production of Nixon in China and Street Scene at Opera Theater of St. Louis; choreography for the New York City Opera productions of L'Etoile, Alcina, Turandot, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Capriccio, and Acis and Galetea; the Playwrights Horizons' production of My Life with Albertine; Shakespeare in the Park's As You Like It. He recently made his Metropolitan Opera debut choreographing Romeo and Juliette. Curran's work has appeared on Broadway in James Joyce's The Dead for Playwrights Horizons and The Rivals at Lincoln Center Theater. He has created works for Trinity Irish Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre's studio company, Denmark's Upper Cut Company, Sweden's Skanes Dance Theater, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Ririe Woodbury Dance Theater, and Dance Alloy, as well as for numerous college and university dance departments.· www.seancurrancompany.com· tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/dance/109207637.html· www.creativeprocess.info· www.oneplanetpodcast.org

Seán Curran began his dance training with traditional Irish step dancing as a young boy in Boston, Massachusetts. He went on to make his mark on the dance world as a leading dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for his performance in Secret Pastures. A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Curran was an original member of the New York City cast of the Off-Broadway percussion extravaganza Stomp, performing in the show for four years. He has performed his solo evening of dances at venues throughout the United States as well as at Sweden's Danstation Theatre and France's EXIT Festival.Current and recent projects for Curran include productions of Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream for The Shakespeare Theater, the twentieth anniversary production of Nixon in China and Street Scene at Opera Theater of St. Louis; choreography for the New York City Opera productions of L'Etoile, Alcina, Turandot, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Capriccio, and Acis and Galetea; the Playwrights Horizons' production of My Life with Albertine; Shakespeare in the Park's As You Like It. He recently made his Metropolitan Opera debut choreographing Romeo and Juliette. Curran's work has appeared on Broadway in James Joyce's The Dead for Playwrights Horizons and The Rivals at Lincoln Center Theater. He has created works for Trinity Irish Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre's studio company, Denmark's Upper Cut Company, Sweden's Skanes Dance Theater, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Ririe Woodbury Dance Theater, and Dance Alloy, as well as for numerous college and university dance departments.· www.seancurrancompany.com· tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/dance/109207637.html· www.creativeprocess.info· www.oneplanetpodcast.org

Seán Curran began his dance training with traditional Irish step dancing as a young boy in Boston, Massachusetts. He went on to make his mark on the dance world as a leading dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for his performance in Secret Pastures. A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Curran was an original member of the New York City cast of the Off-Broadway percussion extravaganza Stomp, performing in the show for four years. He has performed his solo evening of dances at venues throughout the United States as well as at Sweden's Danstation Theatre and France's EXIT Festival.Current and recent projects for Curran include productions of Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream for The Shakespeare Theater, the twentieth anniversary production of Nixon in China and Street Scene at Opera Theater of St. Louis; choreography for the New York City Opera productions of L'Etoile, Alcina, Turandot, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Capriccio, and Acis and Galetea; the Playwrights Horizons' production of My Life with Albertine; Shakespeare in the Park's As You Like It. He recently made his Metropolitan Opera debut choreographing Romeo and Juliette. Curran's work has appeared on Broadway in James Joyce's The Dead for Playwrights Horizons and The Rivals at Lincoln Center Theater. He has created works for Trinity Irish Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre's studio company, Denmark's Upper Cut Company, Sweden's Skanes Dance Theater, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Ririe Woodbury Dance Theater, and Dance Alloy, as well as for numerous college and university dance departments.· www.seancurrancompany.com· tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/dance/109207637.html· www.creativeprocess.info· www.oneplanetpodcast.org

