INTERNATIONAL OPERA
PROJECTS
ARTISTIC TEAM & CAST
Composer of AS ONE
Filmmaker/Co-librettist — for As One.
Co-librettist for As One.
Director for As One
Conductor for As One
Baritone in As One
Mezzo- soprano in AS ONE
AN INSIDE GLANCE
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Laura Kaminsky, composer of AS ONE, writes “music that is full of fire as well as ice, written in an idiom that contrasts dissonance and violence with tonal beauty and meditative reflection. It is strong stuff.” (American Record Guide). With “an ear for the new and interesting” (The New York Times), social and political themes are common in her work, as is an abiding respect for and connection to the natural world. As One (co-librettists Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed), debuted in 2014 at BAM to unanimously positive reviews, including: “[As One] is a piece that haunts and challenges its audience with questions about identity, authenticity, compassion, and the human desire for self-love and peace” (Opera News) and “this is effective, direct music…Kaminsky writes well for the voice.” (Washington Post) Subsequent As One productions include Utah State University/Caine School of the Arts, West Edge Opera (Oakland, CA), Urban Arias (Washington DC), and, in 2017, Opera Colorado and Pittsburgh Opera.
The As One team has since been commissioned twice - by Houston Grand Opera SOME LIGHT EMERGES, premiering in March 2017, and by San Francisco’s Opera Parallèle for TODAY IT RAINS, inspired by the life and work of Georgia O’Keeffe, for 2018-19. Other upcoming commissions for Kaminsky include a Piano Quintet for Ursula Oppens and the Cassatt String Quartet and a Duo for Flute and Piano for the University of Minnesota/Duluth.
Kaminsky has received grants and awards from, among others, the National Endowment for the Arts, Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Opera America, Chamber Music America, Aaron Copland Fund, American Music Center, USArtists International, CEC ArtsLink International Partnerships, and Likhachev-Russkiy Mir Foundation. She has been a fellow at the Hermitage Artist Retreat Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Centrum Foundation, Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, Millay Colony for the Arts, and Camargo Foundation (France).
Currently composer-in-residence at American Opera Projects, Kaminsky is head of composition at the Conservatory of Music of Purchase College/SUNY. Scores are available through Bill Holab Music. Recordings are on Albany, Bridge, CRI, Capstone, Mode, and MSR labels.
Kimberly Reed, filmmaker/librettist — featured on Oprah, CNN, NPR, MSNBC, The Moth Radio Hour — is one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” A New York Foundation for the Arts fellow, she has had residencies at Yaddo, Hermitage Artist Retreat, and Squaw Valley Community of Writers.
Regarding AS ONE’s BAM premiere, the New York Times said: “backed by scene-setting projections from Ms. Reed, the drama powerfully coheres.” San Francisco Chronicle noted the “delicately atmospheric film” and libretto — co-written with Mark Campbell — that “conjures up a blend of excitement, shame, self-fulfillment and fear with crisp efficiency.”
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Reed’s PRODIGAL SONS, a “whiplash doc that heralds an exciting talent” (SF Weekly), premiered at Telluride Film Festival, has been shown at 100+ festivals and broadcast worldwide, and garnered 14 awards including the FIPRESCI Prize. She is also working on DARK MONEY, a documentary about campaign finance reform.
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Future collabortions with Campbell and Kaminsky include SOME LIGHT EMERGES, premiering at Houston Grand Opera in 2017 & TODAY IT RAINS about the life of Georgia O'keeffe.
Mark Campbell is one of the most in-demand and prolific librettists in the country. Of the fifteen plus operas he has written, his most known work is SILENT NIGHT, which garnered the 2012 Pulitzer in Music for composer Kevin Puts. Since its premiere at Minnesota Opera, the opera has been broadcast on PBS' Great Performances and entered the repertory with an unprecedented rapidity—produced at Opera Philadelphia, Ft. Worth Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Calgary Opera, Ireland's Wexford Festival, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Opéra de Montréal, with upcoming
productions at San Jose Opera and Atlanta Opera.
Mark’s other successful operas include LATER THAT SAME EVENING, VOLPONE, BASTIANELLO/LUCREZIA, A LETTER TO EAST 11TH STREET, THE MANDCHURIAN CANDIDATE, and most recently, THE SHINING. Mak has collaborated with a roster of eminent composers, including Mark Adamo, Mason Bates, Lembit Beecher, William Bolcom, Conrad Cummings, Ricky Ian Gordon, Jake Heggie, Martin Hennessy, Laura Kaminsky, Missy Mazzoli, Marisa Michelson, Paul Moravec, John Musto, Rene Orth, Paola Prestini, Kevin Puts, Richard Peaslee, D.J. Sparr, and Michael Torke.
