Calling: An Opera of Forgiveness
home | about | press | audio/video | creative team | contact | donate
Roland Burks and Nicole Tori,
leads for Calling September, 2008.
(Photo: Azikiwe Mohammed)
Wickham
Boyle: Concept, Librettist, Director  Wickham Boyle Began her career at La Mama ETC and
after numerous theatrical
diversions working at Lincoln Center, the NYC Department of Cultural
Affairs and extensive international touring, she returned to LaMama in
1983 to be executive director where she learned experimental producing
at the side of founder Ellen Stewart. Boyle commissioned work from
Carter Burwell, Tom Judson, Bob McGrath, Bill T. Jones, The Blue Man
Group, and the Urban Bush Women among others. She has a BA in
Anthropology from NYU and an MBA from Yale. Boyle has received grants
from the National Endowment for the Arts, a fellowship from the Japan
Society and the Cuban /American Writers Guild. She was the founder of
CODE magazine and was editor of the monthly publication,
THRIVEnyc. She contributes to National Geographic Traveler, Budget
Travel, Uptown, Gotham, The New York Times, and New York Magazine. Her
book A Mother’s Essays From Ground Zero was a fundraiser for
the
downtown schools attended by her two children. For more
information, please see www.wickiworld.com and midlifemambo.blogspot.com. |
|||
Douglas
Geers, Composer Douglas
Geers is a composer who works extensively with technology in
composition, performance, and multimedia collaborations. Geers' works
have been performed widely, and he has won many grants and
awards,
including a 2007 McKnight Composer Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship,
a Composers Commissioning Project prize from the American Composers
Forum, the Roth-Thomson award for "Impressive project for musical
composition," and others from sources including the Experimental studio der
Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung des Südwestrundfunks e.v.
(Germany), the Zürich Hochschule
für Musik und Theater
(Switzerland), Meet the Composer, ASCAP, NYSCA, the Ditson Fund,
Columbia University, and the Mellon Foundation. Geers is currently
Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Minnesota
(Minneapolis) School of Music, where he teaches composition and is
Director of the studios for Sound, Technology, and Research at the
University of Minnesota (STRUM). He is also the
founder and director of the annual Spark
Festival of Electronic Music and Arts,
is a co-founder and co-Director of the Electric Music Collective, an
internationally-based group of electroacoustic composer-performers, and
he is a member of the electroacoustic improvisation group
Sønreel. For more information including scores,
audio, and
a list of recent performances, please see www.dgeers.com.
|
|||
Carl Christian Bettendorf, Assistant Conductor Born in Hamburg, Germany, Carl Christian Bettendorf is
currently completing his doctoral degree at Columbia University where
he studied with Tristan Murail. Prior to moving to New York, he studied
composition in his home country at the Schools of Music in Munich and
Karlsruhe, working with Hans-Jürgen von Bose and Wolfgang Rihm. His works have been played at major new-music
festivals and venues in Europe and North America alike. He has received
numerous awards, most recently a fellowship from the State of Bavaria
to spend six months in residence at the Cité des Arts in Paris. As a conductor, Mr. Bettendorf has worked closely
with ensembles in Munich (piano possibile) and New York (Wet Ink
Ensemble) and served as assistant conductor of the Columbia University
Orchestra. He has recorded for Albany Records, ArtVoice and Cybele, and
his music was broadcast on German, Swiss, Canadian, U.S. and Australian
radio. |
|||
| Burke Brown: Lighting Designer Recent designs include: The Brothers Size (NYSF-Public Theater, NYC; The Studio Theatre, DC; The Abbey Theater, Dublin); Going Down Swingin’ (NY Musical Theater Festival), John Selya’s La Voix at Joyce Soho; Aszure Barton’s A Traveling Show at the Baryshnikov Arts Center; The Marriage of Fiagro (University of Maine), The Song for New York: What Women Do While Men Sit Knitting (Mabou Mines, Associate Designer); Lulu (Yale Rep); The Flight of Icarus (Soho Think Tank); Richard III, In the Red & Brown Water by Tarell Alvin McCraney, Layla & Majnun, The Real Thing, MSN Dream (Yale School of Drama); Sincerity Forever, Hotel: Eight Rooms (Yale Cabaret); 365 Days/ 365 Plays: Week One (World Performance Project); God is a DJ, Eye, Savage/Love & Tongues (Summer Cabaret); Hansel und Gretel (Opera Theatre of Yale College); Jazz Like a Drug (Juggerknot Theatre Co.); The Just Assassins (Dreamer's Theatre). As a Director: Sarah Kane’s Crave, and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Run, Mourner, Run (co-Director). Mr. Brown is the 2008 Artist in Residence for Lighting Design for Ars Nova. He is a member of Wingspace. www.wingspace.com. BA, Guilford College. MFA, Yale School of Drama. |
|||
| Marty