“I do feel that we are infinite choice makers. You make millions of choices all the time. Make the right choice and if you make the wrong choice, understand that mistakes are great teachers. Learn from that and move on. I do have this sense of responsibility of passing something on a love of dance history that really informs my process. Speaking in old language in a new way with a contemporary accent. Something so wonderful about dance and the arts is that you never stop learning. It is like always just this long process, and I continue. Students teach me every day. It is such a gift. It is probably the most important thing I can think of. Especially when I think of two things. In terms of history, the humanities show us how we were, why we were, and while we were...But then I also think about the future. What are we doing now? What seeds are we planting to inform the future?...And I said it earlier about making sense out of a chaotic universe where bad things happen to good people. Arts will help you figure that out.”Seán Curran began his dance training with traditional Irish step dancing as a young boy in Boston, Massachusetts. He went on to make his mark on the dance world as a leading dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for his performance in Secret Pastures. A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Curran was an original member of the New York City cast of the Off-Broadway percussion extravaganza Stomp, performing in the show for four years. He has performed his solo evening of dances at venues throughout the United States as well as at Sweden's Danstation Theatre and France's EXIT Festival. Current and recent projects for Curran include productions of Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream for The Shakespeare Theater, the twentieth anniversary production of Nixon in China and Street Scene at Opera Theater of St. Louis; choreography for the New York City Opera productions of L'Etoile, Alcina, Turandot, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Capriccio, and Acis and Galetea; the Playwrights Horizons' production of My Life with Albertine; Shakespeare in the Park's As You Like It. He recently made his Metropolitan Opera debut choreographing Romeo and Juliette. Curran's work has appeared on Broadway in James Joyce's The Dead for Playwrights Horizons and The Rivals at Lincoln Center Theater. He has created works for Trinity Irish Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre's studio company, Denmark's Upper Cut Company, Sweden's Skanes Dance Theater, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Ririe Woodbury Dance Theater, and Dance Alloy, as well as for numerous college and university dance departments.· www.seancurrancompany.com· tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/dance/109207637.html· www.creativeprocess.info· www.oneplanetpodcast.org

“I do feel that we are infinite choice makers. You make millions of choices all the time. Make the right choice and if you make the wrong choice, understand that mistakes are great teachers. Learn from that and move on. I do have this sense of responsibility of passing something on a love of dance history that really informs my process. Speaking in old language in a new way with a contemporary accent. Something so wonderful about dance and the arts is that you never stop learning. It is like always just this long process, and I continue. Students teach me every day. It is such a gift. It is probably the most important thing I can think of. Especially when I think of two things. In terms of history, the humanities show us how we were, why we were, and while we were...But then I also think about the future. What are we doing now? What seeds are we planting to inform the future?...And I said it earlier about making sense out of a chaotic universe where bad things happen to good people. Arts will help you figure that out.”Seán Curran began his dance training with traditional Irish step dancing as a young boy in Boston, Massachusetts. He went on to make his mark on the dance world as a leading dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for his performance in Secret Pastures. A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Curran was an original member of the New York City cast of the Off-Broadway percussion extravaganza Stomp, performing in the show for four years. He has performed his solo evening of dances at venues throughout the United States as well as at Sweden's Danstation Theatre and France's EXIT Festival. Current and recent projects for Curran include productions of Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream for The Shakespeare Theater, the twentieth anniversary production of Nixon in China and Street Scene at Opera Theater of St. Louis; choreography for the New York City Opera productions of L'Etoile, Alcina, Turandot, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Capriccio, and Acis and Galetea; the Playwrights Horizons' production of My Life with Albertine; Shakespeare in the Park's As You Like It. He recently made his Metropolitan Opera debut choreographing Romeo and Juliette. Curran's work has appeared on Broadway in James Joyce's The Dead for Playwrights Horizons and The Rivals at Lincoln Center Theater. He has created works for Trinity Irish Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre's studio company, Denmark's Upper Cut Company, Sweden's Skanes Dance Theater, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Ririe Woodbury Dance Theater, and Dance Alloy, as well as for numerous college and university dance departments.· www.seancurrancompany.com· tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/dance/109207637.html· www.creativeprocess.info· www.oneplanetpodcast.org

