This Land Sings - Opera Theater Oregon

OPERA THEATER OREGON PRESENTS

®

THIS LAND SINGS

SONGS OF WANDERING, LOVE, AND PROTEST INSPIRED BY THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WOODY GUTHRIE

By Michael Daugherty

AND

SONGS FOR JOE HILL

By Michael Lanci

August 24th | 7:30pm August 25th | 3:00pm

Artwork by Liz Schafroth

WELCOME + FOUNDER PUBLISHER PUBLISHER + FOUNDER Misty MistyTompoles Tompoles +

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER MEMBERSHIP MANAGER Katrina Ketchum Ketchum Katrina SALES DIRECTOR

SALES DIRECTOR Lindsey Ferguson Lindsey Ferguson DIGITAL DIRECTOR Chris Porras

DIGITAL DIRECTOR MANAGING EDITOR Chris Porras Kristen Seidman

MANAGING EDITOR ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF EVENTS & SPECIAL PROJECTS Kristen Seidman Ashley Coates SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNEROF ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Jackie Tran EVENTS & SPECIAL PROJECTS Ashley Coates BUSINESS MANAGER Bella Showerman

SENIOR GR APHIC DESIGNER PUBLISHING COORDINATOR Jackie Tran Mindy Mawhirter PUBLISHER’S BUSINESSREPRESENTATIVE MANAGER Nicole Lane

Bella Showerman PODCAST HOST

Susannah Mars PUBLISHER’S REPRESENTATIVE CONTRACTORS ChristineLane Dong Nicole Jordyn Roach Heidi Rush

PUBLISHING COORDINATOR Mindy Mawhirter

Opera Theater Oregon is thrilled to present the NW premieres of two exciting new works: Michael Daugherty’s This Land Sings: Songs of Wandering, Love, and Protest Inspired by the Life and Times of Woody Guthrie and the song cycle, Songs for Joe Hill, by composer Michael Lanci. Both works penetrate deep into shared histories and struggles as a people, provocatively charging us to attend our current political, social, and environmental moment with compassion, action, energy, and creativity.

In the format of an “old-time radio show,” Michael Daugherty’s eleven original songs and five instrumental pieces blend original lyrics with music that often draws from the simple and memorable folk melodies of Woody Guthrie. Daugherty’s stylistically eclectic piece weaves the political, social, and environmental themes of Guthrie’s era with poignant and contemporary relevance. Michael Lanci‘s Songs for Joe Hill, inspired by the protest songs of 19th Century labor activists, is an appropriate first act of the story of musicians and activists singing upon the winds of change.

We are especially grateful for local radio personality, Thom Hartmann as our radio announcer. Thom ends his radio program every day with the following tag: “Democracy is not a spectator sport, get out there, get active, tag, you’re it.”—OTO takes this message to heart, spotlighting contemporary artists who, while reflecting on our past, are sending us vibrantly into the future with creativity, music, and an activist spirit.

OTO presents truly community-supported opera. We are able to produce contemporary music that engages, challenges, and inspires new visions for the future because of our dedicated artists, directors, board members, donors, volunteers, and patrons. Thank you to all who have made this production possible. We look forward to sharing more productions to come.

SUBSC RIBE ONL INE

PODCAST HOST Susannah Mars Published by Rampant Creative, Inc.

Nicholas Meyer

Lisa Lipton

Justin Ralls

©2019 Rampant Creative, Inc.

CONTRIBUTOR Heidi Rush, Designer

All rights reserved. This magazine or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher.

Rampant Creative, Inc./Artslandia Magazine 6637 SE Milwaukie Ave., Suite 206 | Portland, OR 97202

SUBSCRIBE ONLINE

Published by Rampant Creative, Inc. ©2019 Rampant Creative, Inc. All rights reserved. This magazine or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher.

Rampant Creative, Inc. / Artslandia Magazine 6637 SE Milwaukie Ave. #207, Portland, OR 97202

2

OPERATHEATEROREGON.COM

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Scott Meyer, Board President Paul Irvin William Goforth Augustina Ragwitz Christine A. Richardson Anne Polyakov Justin Ralls Nicholas Meyer Lisa Lipton

RESOURCE COUNCIL/ VOLUNTEERS Lio Miller (set design) Debra Meyer Bernice Platz George Marvin Daniel Cox Randy Ralls Karen Parrott

OPERA THEATER OREGON PRESENTS

SONGS FOR JOE HILL

By Michael Lanci

CONDUCTOR Justin Ralls

CREATIVE TEAM ARTISTIC CO-DIRECTOR Nicholas Meyer ARTISTIC CO-DIRECTOR Justin Ralls