Kapell: Designer Prior to his training as an architect, Marty Kapell worked extensively in theater, dance and opera in a variety of capacities including set designer, lighting design, director and stage manger. He was the Artistic Director of the Second Company of the Williamstown Theater Festival for several seasons and worked as set designer under Wilford Leach for the ETC Company of LaMama. In dance he was the Production Stage Manger for Twyla Tharp's company and his opera experience includes directing La Dafne for the New York Pro Musica Antiqua. Marty is currently Senior Partner of WASA/Studio A a multi-discipline architectural design firm. Although he works on a wide range of building types, he has designed numerous theaters including, 37 Arts [with John Averitt], the Hofstra University Performing Arts Building and projects at the Brooklyn Academy of Music among many others. While studying architecture at Yale University, Marty had the incredible opportunity to take classes with Ming Cho Lee. |
|||
Edith Hirshtal, Music Director
and Pianist Austrian born
pianist Edith Hirshtal has won enthusiastic responses from audiences
and critics alike. Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times called her
"a pianist with something to say, and that alone makes her preferable
to the majority of pianists today." As soloist , chamber
musician
and collaborative artist, Hirshtal has been heard in concert halls
throughout the United States , including The Philadelphia Academy of
Music and Lincoln Center in New York City. She has appeared with
principal members of The Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York
Metropolitan Opera Company, the Philadelphia Opera Company ,the Sequoia
Quartet and as soloist with San Francisco’s Women’s
Philharmonic , under the baton of JoAnn Falleta. Her first Compact Disc
was recorded in Los Angeles and distributed by Dunhill Compact Classics
, where she can be heard performing the music of Chopin in the CD
entitled “Music Inspired by the Film, Impromptu.”
The
recipient of many awards, Ms. Hirshtal was a prizewinner in the William
Kappel International Piano Competition, where she won the prize for
‘Best Classical Sonata’ for her performance of
Beethoven’s piano sonata ,Opus 109. She was awarded the
Galica
Prize by the Paderewski Foundation of New York City and was a semi
finalist in The Young Concert Artists’ International
Auditions.
Other honors include an Alumni Award from Temple University and
numerous awards from The California State University System . She is
listed in Marquis ‘ Who’s Who of America,
Who’s Who
of American Women and Who’s Who in the World. She
is
professor emeritus of The University of California, Long Beach, where
she taught piano and served as director of Keyboard Studies
and
Area Coordinator of Piano Studies. Please see www.edithhirshtal.com
for more information. |
|||
Hiroya Miura, Conductor Hiroya
Miura, a native of Sendai, Japan, has been active as a composer,
conductor, and performer in the U.S. and Canada. Acclaimed by
Alan Kozin of New York Times as “acidic and
tactile,” his
compositional output typically mirrors his multiple musical roles, and
creates “the charm resulting from continuous changes of
balance.” Feeling equally as an insider and
outsider to
Japanese court music and European modernist music, Miura has composed
works for Speculum Musicae, New York New Music Ensemble, American
Composers Orchestra, and Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, and members of
Reigakusha (Gagaku ensemble based in Tokyo), performed in venues such
as Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Annenberg
Center, and Smithsonian Institution’s Freer
Gallery. He is
also a founding member of the electronic improvisation unit,
NoOneReceiving, whose debut album from the Grain of Sound has won
critical acclaim in Europe and the United States. Most
recently,
Miura’s recent works were featured in the one-hour program,
Ear
to Ear on New York Public Radio. Miura has received
commissioning
grants and fellowships from the Mellon, Jerome, Whiting, and Rohm
Foundations, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the American
Composers Forum. He holds D.M.A. degree from Columbia
University,
and he is Assistant Professor of Music at Bates College, where he
teaches music theory and composition, and directs the College Orchestra. |
|||
Edisa
Weeks, Choreographer Edisa
Weeks is the Director and Choreographer for DELIRIOUS DANCES. Her
choreography merges theater with dance to explore the beauty and
complexity of life. The New York Times described her work as
having, “A lot of imagination and a gift for simple but
striking
visual effects.” Her work has been performed in a variety of
venues including swimming pools, storefront windows, senior centers and
various living rooms, as well as at Chashama Theater, Emory University,
Jacob’s Pillow, Works & Process at the Guggenheim
Museum, The
Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts, The National Black
Arts Festival, and Summerstages Dance Festival, among others.
