THE AMERICAN OPERA PROJECT PRESENTS EMMY AWARD-WINNING SOPRANO ADRIENNE DANRICH’S “MUSIC AS THE MESSAGE: SING TOGETHER, CHILDREN!” IN HONOR OF JUNETEENTH
May 25, 2021
Brooklyn, NY - Music as the Message: Sing Together, Children!, the fourth live, interactive concert created and hosted by Emmy Award-winning soprano Adrienne Danrich, will premiere Sunday, June 13th at 4pm EDT, presented by The American Opera Project in association with Opera on Tap. Held in honor of Juneteenth, the holiday celebrating the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the United States, the concert will celebrate the sorrow, the joy, and the accomplishments of African Americans, through multi-genre songs, poems, hymns, and personal reflections. The one-hour event is held on Zoom and is free, with goodwill offerings accepted. To register to attend, visit http://www.aopopera.org/music-message.
Created and hosted by Emmy Award-winning soprano Adrienne Danrich, Music as the Message (MaM) is an interactive, virtual series. Streamed live, MaM celebrates the power of music to unify and to inspire healing, joy, laughter, love and most importantly, community. Adrienne, along with guest artists, the MaM choir and commissioned composers, leads a program of uplifting songs and spoken word. The MaM artists sing live from their own homes and encourage attendees to join in and lift their voices, as well —on mute, of course. Following this musical catharsis, the audience is welcome to speak with the artists, and reflect or listen in support of their fellow participants.
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Guest Artists:
Special Guest Appearance by:
Rose-Marie Bell
MaM Choir:
Kearstin Piper Brown, soprano
Laura Portune, soprano
Patrice P. Eaton, mezzo soprano
Tesia Kwarteng, mezzo soprano
Brandon Snook, tenor
Jorell Williams, baritone
Scott Tomlinson, bass
Brandon Snook, tenor
Scott Tomlinson, bass
Creative Team:
Creative Content Producers:
Robert Signom III, director of production
Scott H. Schneider, production manager
Marcie Friedman, stage manager
Rome Brown, video director
Julia Sprung, Tech support production
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As an award-winning singer, writer, composer, and educator, Adrienne Danrich is redefining what it means to be a creative performer. The voice of EMMY® award winning soprano Adrienne Danrich has been described as “fresh liquid-silver”, “radiant”, and having a “sensual timbre and dramatic truth” by Opera News. She has performed, covered workshopped leading roles with Lyric Opera Chicago, San Francisco Opera, The Metropolitan Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Tulsa Opera, Opera Pacific, Sarasota Opera, Dayton Opera, Kentucky Opera, Annapolis Opera, Opera Delaware, Baltimore Concert Opera and Fort Worth Opera. She has also performed at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall & Alice Tully Hall. Danrich also appeared in the NBC broadcast of The Sound of Music, Live! In addition to singing operas, concerts and recitals around the country, Danrich performs her one-woman show, This Little Light of Mine: The Stories of Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price, which she wrote under a commission from Cincinnati Opera. This Little Light of Mine was nominated for an EMMY®, and, additionally, Ms. Danrich was personally nominated and subsequently won an EMMY® for on-camera talent as performer and narrator. Distinctive in her talent and charisma, Adrienne is known for going places other artists have not yet ventured.
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Opera on Tap (OOT) was born in 2005 at Freddy’s Bar and Backroom in Brooklyn and incorporated in 2007 to promote opera as a viable, living and progressive art form and to support the developing artists who continue to keep the art form alive. What began as a small monthly gathering of ambitious, classically trained singers looking for more performance opportunities, has grown into a producing organization that has gained a loyal audience base and national recognition as an innovative force on the classical music scene. Through its Chapter program, which now has over twenty vibrant national (and international!) chapters, OOT has created a large network of performers, creators, and supporters. Our mission is to expose new audiences to opera and classical music by taking opera and classical music out of the concert hall and performing it in alternative venues, to aid young performers in their development by giving them the opportunity to perform and to promote and support them through our organization and to help promote new classical works of contemporary classical and operatic composers. We are headquartered as a national organization in Brooklyn and in NYC present three programs intended to adhere to our mission of community engagement through opera:
THEME OF THE MONTH/NEW BREW- Our core community engagement program that places opera performers in alternative spaces to concert halls, this is replicated across all of our Chapters.
THE PLAYGROUND OPERAS: Our in-school arts residency program that transforms 3rd and 4th grade classes into production teams. The program culminates in a full professional production of an opera on their schoolyard for the public. This program recently received and continues to enjoy the endorsement of US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. In 2021 the Playground Opera program is going virtual.
THE IMMERSIVE OPERA PROJECT (IOP): Our commissioning/development/full production program. The project is a collaboration of Opera on Tap and regional opera companies across the globe to develop and showcase new immersive works of opera utilizing immersive technologies (VR/AR/MR/XR), and also inclusive of live immersive and site-specific opera performance. Founding partners include Austin Opera (TX) and Tapestry Opera (Toronto).
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ABOUT MUSIC KITCHEN - FOOD FOR THE SOUL |
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Music Kitchen – Food for the Soul, founded by violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins, is the pioneer organization bringing top classical music artists together to share the inspirational, therapeutic, and uplifting power of music with those experiencing homelessness in New York City, Los Angeles and beyond. Described by the New York Times as “Just three blocks from Lincoln Center… The concerts have an air of authenticity and directness that sometimes does not exist in concert halls.” In celebration of 16 years, Music Kitchen most recently commissioned a groundbreaking song cycle by award-winning composers to make Forgotten Voices heard, which will be presented in an upcoming world premiere in association with Carnegie Hall.
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ABOUT FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN NEW YORK |
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Established in 2000, Friends of the Children New York is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that is demanding equity for the most marginalized youth and families. We do this by providing 12 + years of individualized, professional mentorship to families and through systems change advocacy - no matter what.
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ABOUT THE AMERICAN OPERA PROJECT |
Founded in 1988, The American Opera Project (AOP) has been at the forefront of contemporary opera for over 30 years. The Brooklyn-based producing organization commissions, develops and produces music-theatre projects, trains emerging composers and librettists, and creates personal connections within its community. Its works have received critical acclaim at opera companies and venues around the world, establishing a new musical canon that recognizes the operatic story in every life. AOP further expands the operatic field through its training programs The NYU Opera Lab, in partnership with NYU and for students and alumni in The NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, and Composers & the Voice, AOP’s in-house, two-year fellowship program for emerging composers and librettists.
Press for AOP:
"known for bringing cutting-edge vocal productions to the masses" — New York Magazine
"a perfect first exposure to opera." — Time Out NY
"Bravo to AOP for supporting such controversial and ultimately important work." — Opera Today
"The future of American opera is in good hands." — Opera News
Media Contact: Meagan Brus, Director of Marketing and Communications
email: mbrus@aopopera.org
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