Mark has received many other prestigious prizes for his work, including a Grammy® nomination for Best Classical Recording, the first Kleban Foundation Award for Lyricist, two Richard Rodgers Awards, three Drama Desk nominations, a Jonathan Larson Award, a New York Foundation for the Arts Playwriting Fellowship, and, most recently, the Dominic J. Pelliciotti Award. In addition, he has also been granted residencies at The Hermitage, The MacDowell Colony, Ucross
Foundation, and the Sundance Theatre Lab.
As a lyricist, Mark penned all of the lyrics for Songs from an Unmade Bed, a theatrical song cycle with music by 18 composers that premiered at New York Theatre Workshop. The show has since been produced in many venues around the world.
Mark is also an advocate for contemporary American opera and mentors future generations of writers through such organizations as American Opera Projects, Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative, American Lyric Theatre, the University of Colorado's New Opera Workshop, and Opera Philadelphia's Composer-in- Residence Program.
Upcoming premieres in 2017 include: ELIZABETH CREEE for Opera Philadelphia, DINNER AT EIGHT for Minnesota Opera, SOME LIGHT EMERGES for Houston Grand Opera, and THE (R)EVOLUTION OF STVE JOBS for Santa Fe Opera.
Matt Gray is a director, producer, writer, and actor in New York City. As Producing Directorand Resident Dramaturg of Brooklyn’s American Opera Projects (AOP) since 2003, Matt Gray has overseen development and production of dozens of concerts, workshops, and opera premieres including the dance chamber opera Hagoromo starring Wendy Whelan (BAM, 2015), Lera Auerbach's The Blind (co-production with Lincoln Center Festival, 2013), and Kaminsky/Reed/Campbell's
As One that had its world premiere at BAM in Brooklyn in 2014. At AOP, he has directed the Philadelphia premiere of Weisman/Rabinowitz's Darkling at Center City Opera Theater following its AOP world premiere in New York City and tour to The Freie Universität Berlin and Poland in 2007 and several opera workshops including AbSynth
(Galapagos Art Space), Numinous City (Rubin Museum of Art), and the historical medical drama Semmelweis (New York Academy of Medicine), for which he is also the librettist. Outside of AOP, he recently directed Mateo Moreno’s play Bohemian Valentine at the 2014 New York Fringe Festival and was the co-writer and co-director of the 12-part serialized play Penny Dreadful which ran at the Brick Theater in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for two years. BFA, North Carolina School of the Arts (Directing).
Orchestral and operatic conductor André Lousada is a strong advocate of Iberian Classical Music and an avid supporter of new concert hall experiences as a way to gain new audiences and proliferate the love for classical music.
Since serving as Director of Orchestras at Ourém e Fátima Conservatoire in 2014, André has been feeding his passion in orchestra-building and in finding a place where the orchestra can have a more active role in the community. From 2012-2014 he was also Assistant conductor at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore and has worked with important musicians as people such as Denyse Graves, Leon Fleisher and Yo-Yo Ma and served as cover conductor for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera House of Baltimore.
He holds a Certificate in Orchestral Conducting from the Prague Conservatory, a Master of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting from the State University of New York at Fredonia, Bachelors and Licentiate Degrees in Musical Direction from the Conservatório Superior de Gaia in Gaia, Portugal and a Graduate Performance Diploma at the Peabody Conservatory of Music under the direction of Markand Thakar and the distinguished Swiss conductor Gustav Meier.
American Baritone and Minnesota native Samuel Thompson will be singing the role of Hannah Before in AS ONE.
Sam has been praised by Opera News as possessing “an attractively focused, resonant baritone,” his recent operatic repertoire includes Oreste in IPHIGÉNIE EN TAURIDE, Iphigénie en Tauride, Schaunard in LA BOHEME, Peachum in DREIGROSCHENOPER, The Vicar in ALBERT HERRING, The Forester in THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN, and Figaro in both IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA and LE NOZZE DI FIGARO. An alumnus of DePaul University, Samuel has been an active performer of a wide variety of concert repertoire in Chicago, such as Handel’s MESSIAH, Carl Orff’s CARMINA BURANA, Poulenc’s LE BAL MASQUé, and YAMAON by Giacinto Scelsi.
Mr. Thompson is particularly excited to be a part of this European premier of new American opera with International Opera Projects. He has been a young artist with Sarasota Opera and The Martina Arroyo Foundation in New York, and is currently making his home in Bern, Switzerland in order to take first steps toward a career in Europe. He is a winner and fellow of the Lumiarts Cultural Foundation voice competition at the Union League of Chicago.
Native Hawaiian mezzo-soprano, Sidney Walker, will take on the role of Hannah After in Laura Kaminsky's AS ONE.
Known as a compelling operatic performer as well as a featured concert artist, Sidney is now living in Berlin pursuing an international career after recently graduating from the University of Minnesota with a Masters in Vocal Performance. She was pleased to have her European debut this past summer (2015) in Novefeltria, Italy, where she performed the role of Isabella in a production of L’Italiana in Algeri, under the direction of Francois Loup.