Seán Curran began his dance training with traditional Irish step dancing as a young boy in Boston, Massachusetts. He went on to make his mark on the dance world as a leading dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for his performance in Secret Pastures. A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Curran was an original member of the New York City cast of the Off-Broadway percussion extravaganza Stomp, performing in the show for four years. He has performed his solo evening of dances at venues throughout the United States as well as at Sweden's Danstation Theatre and France's EXIT Festival.Current and recent projects for Curran include productions of Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream for The Shakespeare Theater, the twentieth anniversary production of Nixon in China and Street Scene at Opera Theater of St. Louis; choreography for the New York City Opera productions of L'Etoile, Alcina, Turandot, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Capriccio, and Acis and Galetea; the Playwrights Horizons' production of My Life with Albertine; Shakespeare in the Park's As You Like It. He recently made his Metropolitan Opera debut choreographing Romeo and Juliette. Curran's work has appeared on Broadway in James Joyce's The Dead for Playwrights Horizons and The Rivals at Lincoln Center Theater. He has created works for Trinity Irish Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre's studio company, Denmark's Upper Cut Company, Sweden's Skanes Dance Theater, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Ririe Woodbury Dance Theater, and Dance Alloy, as well as for numerous college and university dance departments.· www.seancurrancompany.com· tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/dance/109207637.html· www.creativeprocess.info· www.oneplanetpodcast.org

“I do feel that we are infinite choice makers. You make millions of choices all the time. Make the right choice and if you make the wrong choice, understand that mistakes are great teachers. Learn from that and move on. I do have this sense of responsibility of passing something on a love of dance history that really informs my process. Speaking in old language in a new way with a contemporary accent. Something so wonderful about dance and the arts is that you never stop learning. It is like always just this long process, and I continue. Students teach me every day. It is such a gift. It is probably the most important thing I can think of. Especially when I think of two things. In terms of history, the humanities show us how we were, why we were, and while we were...But then I also think about the future. What are we doing now? What seeds are we planting to inform the future?...And I said it earlier about making sense out of a chaotic universe where bad things happen to good people. Arts will help you figure that out.”Seán Curran began his dance training with traditional Irish step dancing as a young boy in Boston, Massachusetts. He went on to make his mark on the dance world as a leading dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for his performance in Secret Pastures. A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Curran was an original member of the New York City cast of the Off-Broadway percussion extravaganza Stomp, performing in the show for four years. He has performed his solo evening of dances at venues throughout the United States as well as at Sweden's Danstation Theatre and France's EXIT Festival. Current and recent projects for Curran include productions of Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream for The Shakespeare Theater, the twentieth anniversary production of Nixon in China and Street Scene at Opera Theater of St. Louis; choreography for the New York City Opera productions of L'Etoile, Alcina, Turandot, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Capriccio, and Acis and Galetea; the Playwrights Horizons' production of My Life with Albertine; Shakespeare in the Park's As You Like It. He recently made his Metropolitan Opera debut choreographing Romeo and Juliette. Curran's work has appeared on Broadway in James Joyce's The Dead for Playwrights Horizons and The Rivals at Lincoln Center Theater. He has created works for Trinity Irish Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre's studio company, Denmark's Upper Cut Company, Sweden's Skanes Dance Theater, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Ririe Woodbury Dance Theater, and Dance Alloy, as well as for numerous college and university dance departments.· www.seancurrancompany.com· tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/dance/109207637.html· www.creativeprocess.info· www.oneplanetpodcast.org

Seán Curran began his dance training with traditional Irish step dancing as a young boy in Boston, Massachusetts. He went on to make his mark on the dance world as a leading dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for his performance in Secret Pastures. A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Curran was an original member of the New York City cast of the Off-Broadway percussion extravaganza Stomp, performing in the show for four years. He has performed his solo evening of dances at venues throughout the United States as well as at Sweden's Danstation Theatre and France's EXIT Festival.Current and recent projects for Curran include productions of Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream for The Shakespeare Theater, the twentieth anniversary production of Nixon in China and Street Scene at Opera Theater of St. Louis; choreography for the New York City Opera productions of L'Etoile, Alcina, Turandot, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Capriccio, and Acis and Galetea; the Playwrights Horizons' production of My Life with Albertine; Shakespeare in the Park's As You Like It. He recently made his Metropolitan Opera debut choreographing Romeo and Juliette. Curran's work has appeared on Broadway in James Joyce's The Dead for Playwrights Horizons and The Rivals at Lincoln Center Theater. He has created works for Trinity Irish Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre's studio company, Denmark's Upper Cut Company, Sweden's Skanes Dance Theater, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Ririe Woodbury Dance Theater, and Dance Alloy, as well as for numerous college and university dance departments.· www.seancurrancompany.com· tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/dance/109207637.html· www.creativeprocess.info· www.oneplanetpodcast.org