Internationally her work has been performed in Canada, England,
Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain. Edisa has received several awards
including a New York Foundation for the Arts Choreographic Fellowship,
and Brooklyn Art Council grants. Raised in Uganda, Papua New Guinea and
Brooklyn, NY, Weeks holds an MFA in choreography from NYU where she was
an Alberto Vilar Fellow, and a BA from Brown University. She has taught
at the Alvin Ailey School, Bard College, Brigham Young University,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Milwaukee University, Saint
Ann’s High School and currently teaches at Princeton
University. |
|||
| Calling: Cast | |||
|
|||
Maja Cerar, violin Critics of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung
have praised violinist Maja Cerar in as an "extraordinary talent," a
musician of "great depth," an artist who "listens to her inner self" to
whom "phrasing, articulation, rhythmic and dynamic differentiation
appear to be given by nature." Maja Cerar graduated with honors from
the Conservatory Winterthur-Zurich, where she studied violin under Aida
Stucki-Piraccini. She also took master classes with Zakhar Bron, Franco
Gulli, Igor Oistrakh and Igor Ozim and has given violin master classes
since 2005. From 1995 to 2001 she polished her performance
further with Dorothy DeLay and Kurt Nikkanen in New York. Maja Cerar's
repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the present and her stage
experience includes performance with live electronics, dance and
theater. Concurrent with her violin performance career, Maja Cerar
earned her Master of Arts and Master of Philosophy degrees in
Historical Musicology at Columbia University, and where she is
currently completing her Ph.D. with a dissertation on Schubert's late
string quartets. Grants and awards include Fellowships from the Swiss
Study Foundation for Especially Gifted University Students, the Migros
Foundation, and Columbia University. Ms. Cerar frequently works with
composers, has premiered numerous works written for her, and has been
coached by Beat Furrer, Uros Krek, György Kurtàg, Morton
Subotnick, Alvin Lucier, and John Zorn. For more information please see
www.majacerar.com. |
|||
Shiau-uen Ding, piano A
native of Taiwan, pianist Shiau-uen Ding is a rising presence on the
new and electro-acoustic music scenes, and an original and energetic
performer of traditional solo and chamber repertoire. As a soloist, her
virtuosic and sensitive interpretations have won standing ovations, at
performances in Cincinnati (Music X Festival), Minneapolis (Spark
Festival), New York and Taipei. She has collaborated with numerous
internationally renowned performers and composers, including Michael
Kugel, George Tsontakis (who refers to her performance of his Ghost Variations as a “monster performance”) and Moritz Eggert, who dedicated his Hämmerklavier XIX: Hymnen der Welt (Afghanistan bis Zimbabwe)
to her. In addition, several new compositions have been written for her
by well-known composers, including Mara Helmuth, Christopher Bailey,
Burton Beerman, Eric Lyon and Naxos artist Gao Ping. She has recorded
for the Capstone, Centaur and Electric Music Collective labels. |
|||
Gretchen Garvin, multiple roles Gretchen
Garvin was on the national tour of "Annie Get Your Gun" where she
understudied and performed the role of Annie Oakley. She also had the
pleasure of performing in "42nd Street" in Moscow. Some of Gretchen's
favorite roles have been: Polly Baker in "Crazy for You", Winnefred in
"Once Upon a Mattress" and Antonia in "Man of La Mancha". She had the
great opportunity of singing with The Boston Pops and was apart of the
Broadway Theatre Project in Tampa, FL. She is a Graduate of The Boston
Conservatory of Music where she received a BFA. Gretchen is very
excited to be performing in Calling: The Opera! |
|||
Cecilia "Chichi" Gault Cecilia
"Chichi" Gault is thrilled to sing in this production. At nine years
old she is a big fan of opera. La Traviata and La Boheme are her
favorites. Cecilia is a native of Battery Park City and is
entering the fifth grade this fall at P.S. 89. She is a devout
student of acclaimed jazz singer Abby Paine, and she is also a member
of Trinity Chorus directed by Rob Ridgell. Cecilia also enjoys
fencing, swimming and diving at NYU. While not performing or
practicing, she likes to go clothes shopping in Harajuku. Fluent
in Japanese, she spends part of each summer visiting her grandparents
in Yokohama, Japan. She is also a civically minded environmentalist and
enjoys attending Community Board One meetings with her dad. |
|||
Nique Haggerty, soprano, Teen Daughter & other roles  Nique
Haggerty is honored to work on this wonderful project. New
York/Regional: Margaret Garner at NYCOpera, The Happiest Girl in the
World (Diana), Out of This World (Helen), The Magic Flute (Queen of the
Night), To Kill a Mockingbird (Calpurnia), The Devil and Elijah
Muhammad (Sister Maryum), Show Boat. Commercials: Hyundai and
Atlantis Resort. Many thanks to my voice teacher Peter Pesco! |
|||
Jay Hassler, clarinet Jay
Hassler began his clarinet career while growing up in Anchorage,
Alaska. By the time he graduated from high school, he had performed
with the Anchorage Symphony and the Anchorage Opera. Studying clarinet
with Ricardo Morales, Mr. Hassler received his Masters degree in
Orchestral Performance from the Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Hassler
performs with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra both as principal
clarinetist and as chamber musician. An active freelance musician, Mr.
