THE COMPOSERS

OMAR WAS WRITTEN BY TWO COMPOSERS:

Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels. Giddens also wrote the libretto, inspired by Dr. Ala Alryyes’ translation of Omar Ibn Said’s autobiography, titled A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar Ibn Said. The idea for Omar originated from an intellectual fascination: when the then-director of the Spoleto Festival Nigel Redden first learned about Omar’s work, he was captivated by the power of his story. In 2017, Redden and producer Nicole Taney first approached Giddens, a self-described “performing historian,” to write an opera about Omar. After writing the libretto, Giddens then brought on Abels to the project to flesh out the musical world.

Rhiannon Giddens is a musician and composer best known for her stylistic musical combinations of folk, bluegrass, and jazz. As an accomplished vocalist and instrumentalist —she plays the fiddle (violin), banjo, and viola—she can be found performing as a solo artist, in duets with multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, and with the old-time string and banjo bands she founded, The Carolina Chocolate Drops and Our Native Daughters. Originally from North Carolina, Giddens attended Oberlin Conservatory to train as a singer and musician in opera and Western art music, and since her graduation, she has built a storied career spanning continents, musical genres, and ensembles. The many awards she has received include two Grammy awards and eight additional nominations, the MacArthur “Genius Grant,” the inaugural Legacy of Americana Award from Nashville’s National Museum of African American History, and she was featured on Ken Burns’ Country Music series on PBS. In 2020, Giddens was named the artistic director of the Grammy-winning Silkroad, originally founded by Yo-Yo Ma. In addition to the success of her opera Omar, she recently published her first book, Build a House (2022), and the ballet she wrote the music for, Lucy Negro Redux, began a national tour.

Michael Abels is a composer best known for his scores for Jordan Peele’s films such as Get Out (2017) and Us (2019). His work is genredefying, drawing on influences from hip-hop, jazz, gospel, and classical music. The score for Us has been short-listed for the Oscar, and he has been nominated and won a dizzying list of best original score awards from various film critics associations. In addition to film scores, Abels has written a number of chamber and orchestral works for prominent ensembles in Chicago, Cleveland, Atlanta, Houston, Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, and Nashville. Born in Phoenix, Arizona, he grew up in rural South Dakota and later attended the University of Southern California. Abels is also a conductor and the co-founder of the Composers Diversity Collective, an advocacy group to increase visibility of composers of color in film, game and streaming media.