“I do feel that we are infinite choice makers. You make millions of choices all the time. Make the right choice and if you make the wrong choice, understand that mistakes are great teachers. Learn from that and move on. I do have this sense of responsibility of passing something on a love of dance history that really informs my process. Speaking in old language in a new way with a contemporary accent. Something so wonderful about dance and the arts is that you never stop learning. It is like always just this long process, and I continue. Students teach me every day. It is such a gift. It is probably the most important thing I can think of. Especially when I think of two things. In terms of history, the humanities show us how we were, why we were, and while we were...But then I also think about the future. What are we doing now? What seeds are we planting to inform the future?...And I said it earlier about making sense out of a chaotic universe where bad things happen to good people. Arts will help you figure that out.”Seán Curran began his dance training with traditional Irish step dancing as a young boy in Boston, Massachusetts. He went on to make his mark on the dance world as a leading dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for his performance in Secret Pastures. A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Curran was an original member of the New York City cast of the Off-Broadway percussion extravaganza Stomp, performing in the show for four years. He has performed his solo evening of dances at venues throughout the United States as well as at Sweden's Danstation Theatre and France's EXIT Festival. Current and recent projects for Curran include productions of Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream for The Shakespeare Theater, the twentieth anniversary production of Nixon in China and Street Scene at Opera Theater of St. Louis; choreography for the New York City Opera productions of L'Etoile, Alcina, Turandot, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Capriccio, and Acis and Galetea; the Playwrights Horizons' production of My Life with Albertine; Shakespeare in the Park's As You Like It. He recently made his Metropolitan Opera debut choreographing Romeo and Juliette. Curran's work has appeared on Broadway in James Joyce's The Dead for Playwrights Horizons and The Rivals at Lincoln Center Theater. He has created works for Trinity Irish Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre's studio company, Denmark's Upper Cut Company, Sweden's Skanes Dance Theater, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Ririe Woodbury Dance Theater, and Dance Alloy, as well as for numerous college and university dance departments.· www.seancurrancompany.com· tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/dance/109207637.html· www.creativeprocess.info· www.oneplanetpodcast.org

Ryan Patrick Hooper sits in for Stephen Henderson. He is joined by two teachers to discuss how best to explain the war in Ukraine to kids using the metaphor of sports; and, Yuval Sharon of the Detroit Opera discusses the theater's name change and La Boheme, which will open for the theater on April 2.

Music schools in Philadelphia denied her admission because she was Black, and so did a segregated concert hall, leading to a spectacular performance at the Lincoln Memorial and a fight for Civil Rights. The opera legend Marian Anderson lived and sang in Danbury, Connecticut, for five decades. This hour, we'll learn about her life, her studio in Danbury, and also discuss the lack of diversity in opera today – the year of Marian's 125th birth anniversary. We'll also take a listen to selected preview audio from Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands, a PBS documentary. GUESTS:  Brigid Guertin: Executive Director of the Danbury Museum, and Danbury City Historian Francesca Zambello: Artistic Director of the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center and General Director of the Glimmerglass Festival  Alan Mann: Artistic Director, Opera Theater of Connecticut Cat Pastor contributed to this show which originally aired January 26, 2022. Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cast members Nykele Shapiro and Mckay Concienne from the Idaho Falls Opera Theater talk about their upcoming performance of "Into the Woods". Shapiro is a Board of Directors member and BYU-Idaho alumna, and Concienne is a current BYU-Idaho student.

Music schools in Philadelphia denied her admission because she was Black, and so did a segregated concert hall, leading to a spectacular performance at the Lincoln Memorial and a fight for Civil Rights.The opera legend Marian Anderson lived and sang in Danbury, Connecticut, for five decades.This hour, we'll learn about her life, her studio in Danbury, and also discuss the lack of diversity in opera today – the year of Marian's 125th birth anniversary.We'll also take a listen to selected preview audio from Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands, an upcoming PBS documentary.Produced by Sujata Srinivasan Special thanks to Catie Talarski and Eugene Amatruda GUESTS: Brigid Guertin: Executive Director of the Danbury Museum, and Danbury City HistorianFrancesca Zambello: Artistic Director of the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center and General Director of the Glimmerglass Festival Alan Mann: Artistic Director, Opera Theater of Connecticut Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Two Gay Geeks

