Resonant Bodies Festival Announces NYC 2019 Lineup
“A festival suffused with purpose and ambition.” ResBods returns to Brooklyn’s Roulette Intermedium for its 7th annual festival this September 3-5, 2019. Featured artists include Kate Soper, Arooj Aftab, Anthony Roth Costanzo, and Charmaine Lee with guest artists Conrad Tao, Vijay Iyer, Wet Ink Ensemble, Ashley Bathgate.
May 29, 2019
DETAILS
NYC 2019 RESONANT BODIES FESTIVAL
Roulette | 509 Atlantic Ave | Brooklyn, NY 11217
FESTIVAL PRICING
$50 Festival Pass for all three nights
$75 Superfan Festival Pass includes VIP seating + drink ticket
PER NIGHT PRICING
Presale tickets: $20 standard; $30 Superfan presale with VIP seating + drink ticket
Door tickets: $20 student; $25 general
““In equal measures intelligent, playful, ambitious and moving, the program illuminated the shape-shifting power of the human voice.” ”
That intoxicating review of the inaugural Resonant Bodies Festival in 2013 marked its arrival as an immediately valuable contributor to the city’s music scene. The festival has since evolved into something akin to New York Fashion Week for the new music set, offering a chance for buck-the-trendsetters to experience the high-energy epicenter of experimental vocal music.
The flagship festival returns to Roulette this September 3-5, kicking off the concert season with three fast-paced nights of vocal luminaries and artistic renegades converging in the best “see and be seen” creative energy New York has to offer.
LINEUP
September 3
Charmaine Lee • Anthony Roth Costanzo • Jane Sheldon
September 4
Anaïs Maviel • Kate Soper • Ted Hearne
September 5
Stephanie Blythe • Arooj Aftab • Erin Gee
"From Song Came Symphony" is 'A Wide-Ranging Night of African-American Music Served up with Fire And Feeling'
The Burleigh Society and Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra co-production “landed with earth-shattering force.”
May 9, 2019
Photo by Richard Burrowes, International Center of Photography alum
“From Song Came Symphony,” a co-production of the Harry T. Burleigh Society and Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra, has earned critical acclaim. The performance, tracing the symphonic influence of Burleigh’s compositions, included the NYC premiere of Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and William Grant Still’s rarely heard oratorio And They Lynched Him on A Tree.
““The baleful concluding oracle landing with earth-shattering force.””
The New York Classical Review praised Still’s piece, saying it “does indeed still pack a wallop” as it “provides a new context for Still’s account of a black life that mattered, and his fervent words of warning at the end.”
San Francisco Classical Voice hailed Burleigh as a “titanic figure in U.S. music history,” praising the performance of his “work’s deft inner voices with great clarity” and the “rich and seamless sound” of the orchestra’s string section. In the Price Concerto, “Kelly Hall-Tompkins covered the solo part with unflappable poise, bringing a luscious radiance to her lower register. The orchestra swooned and incandesced with theatrical fervor.”
Read the full review from New York Classical Review >
Read the full review from San Francisco Classical Voice >
Harry T. Burleigh's 'Pioneering Influence' Recognized by All Arts
“Organizers have sought to recognize creators who unflinchingly detailed Black experiences despite the risk of offending a powerful white establishment.” An All Arts preview examines the influence of Harry T. Burleigh on generations of African American classical musicians.
May 3, 2019
Photo by Shateek Mitchell, International Center of Photography alum
““’Burleigh wrote music that was both immediately recognizable to the ear as having African-American music idiom influence — and music that was not,’ explained Marti Slaten, the executive director of the Harry T. Burleigh Society. She said his success in skirting that delicate line between two seemingly disparate genres created space not only for him, but also for future generations of Black artists and creatives.””
Ahead of their May 8 concert at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Harry T. Burleigh Society spoke with All Arts about their second collaboration with the Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra.
The concert, to include the NYC premiere of Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2, and the rarely performed William Grant Still oratorio And They Lynched Him on A Tree, is designed to showcase symphonic composers influenced by Burleigh’s work.
All Arts wrote that the concert will “recognize creators who unflinchingly detailed Black experiences despite the risk of offending a powerful white establishment.”
Read the preview >
Burleigh Society Concert at Carnegie Hall Praised for Performance, Promise
“A stinging rebuke to still-active demeaning stereotypes that cast black people as sassy, loud, and unrefined.” The Harry T. Burleigh Society concert, featuring the Fisk Jubilee Singers, earned critical acclaim from the Log Journal.