Helen Huang / SOPRANO

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Lisa Lipton

ENSEMBLE

STAGE DIRECTOR Julia Bray

Jayde Weide / FLUTE Lisa Lipton / CLARINET Bryce Caster / VIOLIN Justin Kagan / CELLO Sequoia / PIANO John Lipton / PERCUSSION

INTERMISSION

THIS LAND SINGS

RADIO ANNOUNCER Thom Hartmann

PRODUCTION SPONSORS Templeton Foundation George Rowbottom & Marilyn Crilley Regional Arts and Culture Council

COMMUNITY PARTNERS

By Michael Daugherty

CONDUCTOR Justin Ralls Thom Hartmann / RADIO ANNOUNCER Hannah Penn / MEZZO-SOPRANO Lisa Neher / MEZZO-SOPRANO Daniel Mobbs / BASS-BARITONE Nicholas Meyer / BARITONE ENSEMBLE Lisa Lipton / CLARINET Danielle Goldman / BASSOON Logan Thane Brown / TRUMPET Jason Elliot / TROMBONE John Lipton / PERCUSSION Bryce Caster / VIOLIN Dan Schulte / BASS

All Classical 89.9 Rimsky Korsakoffee House Portland Monthly XRAY FM Portland Community College Rock Creek First Christian Church Classic Pianos Resound NW Minuteman Press New Seasons Zupan’s Lagunitas Owen Roe Winery Eola Hills Winery Olympia Provisions New Deal Distillery ARTSLANDIA.COM

3

ABOUT THE CREATORS MICHAEL DAUGHERTY Multiple GRAMMY® Awardwinning composer Michael Daugherty was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1954. He is the son of a dance-band drummer and the oldest of five brothers, all professional musicians. Daugherty has achieved international recognition as one of the ten most performed American composers of concert music, according to the League of American Orchestras. His orchestral music, recorded by Naxos over the last two decades, has received six GRAMMY awards, including Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 2011 and 2017.

Daugherty’s music has been commissioned and premiered by many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Albany Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony (U.K), Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra (London), Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, RAI Symphony Orchestra (Milan) and San Francisco Symphony.

As a young man, Daugherty studied composition with many of the preeminent composers of the 20th century including Jacob Druckman, Earle Brown, Bernard Rands and Roger Reynolds at Yale (1980-82), Pierre Boulez at IRCAM in Paris (1979-80) and György Ligeti in Hamburg (1982-84). Daugherty was also an assistant to jazz arranger Gil Evans in New York from 198082. In 1991, Daugherty joined the University of

Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance as Professor of Composition, where he is a mentor to many of today’s most talented young composers. He is also a frequent guest of professional orchestras, university wind ensembles, festivals and music conservatories around the world.

MICHAEL LANCI Michael Lanci is a composer and educator currently residing in Brooklyn, New York.

His music is viscerally engaging and stylistically diverse, drawing from a wide range of influences. Most recently, Michael was a finalist for the Beth Morrison Projects Next Generation Competition that included the commissioning and premiere of his first opera Crude Capital, based on an original libretto by Ajax Phillips.

Michael was also awarded the 2017-18 American Prize for his collection of 5 protest songs dedicated to late nineteenth century singersongwriter and labor rights activist Joe Hill.

Michael’s works have been performed at festivals such as the Cortona Sessions, Edmont Fringe Festival, Orford Festival, Detroit Bureau of Sound, Midwest Composers Symposium and the Vox Novus Festival. He has received commissions from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Beth Morrison Projects, Washington National Opera, Beyond Pluck, Unheard-of//Ensemble, Klangpar2, and the Vive! Ensemble. His works have been performed by the University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra, Contemporaneous, Hypercube, All Of The Above, Buffalo Chamber Players, Duo d’Entre Deux, and the Decho Ensemble.

MAKE A GIFT TO OTO THIS SUMMER! OTO is a 501c(3) tax exempt non-profit organization. We rely on donations to present alternative opera in Oregon, proudly featuring local talent and supporting the careers of professionals and emerging artists.

Opera Theater Oregon presents truly community-supported opera. Make a tax deductible gift to OTO today! Thank you to all of our dedicated artists, directors, board members, donors, volunteers, and patrons!