Photo:  Headquarters of the Banco Hipotecario de Chile in Santiago, located in Huérfanos between Estado and San Antonio. Later, the building was occupied by the Opera Theater, the Bim Bam Bum, and is currently a branch of Banco Santander.  #NewWorldReport: Overwhelming Left victory. Latin American Research Professor Evan Ellis, U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute. @revanellis https://www.wsj.com/articles/president-elect-boric-aims-to-undo-chiles-economic-progress-pensions-taxes-south-america-11640123805

Eileen  received her Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from the Juilliard School of Music with a major in voice and Opera Theater and a minor in organ and church music. She retired August 2014 from her position as Director of Music at the First Presbyterian Church in Katonah, NY after having served there for 38 years. She has frequently served as a clinician and conductor at Area, National, and international festivals.  She is a published composer of multicultural handbell music.  Her Contrasts was the winner of the composition contest sponsored by Handbell Ringers of Japan at the 8th International Symposium in Makuhari, Japan.  She was given the honor of conducting the premiere performance at that Symposium in 2000. Eileen presently lives at the Willow Valley Community in Lancaster, PA where she conducts The Willow Bells and serves the Lancaster area as a substitute organist. Find us, follow us, like us, and subscribe!Web: mikeyopp.comTwitter: @coffintalkpod IG: @coffintalkpodcastFB: coffintalkpodcastSupport the show Get full access to The Casual Casuist at mikeyopp.substack.com/subscribe

Dr. Rachel Berger of UPMC Children's Hospital knows Julius Rudel the conductor as her grandfather. On the occasion of his centennial, she remembers Julius Rudel's work at New York City Opera and with Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, growing up with Beverly Sills around the house and loving Mozart. What would Julius Rudel like to be remembered for and what was the secret of his longevity be having pursued a love of music to 93? Dr. Berger also fills us in on the latest music makes you smarter research, addresses burn out in the field of child advocacy and medicine and suggests how we'll get back to concerts as the pandemic lets go. Dr. Berger describes her latest research. She serves as Division Director, Child Advocacy and Professor of Pediatrics and Cinical and Transitional Science Director Child Abuse Research, Safar Center for Resuscitation Research at the University of Pittsburgh as well as Chief, Division of of Child Advocacy UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and she teaches at Duquesne University School of Nursing when she isn't practicing the flute.

Kasi Lemmons is an award-winning director, writer, actress and professor who has been a staple in Hollywood for nearly three decades. Her acclaimed 1997 feature directorial debut, “Eve’s Bayou, was inducted into the National Film Registry, and is considered among the first to showcase the beauty of African American Southern culture. The film received the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, and the National Board of Review bestowed her with a special first-time director award. “Eve’s Bayou” marked Samuel L. Jackson’s debut as a film producer and helped launch the careers of actresses Megan Good and Jurnee Smollett. Lemmons’ sophomore feature, “The Caveman's Valentine,” opened the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, while her third film, “Talk to Me,” earned the 2008 NAACP Image Award for outstanding directing. She also adapted Langston Hughes’ musical “Black Nativity” for the big screen in 2013. Her latest opus is “Harriet,” a deeply resonant and powerful drama based on the life of American icon Harriet Tubman. Starring Cynthia Enviro in the titular role, “Harriet” was released by Focus Features in late 2019. “Harriet” received two Academy Award nominations, two Golden Globe nominations, and ten NAACP Award nominations Kasi was an executive producer on “Self Made,” the Madam CJ Walker limited series on Netflix starring Octavia Spencer, to which she also directed two episodes. As an actress, Lemmons appeared in such notable films as Jonathan Demme’s ‘Silence of the Lambs,” John Woo’s ‘Hard Target,” and Spike Lee’s “School Daze.” Lemmons has worked extensively as a mentor and educator, and currently serves as an Arts Professor in the Graduate Film Department at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She has shared her passion for writing and teaching with institutions across the world, including Yale University, MIT, USC, UCLA, Los Angeles Film School, and The University Pristina Film School in Kosovo. Lemmons holds an Honorary Degree, Doctor of Letters from Salem State Collage. She has served on the board of Film Independent since 2004. Along with Academy-Award nominated composer Terrence Blanchard, Lemmons recently added librettist to her formidable body of work, creating the stage adaptation of Charles Blow’s New York Times bestselling memoir “Fire Shut up in My Bones,” for the Opera Theater of Saint Louis. We talked to Kasi about her current projects before asking her Proust's 35 questions that reveal which person Lemmons admires most, what she considers happiness, which artists inspire her, who is her greatest love, her greatest achievement, her greatest regret, and what is her motto, among other things. Find out more Kasi's family history in the most recent episode of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s, Finding Your Roots, where she appears in an episode with Pharrell Williams.   —————————   //////////////////   Follow us: (THE PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE) INSTAGRAM - https://www.instagram.com/proust.questionnaire . (ULI BAER) TWITTER - https://twitter.com/UliBaer INSTAGRAM - https://www.instagram.com/uli.baer . (CAROLINE WEBER) TWITTER - https://twitter.com/corklinedRoom INSTAGRAM - https://twitter.com/carolineweber2020 . (KASI LEMMONS) INSTAGRAM - https://www.instagram.com/kasi_lemmons TWITTER - https://twitter.com/kasi_lemmons   ////////////////   Listen to the Podcast on: APPLE PODCASTS - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/proust-questionnaire-podcast/id1507215678 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/18OVlatYAqYBHlCJsUd6IV YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnaJi-J359remsMZ3Y2EJMQ   ////////////////   Thanks for listening! :) Uli Baer & Caroline Weber.