March 6, 2019
Photo by Sara Beth Turner
““Burleigh’s spiritual arrangements are artful and jewel-like, deftly weaving voices into a seamless texture [with] aching suspensions and rich, surprising dissonances…””
The March 2 Harry T. Burleigh Society concert at Carnegie Hall, featuring the Fisk Jubilee Singers, earned critical acclaim from the Log Journal.
“While it would technically be accurate to call the Jubilee Singers a college a cappella ensemble, the designation does not do them justice. They sing, with uncanny precision, in a plush bel canto style… It allowed for the haunting, otherworldly conclusion to In Bright Mansions. In a haloed murmur, the basses sang a repeating descending figure, lingering on each note that rubbed against the diaphanous held chord in the upper voices – a frisson of quiet ecstasy, a premonition of Heaven."
“Wade in the Water is…a pungent, brooding arrangement of a tune laced with buried, righteous anger. In the quiet, refined style of the Fisk Singers, it was hair-raising. Other songs affirmed the necessity of hope, promising Heaven as a release from literal bondage; Wade in the Water affirmed the necessity of justice, promising a reckoning far too long overdue.”
Turn The Spotlight Foundation to Mentor Arts Leaders
Turn The Spotlight’s mission is to identify, nurture, and empower leaders, and in turn, illuminate the path to a more equitable future in the arts. The foundation was created to pair top-tier mentors with exceptional women, people of color, and other equity-seeking groups in the arts.
July 31, 2018
Lumos Fellows Elena Uriote and Melissa White. Photo by Daniel Cavazos
Today, twenty-one arts leaders and activists announce the launch of Turn The Spotlight, a foundation created to pair top-tier mentors with exceptional women, people of color, and other equity-seeking groups in the arts. Beth Stewart, a New York City-based arts entrepreneur and classical music publicist, will lead the foundation, which is supported by an Advisory Board of arts world luminaries, including soprano Julia Bullock, journalists Anne Midgette and Celeste Headlee, conductors Lidiya Yankovskaya and Nicole Paiement, stage director Francesca Zambello, classical music publicist Mary Lou Falcone, arts advocates Monica Yunus and Camille Zamora, and women’s rights advocate Amanda Mejia.
“We believe that systemic change is crucial,” said Turn The Spotlight Founder Beth Stewart. “We also believe that one-on-one mentoring can have real impact, particularly in an industry in which so many professionals are freelancers working outside an established institutional framework. Our mission is to identify, nurture, and empower leaders, and in turn, illuminate the path to a more equitable future in the arts.”
Stewart has recruited ten industry-leading mentors from a wide range of artistic specialties, including Emmy Award-winning documentarian Kristin Atwell Ford, producer/director Avery Willis Hoffman, Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, and composer Kamala Sankaram. They will join arts activists Alysia Lee, Rebecca McFaul and Anne Francis Bayless, sopranos Heidi Melton and Corinne Winters, and designer Jessica Jahn in mentoring the foundation’s fellows during the 2018/19 season.
“Nearly all of our first cohort of Lumos Fellows have founded organizations, produced or commissioned new work. Each has a distinctive voice and clear personal mission, and they are committed to using their art to strengthen their communities. We believe these versatile and inventive arts leaders and activists are the way forward,” said Stewart.
The 2018/19 Lumos Fellows will collaborate on a striking breadth of projects, ranging from building community investment in arts entrepreneurship to developing a line of gender non-binary swimwear, and confronting personal violence through performance. The Fellows include vocalist Lucy Dhegrae, founder of the Resonant Bodies Festival, director/producer Jamil Jude, founder of The New Griots Festival, violinist and Fulbright Scholar Teagan Faran, who studies how music can strengthen community togetherness, and composer Frances Pollock, whose music examines social issues through collaboration outside traditional academic circles.
Emerging classical singers Rehanna Thelwell, Felicia Moore, and Anush Avetisyan, costume designer Sueann Leung, and DC Strings Artistic Director Andrew Lee will round out the first cohort, along with violinists Elena Urioste and Melissa White, whose company Intermission was founded to teach musicians yoga techniques to support the demanding physicality and emotional undertaking of performance.