4

OPERATHEATEROREGON.COM

DONATE SAFELY & EASILY ONLINE: operatheateroregon.com/donate

DONATE BY CHECK IN THE MAIL: OPERA THEATER OREGON C/O Nicholas Meyer 2837 SE Schiller St. Portland, OR 97202

SINGER BIOS HELEN HUANG / SOPRANO In the 2019-2020 season, Chinese-born soprano Helen Zhibing Huang will create the role of Singa Loh in Jorge Sosa’s I Am a Dreamer Who No Longer Dreams, as well as making concert and operatic debuts in Europe and Australia. A strong advocate for new music, she has participated in workshops for operas including Prestini’s Gilgamesh, Wachner’s REV. 23, and Kirchoff’s Friday After Friday. Miss Huang’s other operatic credits include Baby Doe in The Ballad of Baby Doe, Clorinda in Rossini’s La cenerentola, Amor in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, la fée in Massenet’s Cendrillon, Poppea in Handel’s Agrippina, Carolina in Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto, and Flora in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. Her concert credits include Messiah, Creation, Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Symphony No. 4, and Earl Kim’s Where Grief Slumbers. In her spare time, Miss Huang enjoys cooking traditional Chinese dishes, traveling, and making new friends DANIEL MOBBS / BASS BARITONE American bass-baritone Daniel Mobbs has won praise on both sides of the Atlantic for his “solid, resonant voice and boundless energy…his stage presence virtually ensured that he was the focal point of nearly every scene in which he appeared,” as written in the New York Times. In the 2019-2020 season, Mr. Mobbs continues his collaborations with Portland Opera, appearing as the title role in the American Professional Premiere of Vivaldi’s Bajazet, as well as in their Big Night concert. He also appears in concert with Opera Theater Oregon. During the 2018-2019 season, Mr. Mobbs returned to Portland Opera as Baron Douphol in La Traviata. The previous season saw his return to Kentucky Opera as the Music Master in Ariadne auf Naxos, the Metropolitan Opera as Kromow in The Merry Widow and to cover Assur in Semiramide, Portland Opera as Alidoro in La cenerentola, and he joined both Symphoria and the Bryan Symphony Orchestra for Verdi’s Requiem.

LISA NEHER / MEZZO SOPRANO Portland, Oregon mezzosoprano and composer Lisa Neher (DMA) thrives in the crossroads of the concert hall and the theatre stage. Trained as a stage actress, she is equally at home in the worlds of opera and spoken theatre, bringing dramatic specificity and committed physicality to her performances.

A contemporary music specialist, Lisa premiered the leading role in Rita Ueda’s chamber opera One Thousand White Paper Cranes for Japan in Singapore and was recently heard at Third Angle’s Music from the Rooftops concert, New Music Gathering in Boston, the Iowa Composer’s Forum, and the International Saxophone Symposium. This fall, Lisa will perform with the Queer Opera Experience, Cascadia Composers, and the University of Nebraska at Kearney New Music Series. Lisa sings with Resonance Ensemble and is in high demand as a concert soloist. Third Angle Ensemble will premiere her quartet about Oregon tide pools in their October Homecomings concert. lisanehermusic.com.

HANNAH PENN / MEZZO SOPRANO Hannah Penn enjoys a diverse career as a performer of opera, oratorio, and recital literature. Frequently praised for her musicality and the timbre of her voice, Ms. Penn has recently been called “…a major talent”, and “…an intelligent and wonderfully musical singer” by Portland’s Willamette Week. She has sung more than twenty operatic roles with companies around the country. Ms. Penn is a past member of Portland Opera’s studio artist program and also sang her first Carmen with Portland Opera, which garnered critical acclaim and resulted in a chance to reprise the role the following season with the Teatro National Sucre in Quito, Ecuador.

Ms. Penn was last seen with OTO as The Fox in their 2018 production of The Little Prince.

ARTSLANDIA.COM

5

CREATIVE TEAM BIOS NICHOLAS MEYER / ARTISTIC CO-DIRECTOR Baritone Nicholas Meyer has been artistic co-director of OTO since 2017. He made his debut performance with the company, creating the role of John Muir in its world premiere production of Two Yosemites.

Nicholas was praised by Oregon ArtsWatch for his “whiskey-smooth baritone” and that he “interpreted [Muir] to perfection”. NW Reverb wrote he “superbly captured Muir’s dignity and vision for the great outdoors.” Other operatic credits include Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Tarquinius (The Rape of Lucretia), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), and covering the principal role of Beaumarchais in Corigliano’s Ghosts of Versailles.

JUSTIN RALLS / ARTISTIC CO-DIRECTOR OTO’s artistic co-director since 2017, award-winning composer and conductor Justin Ralls has conducted his works around the globe. Ralls served as Associate Conductor of Riverside Chamber Symphony (2017) and conducted the world premiere of his chamber opera, Two Yosemites: An Environmental Opera, with Opera Theater Oregon (2017). Recent projects include a commission from pianist Hunter Noack for his 2018 In a Landscape series of outdoor solo piano concerts in wild spaces and public lands throughout the NW. In 2018 Ralls conducted the NW premiere of Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince with Opera Theater Oregon. Ralls’ award-winning orchestral work Tree Ride was featured on Albany Symphony’s 2017 American Music Festival, conducted by David Alan Miller.