This is the second in what will be a long series of readings from biographies of Walt Whitman. For the next month or so, the book I will be reading from is Paul Zweig's Walt Whitman: The Making of the Poet, which focuses on the years preceding the publication of Leaves of Grass, and and the decade or so after, which Zweig and many others identify has the period in which he wrote his best poetry. The best place to find Whitman's poetry online (or anything about him at all) remains the Whitman Archive, and you can find every edition of Leaves of Grass here (as plain text downloads) and here (facsimiles of the original editions). While there are hundreds of editions of Whitman's poetry in print, the best editions for me are Gary Schmidgall's Walt Whitman: Selected Poems 1855-1892, which present his best poems in their earliest published form; the second includes the first and last editions of Leaves of Grass, along with a huge selection of Whitman's prose. Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to humanvoiceswakeus1@gmail.com. I assume that the small amount of work presented in each episode constitutes fair use. Publishers, authors, or other copyright holders who would prefer to not have their work presented here can also email me at humanvoiceswakeus1@gmail.com, and I will remove the episode immediately.

Welcome to Navigating STL Schools, a podcast.   Today's guest is Jamie Driver, Executive Director of Independent Schools of St. Louis. Jamie got her start in education as a kindergarten teacher and got into arts education, as the director of education for Opera Theater of St. Louis. She has been with Independent Schools of St. Louis for about seven years and is committed to letting parents know that an independent school education is accessible to anyone and everyone. In this episode, Jamie sits down with Staci to discuss the advantages independent schools can offer, indulging the passions of teachers and students, and equity initiatives designed to give anyone access to an independent school education. “Every child deserves the best education they can possibly get.” - Jamie Driver

It’s a play that both Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein wanted to make into an opera, but the playwright always said, “No.” We’re talking about “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder, a nostalgic but bitter-sweet look at life and love and death in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, set in the early 1900, complete with white picket fences, boy meets girl, and a drugstore soda counter. It wasn’t until decades after Wilder’s death in 1975 that the executor of the Wilder estate, after a long search for just the right composer for an ”Our Town” opera, settled on Ned Rorem, and a libretto crafted by the poet J.D. McClatchy, who also happened to be an authority on Wilder’s works. Rorem was in his 80s when the opera premiered on today’s date in 2006 at the Opera Theater at the Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana. The New York Times thought the resulting opera a success, writing “’Our Town’ opens with a hymn, and Mr. Rorem retained and refracted the familiar melody, turning pat modulations slightly bitter, as if the music were heard through a lens of nostalgia that turned it sepia. This nostalgia proved a hallmark of the score.”