At the conclusion of the mentorship season in May, one Lumos Fellow will be chosen by the Spotlight Advisory Board to receive the Hedwig Holbrook Prize, to include $5,000 and a website designed by Stewart’s PR firm, Verismo Communications.
“It’s my hope that this prize, named in honor of the late soprano Jennifer Holbrook, will represent a galvanizing force in one fellow’s life each season,” said Stewart. “I expect each of our Lumos Fellows to emerge from this experience with a clearer vision of the path of his or her personal mission, and a deeper well of fuel to get there.”
Though the organization’s day-to-day operations will be focused on individual mentorship, Turn The Spotlight leaders hope that their cumulative efforts will contribute to addressing inequity across sectors of the arts industry.
“The classical music industry continues to lag woefully behind when it comes to diversity, especially in leadership positions within larger-budget organizations,” said conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya, founder of the Refugee Orchestra Project and the only female Music Director in the top 50 opera companies in the United States. “Turn the Spotlight is providing the essential mentorship and support those from marginalized groups require in order to reach high-level career goals. I am thrilled to be part of this vital resource for deserving artists across the field.”
“The arts provide the prism through which we can first envision, and then build, a better and more just world,” added Camille Zamora, co-founder of Sing for Hope and a leading voice in the artist-as-citizen movement. “Turn The Spotlight is poised to do exactly what the name suggests: refocus the illuminating power of the arts.”
Verismo Clients in Audi Magazine
"Atlanta is home not only to some of the most progressive and competent fine arts institutions in the U.S. but also to uniquely engaged creative communities. The fearless and empathetic role of the artist in Atlanta makes the place a paragon of a new American art mecca..." Mezzo Jamie Barton and The Atlanta Opera are featured in Audi Magazine's "Art x ATL" piece.
August 1, 2017
““Now, he’s been able to realize big, emotional blockbusters—like the epic wartime piece we saw—responsibly, by shrewdly collaborating with many other production companies. Not to spoil anything, but I cried a second time during the second act of Zvulun’s production of “Silent Night,” the performance completely overwhelming my expectations.””
As part of its "Art x ATL" feature, Audi Magazine interviewed mezzo Jamie Barton and The Atlanta Opera's Tomer Zvulun.
The Atlanta Opera Announces 17/18 Season
In the coming season, The Atlanta Opera will showcase its vision as a regional leader in the arts through innovative, theatrical productions of diverse works. The 17/18 season will also feature the first fully staged performances of Jake Heggie's Out of Darkness, in TAO's fourth consecutive season offering a contemporary work by an American composer.
February 8, 2017
Early look at The Flying Dutchman, designed by Jacob Climer with projections by S. Katy Tucker
““In 2017-18, we will collaborate with visionary theatrical and visual artists to ensure that everyone who comes through our doors can have a transformative experience. We will also perform 50 percent of our season in English, ensuring that newcomers to opera have a welcoming introduction. This season, we are focusing on the theme of ‘The Outsider,’ with programming that responds to our present moment, where so many communities feel on the fringe. This will include both contemporary stories and timeless works that resonate today.””
Centering on opera's fascinating outsider characters, The Atlanta Opera's 2017/18 mainstage season opens November 4 with Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, in a new production by Zvulun, followed by Bizet’s Carmen, Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment, and Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. With these productions, TAO celebrates its 10th anniversary at the stunning, acoustically superior Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center.
The Discoveries Series returns in the fall for its fourth season. In response to quickly sold-out spring 2017 productions, this season will feature an expanded number of performances. The series includes Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins, directed by Serenbe Playhouse Artistic Director Brian Clowdus, and the world premiere of Jake Heggie’s Out of Darkness: Two Remain, directed by Zvulun and starring Theatrical Outfit Artistic Director Tom Key.
Zvulun spoke with Schmopera about discovering Wagner and what he's most excited about in 2017/18.
The Atlanta Opera Scores Artistic And Business Wins
The Atlanta Opera’s Silent Night “revealed a company unafraid to move in bold new directions, and with more than enough talent on hand to take a captivated audience along with it into the 21st century."
November 11, 2016
“The Atlanta Opera’s Silent Night revealed a company unafraid to move in bold new directions, and with more than enough talent on hand to take a captivated audience along with it into the 21st century.”
The Atlanta Opera's bold artistic and business moves are earning notice:
- General and Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun was nominated for an ArtsATL Luminary Award, a commemoration of the passionate, creative and innovative spirit of Atlanta's arts community.
