One Voice Project Micro-Opera Festival
Composer Lisa Neher and Librettist Kendra Leonard present the One Voice Project Virtual Micro Opera Festival, a weeklong festival of micro opera world premieres. Every day from March 22-26 at 5 pm PST, a new 5-minute unaccompanied opera written by Neher & Leonard will be released on Neher's YouTube Channel. The operas will be available for viewing after they premiere.
The operas feature acclaimed opera singers from across the United States, including tenor Hugo Vera (Metropolitan Opera), mezzo Margaret O’Connell (Center for Contemporary Opera), soprano Audrey Yoder (Pacific Opera Project), tenor Zach Finkelstein (New York City Opera), and mezzo Lisa Neher herself (Opera Theatre Oregon).
The festival channels the artistic brilliance of opera singers who have frequently found themselves without work and artistic outlets during the pandemic. Each opera is a self-contained story, with plots that address women in sport, the life of musicians during the pandemic, and resilience in the face of obstacles. Several were composed in collaboration with the singers, with plots drawn from their experiences over the last year. The operas promote unaccompanied repertoire for singers as a genre equal to that of unaccompanied instrumental repertoire, a cause Neher regularly champions through her One Voice Project call for scores & concert series. Tickets are Pay as You Can in order to make opera accessible to all.
Following the final release on Friday March 26, audiences are invited to a Talkback and Q&A Reception with the artists, hosted by Gina Morgano of the Practice Parlour Podcast.
Use the ticket link to register to receive a link to each day’s micro opera premiere and to RSVP for the Talkback and Q&A Reception with the Artists. The operas may also be viewed on Neher's YouTube Channel.
The operas feature acclaimed opera singers from across the United States, including tenor Hugo Vera (Metropolitan Opera), mezzo Margaret O’Connell (Center for Contemporary Opera), soprano Audrey Yoder (Pacific Opera Project), tenor Zach Finkelstein (New York City Opera), and mezzo Lisa Neher herself (Opera Theatre Oregon).
The festival channels the artistic brilliance of opera singers who have frequently found themselves without work and artistic outlets during the pandemic. Each opera is a self-contained story, with plots that address women in sport, the life of musicians during the pandemic, and resilience in the face of obstacles. Several were composed in collaboration with the singers, with plots drawn from their experiences over the last year. The operas promote unaccompanied repertoire for singers as a genre equal to that of unaccompanied instrumental repertoire, a cause Neher regularly champions through her One Voice Project call for scores & concert series. Tickets are Pay as You Can in order to make opera accessible to all.
Following the final release on Friday March 26, audiences are invited to a Talkback and Q&A Reception with the artists, hosted by Gina Morgano of the Practice Parlour Podcast.
Use the ticket link to register to receive a link to each day’s micro opera premiere and to RSVP for the Talkback and Q&A Reception with the Artists. The operas may also be viewed on Neher's YouTube Channel.
the operas
In Par for the Course, meet the indefatigable Babe Didrikson, superstar athlete. She’s won every golf tournament on offer—except the men-only U.S. Open. Hear what happens when the PGA rejects her bid to beat the men on their own turf.
When you move to a completely new place in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, things are not exactly normal. Raul’s despair turns into excitement with a little change of view in Wide Awake in the New City.
Runner Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to compete in the Boston Marathon—but it wasn’t easy, as you’ll hear in Momentum. Attacked by men who didn’t want her there, Switzer had a difficult decision to make about whether to finish the race. Based on actual events in the life of Kathrine Switzer.
A portion of any proceeds from Momentum will be donated to the non-profit organization 261 Fearless, Inc., a global organization that empowers women around the world through running and education. Please join us! www.261fearless.org.
A portion of any proceeds from Momentum will be donated to the non-profit organization 261 Fearless, Inc., a global organization that empowers women around the world through running and education. Please join us! www.261fearless.org.
Woman Waits with Sword celebrates self-reliance: in 17th century France, Alberte-Barbe D'ernécourt, Dame de Saint-Baslemont, has been protecting her people from invaders during the Hundred Years’ War. But when an intruder tries to claim her home and ignores her because of her sex, she becomes the Chevalier de Saint-Baslemont and challenges him to a duel he cannot turn down.
Anxious about his musical career, what’s happening in the opera world, and how Covid-19 will change the shape of future performances, one singer moves from angst to optimism in Now Available.