It’s a play that both Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein wanted to make into an opera, but the playwright always said, “No.” We’re talking about “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder, a nostalgic but bitter-sweet look at life and love and death in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, set in the early 1900, complete with white picket fences, boy meets girl, and a drugstore soda counter. It wasn’t until decades after Wilder’s death in 1975 that the executor of the Wilder estate, after a long search for just the right composer for an ”Our Town” opera, settled on Ned Rorem, and a libretto crafted by the poet J.D. McClatchy, who also happened to be an authority on Wilder’s works. Rorem was in his 80s when the opera premiered on today’s date in 2006 at the Opera Theater at the Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana. The New York Times thought the resulting opera a success, writing “’Our Town’ opens with a hymn, and Mr. Rorem retained and refracted the familiar melody, turning pat modulations slightly bitter, as if the music were heard through a lens of nostalgia that turned it sepia. This nostalgia proved a hallmark of the score.”

We check in with Becca Martin-Brown, the features editor for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette , ahead of the weekend. She says there's live, socially-distanced and masked opera in Eureka Springs, as well as plenty of online theater and film.

An interview with Rachel Ricks, a BYU-Idaho student and a lead role in the Idaho Falls Opera Theater production of Hansel and Gretel. She talks about her experience finding opera and what an opera theater performance is like.

In this episode, we talk with Opera Theater Director, Josh Horowitz, to get an inside look into the multifaceted Opera Theater industry. We discuss everything from his beginnings in theater, where he's traveled for work to various theaters across the U.S., and he mentions a hard-hitting Opera show that is very much relevant to society today. We just can't get enough of the arts here at Revolve One and one of our producers also chimes in because it's difficult not to be excited talking about all these great theater productions! Connect:Click here to visit the new Revolve One Web Page To follow us on Facebook click hereEmail the show at feedback@revolveone.comWe are on Instagram & Twitter @revolveoneSupport the show (http://patreon.com/revolveone)

This episode is a lively discussion of musician guilt dreams, the pitfalls of music education, the joys of new music and Lisa’s unique perspective on running an arts organization. Also, answers to why do musicians wear all black and should we continue to do so. The episode ends with a performance of Kimberly Taylor’s Tango from Night Dances for harp and Clarinet. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Host and board member Matt Belanger talks with Skylark Opera Theater Artistic Director Robert Neu for an eye-opening discussion about how arts organizations cover the cost of performances when ticket sales only pay for a fraction. They also discuss how the current economic climate makes the support of individual donors more crucial than ever. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/playlistpresents/support

Host and board member Matt Belanger talks with Robert Neu about the unique nature of his role as Artistic Director for Skylark Opera Theater. Get behind-the-scenes insight into what it takes to put on a Skylark performance – including a few surprises! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/playlistpresents/support

In this episode, host Matt Belanger continues his conversation with former Skylark Opera Theater board president and long-time board member Ann Spencer who updates us on Skylark’s mission and looks ahead to the future, including a special celebration to mark 40 years of performances in the Twin Cities. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/playlistpresents/support

In Skylark Opera Theater’s first podcast, host Matt Belanger sits down with former board president and long-time board member Ann Spencer to talk about the beginnings of the arts organization that’s been bringing performances to the Twin Cities for 40 years. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/playlistpresents/support

The passion, the pageantry, the starving artists... Opera Theater of Cape Cod's conductor and co-founder Joe Turbessi talks about learning to love opera, starting this weekend with an English version of Puccini's "La Boheme."

Host and opera singer Fredrika Brillembourg speaks with Berlin-based couple Alexander Polzin and Sommer Ulrickson about their collaborations in the world of opera, theater and dance. Polzin, as well as being a sculptor, has worked extensively as a stage designer and director. Ulrickson is a choreographer, dancer, actor and director.

The librettist discusses her work on the opera, which opens this weekend at Opera Theater of St. Louis.