- Behind the scenes, TAO reached a three-year labor agreement with its orchestra, ensuring that the company's growing quantity and quality of productions can be sustained.
- Onstage, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Silent Night was 'a stirring and ambitious performance (ArtsATL), at once 'heart-rending' and 'unforgettable' (AJC.com).
The Atlanta Opera Opens Its Boldest Season Ever
The Atlanta Opera opens its largest, most innovative season yet, featuring new repertoire, a new Young Artist Program, smart collaborations, and must-see talents.
September 30, 2016
Image of "Winterreise" by Raftermen for The Atlanta Opera
The Atlanta Opera's expanded 2016-17 season features new repertoire, a new Young Artist Program, smart collaborations, and must-see talents.
Under the leadership of General & Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun, this season will be the largest and most wide-ranging in the company’s history. TAO will stage four mainstage works, including a U.S. premiere production of 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner Silent Night, and two site-specific Discoveries series productions, including a collaboration with New York’s On Site Opera. The season includes a total of 27 performances, including 16 on the mainstage, 8 in the Discoveries series, and the annual Opera with an Edge season preview, Holiday Concert, and new work creation event 24-Hour Opera.
This season marks the launch of The Atlanta Opera’s first young artist program, The Atlanta Opera Studio. Four singers, one pianist, and one stage director on the cusp of major careers will receive in-depth training in performance skills, foreign languages, and career development. In addition, they will participate in masterclasses with leading artists and perform alongside international talent in mainstage productions. They will also star in the Studio Tour, which reaches more than 10,000 students, and in a variety of community events throughout the metro-Atlanta area.
In his fourth season, Zvulun affirms his commitment to new and rediscovered works. On the mainstage, he will direct a U.S. premiere production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night by composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell. A co-production with the Wexford Festival Opera and the Glimmerglass Festival, it was awarded the Audience Choice Award and Best Opera Award at the Irish Times Theatre Awards in its 2014 Wexford premiere.
Successfully launched in 2014 under Zvulun, the Discoveries series – which emphasizes new works, new ideas, and fresh perspectives – returns for its third season with an expanded offering of nine performances. This year, the series brings opera to communities throughout the Atlanta area with site-specific productions of Maria de Buenos Aires by composer Astor Piazzolla, and Mozart’s The Secret Gardener.
The Spanish-language Maria de Buenos Aires follows the seductive title character, who falls in love with tango dancing in the heart of the Argentine capital. Composed and first presented in 1968, Maria de Buenos Aires makes for a vibrant evening of opera by combining sensual tango music with a surreal, adventurous story.
The Discoveries series partners with On Site Opera to bring Mozart’s The Secret Gardener to life in a new co-production tailored to its botanical setting. Now in its fifth season of producing immersive site-specific opera, On Site Opera has been praised by BBC News as "innovative" and The New York Times as a "vital" and "visionary company.”
The Discoveries series’ 2015 productions of contemporary operas Three Decembers by Jake Heggie and Soldier Songs by David T. Little were highlighted in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Best of 2015 list. This season, The Atlanta Opera’s celebrated production of Soldier Songs will be restaged at San Diego Opera. The company will collaborate again with the Wexford Festival Opera as a co-commissioner of the world premiere of William Bolcom’s Dinner at Eight, along with the Minnesota Opera, where the work will receive its premiere in March 2017.
2016 Tucson Desert Song Festival Delivers World-Class Talent to Sonoran Desert
“In a modern world in which classical music is facing a tough battle for continued funding, TDSF is giving smaller regional organizations an opportunity to thrive.” The Tucson Desert Song Festival brings the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and Grammy winners to the Old Pueblo.
February 8, 2016
Photo by Mike Sultzbach
““Few music festivals can claim the leadership position or forward thinking of the Tucson Desert Song Festival (TDSF). In a modern world in which classical music is facing a tough battle for continued funding, it is the TDSF that is giving smaller regional organizations an opportunity to thrive.” LATIN POST”
By attracting vocal stars from around the world to the stunning Sonoran Desert each winter, the Tucson Desert Song Festival is earning a reputation as a destination arts festival.
The 2016 Festival featured 23 performances over 18 days, including those by Grammy winner Sasha Cooke and BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and Richard Tucker Award winner Jamie Barton, pictured here.