Meet the creative team
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New music powerhouse Lisa Neher is a mezzo-soprano, composer, and actress on a mission to transform audiences through story, sound, and open heartedness. She is inspired by female athleticism, the tender love of friends, the ambiguities of death, and the eerie mystery of deep ocean life. Her collaborators include Third Angle New Music, Delgani String Quartet, Rhymes With Opera, Choral Arts Ensemble of Portland, and University of Michigan Saxophone Ensemble. Lisa released her first EP Of Wind and Waves in January and her opera Sense of Self, written with librettist Kendra Preston Leonard, will be premiered by Opera Elect this year.
Described by Oregon ArtsWatch as “a small woman with a very big voice” and “especially alive,” Neher captivates audiences with her electrifying dramatic commitment and unforgettable vocal colors. She recently performed with Third Angle New Music, the Resonance Ensemble, New Music Gathering, Queer Opera, the International Saxophone Symposium, Opera Theatre Oregon, and Cascadia Composers. Lisa is the curator of the One Voice Project, which champions unaccompanied solo vocal performance. In addition to her creative work, Lisa coaches composers on writing for voices and singers on technique, acting, and stage movement. For more information, visit her website, www.lisanehermusic.com. |
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Kendra Preston Leonard is a poet, lyricist, and librettist based in Texas. She collaborates regularly with composers on works for voice including new operas and songs. Her chapbook Making Mythology was published in 2020 by Louisiana Literature Press, and her work appears in numerous publications including vox poetica, lunch, About Place, and Lily Poetry Review. Leonard is also a musicologist and music theorist and the author of several academic books.
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Zach Finkelstein has performed as a tenor concert and opera soloist for the past nine years, from Seattle’s Benaroya Hall to New York’s Lincoln Center to London’s Sadler’s Wells to the National Arts Center in Beijing, China. Hailed by the New York Times’ Anthony Tommasini as a “compelling tenor,” soloist stage credits include the New York City Opera, Opera Grand Rapids, the and Pacific Northwest Ballet. In the past five years, Zach has sung 32 performances of Handel’s Messiah with 14 orchestras, including the Virginia Symphony, the Florida Orchestra, and the Calgary Philarmonic. Recently, he toured the Spanish opera Comala with the Zohn Collective from Guadalajara, Mexico, to Chicago, Illinois. Zach is on the roster of several pro-choral groups, including Conspirare and the Santa Fe Desert Chorale. Scribe Records released Zach’s first album, ‘Britten and Pears: the Canticles’ in 2017 and his second in September 2020, ‘Dark is Yonder Town,’ featuring guitarist Dieter Hennings Yeomans and new compositions by Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon and Jesse Jones.
Zach is represented by Dean Artists Management and holds an Artist Diploma (Voice) from the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Glenn Gould School in Toronto and a BA in Political Science from McGill University, in Montreal. |
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Margaret O’Connell is a mezzo-soprano enjoying a versatile career in opera, musical theater, and oratorio. She especially enjoys premiering composers’ new music.
Margaret portrayed a “fiercely committed” Alyce in an acclaimed, sold-out production of Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied with New York OperaFest. She made her Carnegie Hall debut under Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra in Strauss’ Feuersnot. Other prominent companies with whom she has been featured include the Bard Festival (with Maestro Botstein), Aspen Music Festival (with Julius Rudel), Songfest (with John Harbison and Martin Katz), Center for Contemporary Opera, La Mama Theater in New York City, and American Opera Projects. Margaret made her Berlin debut as Fricka in Das Rheingold. Additional favorite roles performed include the title role in Carmen, Olga in Eugene Onegin, Dulcinée in Don Quichotte, Nicklausse in Les contes d’Hoffman, Adalgisa in Norma, Florence in Albert Herring, and the lead in Dido and Aeneas. Future appearances include Klytämnestra in Strauss’ Elektra in Berlin. Margaret holds a Master of Music in Solo Voice from McGill University, and a Bachelor of Music in Violin and Voice Performance from Oberlin Conservatory of Music. www.mezzomargaret.com |
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A native Texan, tenor Hugo Vera has performed 50 roles and over 60 choral orchestral works with distinguished companies in the USA and abroad. In addition to The Metropolitan Opera, Mr. Vera has sung with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Spoleto, USA, Piccolo Spoleto Kansas City Symphony, New York City Opera, Illinois Symphony and Chorus, Fort St. Symphony and Chorus, Opera Memphis, Center for Contemporary Opera, New Opera NYC, Aspen Music Festival, Brevard Music Center, Sarasota Opera, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Glimmerglass Opera, Opera North, Aspen Opera Theatre, The Minnesota Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Nashville Opera, Shreveport Opera, Tanglewood Music Festival, Arizona Opera among others. As an active recitalist and clinician, he has performed recitals as an Artist in Residence at Dartmouth College, SUNY Oswego, University of Texas-Pan America, Westminster College, Presbyterian College, GLOW Lyric Theatre, Lawrence Arts Center. In 2020 he released Romances & Poems of Sergey Tanayev under the Centaur Records label. He is Artistic Director of Vocal Academy of Orvieto (Italy) and Executive Director of Lawrence Opera Theatre. Currently, he is Director of Vocal Arts at California State University, Northridge. More at https://www.facebook.com/hugoveratenor/ |
Soprano Audrey Yoder, hailed for her “attractive timbre and laudable musicianship” (Opera Today), is a “dramatically engaging singing actress who shows great vocal flexibility” (Broadway World). In November Ms. Yoder appeared as Climene and Euterpe in Pacific Opera Project (POP)'s double-bill drive in production of Gluck’s La Corona and Il Parnaso Confuso.