LISA LIPTON / EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Lisa Lipton assumed the role of OTO’s Executive Director in April, 2017. She studied at Portland State University as well as The Central Chinese Conservatory of music in Beijing. As one of the founders of Contemporary Portland Orchestra Project, longtime collaborator of Filmusik, and other new music collectives in Portland, she is an avid performer and advocate of new music. As a clarinetist, she 6

OPERATHEATEROREGON.COM

is extremely versatile having performed with numerous symphonies in the region and festivals such as Decibel festival, TBA festival, PDX Pop Now!, Music FestNW, Astoria Music Festival, and many others.

JULIA BRAY / STAGE DIRECTOR Julia Bray is a creator, performer, writer, singer, dancer, producer, director and teacher who has lived and created in New York City for the past 10 years, and is now located in Portland. She has performed Off Broadway in multiple productions (including two New York Premiers), and appeared in Law and Order SVU, HBO’s How to Make it In America and Boardwalk Empire and MTV’s sketch-comedy show Hey Girl.

Julia’s writing and solo-shows have been seen at Dixon Place, Fresh Ground Pepper, Theater in Asylum, The Habitat Theater Company, CoHo Theater and the variety shows New Skin and All Boats. She recently received a grant for her solo show Matter Is Mother which she wrote, stars in, will direct and produce. Find it in Portland in 2020: the-magic-is-you.com.

THOM HARTMANN / RADIO ANNOUNCER Thom Hartmann is a progressive national and internationally syndicated talk show host whose shows are available in over a half-billion homes worldwide. He's the New York Times bestselling, 4-times Project Censored Award-winning author of 24 books in print in 17 languages on five continents. Leonardo DiCaprio was inspired by Thom's book "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" to make the movie The 11th Hour (in which Thom appears), and Warner Brothers is making a movie starring DiCaprio and Robert De Niro from the book Thom co-authored with Lamar Waldron, "Legacy of Secrecy." Talkers Magazine named Thom Hartmann as the 9th most important talk show host in America in 2018. He has been in the top ten for over a decade and is the #1 most important progressive host, in their “Heavy Hundred” ranking.

OUR SUPPORTERS Donations from Dec 1st, 2018–July 31st, 2019 George Rowbottom & Marilyn Crilley Dave & Elaine Silver Patricia and Terry Brandt Scott Meyer & George Marvin Aaron Short Micah Hummel Paul Irvin & Matthew Egbert Angela Allen Richard Bower Max Dulin Tobias Kauffman Walt & Rosemary Ellis Dorothy Parrott Leon & Mary Jackson Peter & Susan Norman Anonymous Debra Meyer & Myron Dale Randy Ralls & Karen Parrott Will & Meredith Bennett Lisa Shaw

Jeffrey Payne James Marlow Nevada Jones John & Christina Rusnak Lina May Wood Jeffrey Winslow Cindy McCann & Chris Blattner Tom Christ & Mary Kyle McCurdy Christopher & Deidre Santella Margaret Baker Cassandra Engfer Tammy Willis Christine & Michael Mason Miriam Feder Henry Carlile Elizabeth Comer Carole Morse Susan Lucke Sarah Marvin

Mia Hall & Matt Miller Mildred Meyer Chris Pieratti McNair Smith John & Gloria Bennett John & Elizabeth Cameron Augustina Ragwitz Robin McArthur Sophie Lippert Cindy & David Simon David & Cheryl Groth John & Susan Hoover Christine A. Richardson Michelle Debolock Janet & Darrell Miller Carole & Ken Richardson Naomi Dietz William Goforth Nicholas Meyer Lisa Lipton Justin Ralls

1 2

OPERA THEATER OREGON PR E S E N TS

Featuring: Ha nn ah P enn , mezzo-sop ra no William Goforth, tenor Nicholas M eyer, baritone and Special Gue sts!

2 : 3 0 p . m . S u n d a y ,

November 24th 2019

The Old Church Concert Hall

For tickets: operatheateroregon.com

ARTSLANDIA.COM

7

FIND YOUR VOICE Resound NW is a place to sing! Offering private lessons in voice, piano, and guitar, as well as group singing classes and workshops, Resound NW provides a safe and supportive environment to cultivate your artistic voice.

Daniel Buchanan, Founder, Voice and Piano Merideth Kaye Clark, Voice and Guitar Courtney Freed, Voice Claire Hudkins, Voice and Piano Nicholas Meyer, Voice and Piano (503) 489-7464 * WWW.RESOUNDNW.COM * INFO@RESOUNDNW.COM