Barton and soprano Amber Wagner, as well as husband-and-wife team of mezzo Daniela Mack and tenor Alek Shrader, were presented in duo recitals by Arizona Opera, which also produced Carmen. Barton, Wagner, and Shrader were all winners of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, which were captured in the 2009 documentary "The Audition".
Cooke joined tenor Richard Cox for "Mahler and Martial Arts" with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, while guitarist Adam del Monte and baritone Bernardo Bermudez collaborated with Ballet Tucson and the Tucson Guitar Society on "Rhythms of the Americas".
Other guest artists for the fourth annual TDSF included the Grammy-winning a capella group Cantus, The Broken Consort, Marie-Josée Lord, and a quartet of young artists from the Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute.
See what the press are saying:
“Whether you’re an opera fan, a devotee of early music, or you enjoy everything symphonic, the Tucson Desert Song Festival will give you plenty of reasons to stand and applaud.”
Tucson Lifestyle Magazine
“Living in Southern Arizona, we don’t often experience some of the world’s best classical vocal talents live, and in person. This dilemma was addressed in 2010 with the founding of Tucson Desert Song Festival.”
Zocalo Magazine
“The Tucson Desert Song Festival is a bonanza of gorgeous music. Arts groups and the fest folk have teamed up to bring us internationally known talent, as well as rising stars in the art song field."
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson Desert Song Festival Makes Cover of Caliente
Caliente explores how TDSF lures top singers, the collaboration with the Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute to honor Robert Shaw, and guitarist Adam del Monte's musical upbringing in the caves of Spain.
January 21, 2016
Artwork by Tammie Graves for Arizona Daily Star
The Tucson Desert Song Festival is featured as the Arizona Daily Star Caliente cover story, including breakouts on TDSF's collaboration with the Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute to honor Robert Shaw, guitarist Adam del Monte's musical upbringing in the caves of Spain, and a "TDSF by the Numbers" breakdown.
Tucson Desert Song Festival and Jamie Barton on KGUN-9's Morning Blend
"For 18 days this winter, the world’s most exciting vocal stars will descend on Southern Arizona, enriching the seasons of eight local performing arts organizations." Jamie Barton and TDSF Director George Hanson made a joint television appearance, featuring an interview and two performance segments.
January 20, 2016
Jamie Barton and TDSF Director George Hanson joined the Morning Blend for an interview and performance television appearance.
Tucson Desert Song Festival Featured in Zocalo Magazine
Zocalo writes about the power of the human voice, the popularity of song, and how TDSF is bringing the world's best to Tucson.
January 5, 2016
Photo by Dario Acosta
““The power of voice in music is indisputable. The popularity of song is undeniable, from classical circles to pop music and even popular culture, thanks to such shows as “The Voice.” But living in Southern Arizona, we don’t often experience some of the world’s best classical vocal talents live, and in person. This dilemma was addressed in 2010 with the founding of Tucson Desert Song Festival...” ZOCALO MAGAZINE”
Tucson Desert Song Festival Featured in Tucson Lifestyle Magazine
The magazine previews TDSF16 and talks to mezzo Daniela Mack about Carmen with Arizona Opera, one of the highlights of this year's festival.
January 1, 2016
Photo by Simon Pauly
““Whether you’re an opera fan, a devotee of early music, or you enjoy everything symphonic, this annual event will give you plenty of reasons to stand and applaud.” TUCSON LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE”
Tucson Desert Song Festival Subject of 3-Piece Feature in Latin Post
"Few music festivals can claim the leadership position or forward thinking of the Tucson Desert Song Festival." The Latin Post features the TDSF's work, including upcoming appearances by Spanish guitarist Adam del Monte and Argentine-American mezzo Daniela Mack.
December 3, 2015
““Few music festivals can claim the leadership position or forward thinking of the Tucson Desert Song Festival. In a modern world in which classical music is facing a tough battle for continued funding, TDSF is giving smaller regional organizations an opportunity to thrive.” LATIN POST”
The Tucson Desert Song Festival's 2016 season is featured in a 3-part series in the Latin Post. The series discusses the festival funding model, as well as upcoming performances by Adam del Monte and Daniela Mack.
Part I: Tucson Desert Song Festival Paves the Way for Smaller Regional Organizations
Part II: Spanish Guitarist Adam del Monte Talks Tucson Desert Song Festival, Argentine Folk Music
Part III: Argentine-American Mezzo Soprano Daniela Mack Looks Ahead to Tuscon Desert Song Festival