She has sung a number of leading roles, most recently performing the role of Cherubino in LE NOZZE DI FIGARO. Other roles performed at the U of MN include Carmen in La Tragédie de Carmen, Dorabella in Cosi Fan Tutte, Orlofsky in DIE FLEDERMAUS, Hermia in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Fox in THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN. She was also chosen as the mezzo-soprano soloist for the first staged production of Robert Aldridge’s new dramatic oratorio PARABLES. She also sung major roles with the Twin Cities Fringe Opera, where she performed the role Hänsel in HÄNSEL UND GRETEL and theKomponist in ARIADNE AUF NAXOS. She has also performed major roles with Duluth Festival Opera and The Utah Festival Opera.
The New York native baritone Stephen Barchi has performed extensively in both recital and opera productions. In the upcoming season he will cover Hannah before in the European premiere of AS ONE with International Opera Projects, and as Nicholas in VANESSA with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.
Last season he performed Bluebeard in BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE with the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg in cooperation with the Staatsoper Hamburg. In 2014 he sang Conte Almaviva in LE NOZZE DI FIGARO with Escales Lyriques. He also appeared with the Deutsche Oper Berlin as the Novice’s Friend in BILLY BUD, Moralès in CARMEN, Marullo in RIGOLETTO, Fiorello in IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA and 1st Priest in DIE ZUABERFLÖTE. Mr. Barchi’s performances at the Deutsche Oper Berlin were the result of his appointment to the ensemble of the house, which was made possible by the American-Berlin Scholarship of the Opera Foundation, New York.
Previous seasons included his debut in Alice Tully Hall, New York and several productions at the Juilliard School and the Academy of Vocal Arts. These include Silvano in UN BALLO IN MASCHERA and the title role in EUGENE ONEGIN.
Mr. Barchi holds a B.M. from the Juilliard School and was a Resident Artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts.
American Mezzo-Soprano, Nicole Hyde, will be covering the role of Hannah After in As One.
She currently resides in Berlin, Germany, where she enjoys a blossoming career as a dramatic mezzo-soprano. At home on the opera stage, the former lyric mezzo has performed a host of opera roles including Dorabella in Mozart's COSI FAN TUTTE, Cherubino in Mozart's LE NOZZE DI FIGARO and Sesto in Handel's GIUGLIO CESARE She has sung with a number of opera companies, including Opera Iowa, Kentucky Opera, The Center for Contemporary Opera, and Music-Theater-Group in NYC.
At home on the concert stage, this young mezzo has performed the MOZART REQUIEM, Handel's MESSIAH and Vivaldi's GLORIA with Christ Episcopal Church in Newton, NJ. She has also sung Berlioz's LES NUIT D'ÉTÉ, Pergolesi's MAGNIFICAT, J.S. BACH'S CANTATA182 and Haydn's LORD NELSON MASS the Huntington Choral Society, St. Joseph's Church and the Riverside Orchestra. In Berlin, she has appeared with the Spandau Sinfoniker singing excerpts from Mahler's DES KNABEN WUNDERHORN and presented art song recitals which included the music of Robert Schumann, Richard Strauss, John Harbison, Charles Ives and Hector Berlioz, among others.
Straight theater also holds an interest for Ms. Hyde. Since living in Berlin, she has performed theater both in English and in German. She has appeared on the stage in an adaptation of Sarah Kane's 4.48 PSYCHOSIS - preview as part of the HAU 100° Festival in Berlin. In addition, she has performed at Rroma Theater Klub as Becky in KEINE PARTY OHNE BILLY, an adaptation of Harold Pinter's play THE PARTY and as the SINGER IN ANDERS*, also based on the writings of Sarah Kane.
Darren Saady, born in Sydney, Australia has been living in Berlin for a year working as a freelance repetituer and vocal coach. Having obtained a Masters degree and Artists Diploma in repetiteur from the Guildhall School, London, he was invited to be a staff repetiteur of the 2015 Festival der jungen Stimmen, Internationale Opernwerkstatt in Switzerland by Verena Keller and Roman Brogli-Sacher. In 2014 Darren was a staff répétiteur for the Music Academy International Opera Program in Trentino, Italy, where Renata Scotto was a guest teacher, and was also invited to the Lisa Gasteen National Opera School in Brisbane, Australia working with, among others, John Fisher (The Met, La Scala), Robert Lloyd and Richard Hetherington (ROH). In 2013 he attended the Georg Solti-Peretti Accademia répétiteur’s course in Barcelona, Spain, where staff included Sir Richard Bonynge, Jonathan Papp and Pamela Bullock. Darren has also worked privately with Victor Morris (former Head of Music, English National Opera) in Sydney.
Darren has played orchestral keyboard for the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Opera Australia (Peter Grimes, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk , The Makropulos case), and worked as repetiteur for the Chelsea Opera Group, London. He was also a vocal coach at the Australian Institute of Music. He has performed as a concert accompanist in numerous gala concerts, Lieder, artsong and operatic recitals in the UK, Germany and Australia, including for the Royal Over-seas League at Australia House in London.