Gregory Gale is a two-time Tony Award nominated designer for Rock of Ages, and Cyrano de Bergerac featuring Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garnerwhich can be seen on Amazon. Other Broadway designs include: The Wedding Singer, Urinetown, Arcadia, and Band in Berlin. Off-Broadway he designed the costumes for the world premieres of Douglas Carter Beane’s To Wong Foo, Hood, and Fairycakes. His work at the Atlantic Theater with The Voysey Inheritance earned him a Lucille Lortel Award. Mr. Gale has an Irene Sharaff Young Master Award and has multiple Lucille Lortel and Henry Hewes Design Award nominations. His opera productions include world premieres of The Prince of Players by Carlisle Floyd for Houston Grand Opera and An American Soldier by Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang for Opera Theater of St. Louis. Other opera designs include: The Magic Flute for Chicago Opera Theater, Camelot for Virginia Opera, and La Rondine for Opera Theater of Saint Louis.Mr. Gale designed two films that will be released in 2019: The Mental State and Real Drag. He is currently designing the feature film Blinded by Ed.

Mark Shanda, dean of UK’s College of Fine Arts stopped by our studios recently. He brought us up to date on several upcoming events at the college including the record-breaking Ralph Steadman exhibit at the UK Art Museum, the UK Symphony’s unusual presentation of the film Amadeus, Opera Theater’s Grand Night for Singing, and UK Theater’s Shrek.

The OBS clowns go ‘Inside the Huddle’ with composer Huang Ruo, who wrote “An American Soldier”, seen at Opera Theater of St. Louis last year. You’ll hear about his life in both his native China and the US, and find out what his upcoming opera is... In 'Chalk Talk', the nightmare that is Brexit continues to take its toll on everyone and everything, and that includes opera... In the ‘Two Minute Drill’, it's an opera architecture double header... operaboxscore.com/thisweeksshow @operaboxscore

School is back in session, so we're heading back to school here on the OBS. Check out our 'Chalk Talk' segment, in which we tackle the Ins and Outs, the Pros and Cons, of undergraduate and graduate voice programs... Tenor Matt Cummings joins us as a guest co-host. He's currently completing his Masters Degree in Voice and Opera from Northwestern. Recent credits include Little Bat in Floyd's 'Susannah' and Snout in Britten's 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream'. He also spent last summer as a Studio Artist at Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, in the city where he grew up... Plus, you'll get all your opera headlines and all our hot takes in 'The Two Minute Drill'...

When San Diego Opera recently announced its plans to fold after 49 years in business, a wide swath of the California arts community was stunned, including the musicians of the San Diego Symphony, which doubles as the opera company’s pit orchestra. “It surprised everyone,” said James Chut, the music and art critic for U-T San Diego, the region’s major daily newspaper. “People were reading it online and there wasn’t even an announcement.” On Monday, facing an outcry from employees, fans and politicians, the company’s board voted to delay the planned April 13 shutdown by two weeks while it considers its options. General artistic director and CEO Ian Campbell had previously said that it’s important to “go out with dignity, on a high note with heads held high,” rather than witness a prolonged downsizing and cutting back on quality. Ticket sales have declined 15 percent since 2010, ticket revenue has dropped about 8 percent, and big donors are harder to lure. On Tuesday,  the American Guild of Musical Artists, the singer’s union, filed the second of two unfair labor practice charges against the company. Chut tells Conducting Business that San Diego Opera has declined to consider alternative business models to stay afloat, relying instead on "a paradigm of grand opera that probably is from the ‘70s or ‘80s, in which regional companies represented a miniature version of the Metropolitan Opera, where you bring in big sets and big stars and have a big orchestra. If they’re going to do that business model or that artistic model, it’s probably not viable over the long run.” Chut believes that the future of regional opera lies in nimbler alternatives, whether it’s using black-box theaters or collaborating with theater companies. He cites the Opera Theater of St. Louis and Fort Worth Opera, two regional companies that reinvented themselves as spring festivals after decades as main-season enterprises. Chut also questions the need to stay in the San Diego Civic Theater, a plush 1965 venue with seating for nearly 3,000 patrons. “It seems like they’re tired,” Chut said of the board and administration. “The opera is in the black. They have cash reserves. They don’t have an accumulated deficit. But they are facing fundraising challenges of maybe having to raise $10 million next year." The company has given no indications yet of next steps. But whether they can attract investors after raising doubts about the Opera's viability remains a significant question. "San Diego is the eighth largest city in the United States," said Chut. "What does it say about us if we can’t have an opera company?” Listen to the full podcast above and please leave your comments below: What do you think is the right model for small opera companies in 2014?

Go behind the scenes to meet the creative people who design the sets, costumes and props for Opera Theater of St. Louis.