Her 2020 season also included a virtual Suor Angelica produced by Opera San Luis Obispo, VOPA and Mission Opera, POP’s double-bill Gianni Schicci and L’enfant et les sortileges, and Opera Santa Barbara’s holiday production “Staying Home for Christmas.” She is excited to return to POP for a US staged premiere of Vivaldi's Ercole su'l Termodonte. Highlighted roles include Juliette (Romeo et Juliette), Gretel (Hansel und Gretel), Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice), Miss Jessel (The Turn of the Screw) and Antonia (Les contes d'Hoffmann).
Equally at home on the concert stage, Ms. Yoder’s solo concert work includes Poulenc’s Gloria, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Faure’s Requiem. When conditions permit, Ms. Yoder will be featured in Mozart’s Requiem in D minor with the St. Cecilia Chorale.
Using her skills as a recording artist, Ms. Yoder contributed to the COVID-19 relief video of Diane Warren’s Oscar-nominated song I’m Standing with You, arranged by Sharon Farber. The global effort has raised more than $7 million for the United Nations Foundation’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organization (WHO).
Her 2020 season also included a virtual Suor Angelica produced by Opera San Luis Obispo, VOPA and Mission Opera, POP’s double-bill Gianni Schicci and L’enfant et les sortileges, and Opera Santa Barbara’s holiday production “Staying Home for Christmas.” She is excited to return to POP for a US staged premiere of Vivaldi's Ercole su'l Termodonte. Highlighted roles include Juliette (Romeo et Juliette), Gretel (Hansel und Gretel), Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice), Miss Jessel (The Turn of the Screw) and Antonia (Les contes d'Hoffmann).
Equally at home on the concert stage, Ms. Yoder’s solo concert work includes Poulenc’s Gloria, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Faure’s Requiem. When conditions permit, Ms. Yoder will be featured in Mozart’s Requiem in D minor with the St. Cecilia Chorale.
Using her skills as a recording artist, Ms. Yoder contributed to the COVID-19 relief video of Diane Warren’s Oscar-nominated song I’m Standing with You, arranged by Sharon Farber. The global effort has raised more than $7 million for the United Nations Foundation’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organization (WHO).
Talkback Reception Host: Gina Morgano of the Practice Parlour Podcast
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Gina Morgano helps people to find their voice - both inside and out - so that they can offer their highest creative contributions.
As a performer and voice teacher at the 92nd Street Y and the Professional Performing Arts School, Gina and her students have appeared in New York’s most prominent spaces, such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Feinstein’s/54 Below, The Laurie Beechman Theatre, Don’t Tell Mama, The Strand and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. In addition to being a soloist, chorister and artist teacher with National Chorale, Gina is an avid recitalist and cabaret artist throughout the country. She hosts The Practice Parlour podcast and the Self-Care for Singers Facebook group, as well as maintains a private online voice studio. By performing with organizations such as Sing for Hope and Vocal Ease, Gina strives to create a world of beauty for those who cannot easily access live performance. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Gina graduated with vocal honors from Northwestern University (B.M., M.S.J.) and San Francisco Conservatory of Music (M.M.) Gina believes that curiosity and storytelling are the floodgates to empathy and compassion. And that, sometimes, the best way to use your voice is to listen. Visit @GinaMorgano or www.GinaMorgano.com to say hello and for more information. |
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