Hassler has performed with the New Jersey Symphony, Orchestra of St.
Luke’s, American Symphony, and the Stamford Symphony. He recently
completed a thirty-city tour of Brazil with the Manhattan Orchesis
quartet. Mr. Hassler is currently a member of the orchestra for the
current Broadway show The Producers. He has worked with many
notable music figures from many different genres including Wayne
Shorter, Andrea Bocelli, Randy Newman, and Anna Netrebko. |
|||
William Martina, cello
Will
Martina has resided in New York since early 2006, and during his short
time here he has already established himself as an in-demand
instrumentalist, performing and collaborating across a wide range of
styles ranging from Jazz, to Afropop, Rock, Cabaret, and of course,
Classical. He has performed throughout North America and the US and
for many years has been associated with the Banff Center for the Arts
in Alberta, Canada, both as a student and as an instructor. In 2002,
Will was employed by the Banff Center as a member of the Music Faculty.
During this period, as well as teaching, he devised an improvised score
for a Native American dance piece (Bones: An Aboriginal Dance Opera),
was a collaborative artist during the Summer Keyboard Festival, and
performed as soloist with the Banff Summer Festival Chamber Orchestra.
Will enjoys the opportunity to collaborate with artists from other
disciplines. Throughout 2006 he worked closely with the visual artist
Janet Biggs, composing and performing music for several of her works,
and their collaborative pieces were displayed at the LOOP Video Art
Fair in Barcelona and Art Basel Miami. |
|||
Madison Pappas, Younger Daughter Madison
Pappas is a delightful and precocious 8 year old girl. She is a student at
Church Street School of Music and Art with acclaimed jazz musician Abby
Payne. She lives in Lower Manhattan with her parents and her
teacup yorkie named Biscuit. Madison has been
performing in public since she was 4 years old. |
|||
 Daria (Darcia) Parada, multiple roles (Soprano)Daria (Darcia) Parada has sung on opera and concert stages from Canada to Kazakhstan. As a singer, she has performed many leading operatic roles: Tatyana "Eugene Onegin", Nedda "Pagliacci", Mimi "La Boheme", Santuzza "Cavalleria Ruticana", Cio cio san, "Madama Butterfly", First Witch "Dido and Aeneus", Abigail "The Crucible", with the Kyrgyz State Opera, Tashkent Bolshoi, Almaty Opera, Usedomer Festival Germany, Dartington Festival, UK, Brooklyn Lyric Opera, Brandenburg Opera, American Landmark Festivals in NY, as well as on soundtrack recordings on the Decca and London Labels. In addition to role of singer, Miss Parada has forayed producing and directing as founder of Mercury Opera, originally based in New York (featured on Lifetime Live ABC News), whose mission is to stage operas in unusual spaces, desiring to take this beloved art form and make it more accessible to audiences that might otherwise find it intimidating in a more conventional sense. Recent successes include rave reviews for a run of Pagliacci staged inside a tent in Giovanni Caboto Park and at Edmonton's Fringe Festival. |
|||
James J. Rollins, multiple roles James
J. Rollins, baritone, will debut with Opera Pacific and Eastern
Connecticut Symphony this year. He has performed leading roles
with many regional opera companies including Baltimore Opera, Utah
Symphony and Opera, Opera North, and Opera Tampa to name a few.
Having worked on new operas such as Dead Man Walking, and debuting Grapes of Wrath, he is very excited to be a part of Calling. |
|||
Troy Valjean Rucker, multiple roles Troy
Valjean Rucker, baritone. Credits: N.Y./Regional: Margaret Garner (NYCOpera), 365
Days/365 Plays, Show Boat, Ragtime, South Pacific, Angels In America,
L’Histoire du Soldat, Babes In Toyland, operas of: Verdi,
Puccini, Beethoven, Joplin. National/European Tours: Jesus Christ
Superstar, International Symphony. Performances at Carnegie Hall,
Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Aretha Franklin with the Detroit
Symphony. TV/Commercials: History Channel, NBC, UPN, Ford Motor
Company. TroyValjeanRucker.com |
|||
Kamala Sankaram, multiple roles Soprano Kamala Sankaram has performed with artists
as diverse as the Philip Glass Ensemble (Einstein on the Beach), the
Wooster Group (La Didone) and the Albany Symphony Orchestra. She is
also a resident artist at HERE, developing a one-woman multi-media
chamber operetta, and serves on the board of Anti-Social Music. |
|||
Chihiro Shibayama, percussion Native
of Japan, Chihiro Shibayama graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy
with two performance awards in 2003, Chihiro earned Bachelor of Music
degree from The Juilliard School in May 2007. She is currently a second
year masters student at The Juilliard School, studying under Daniel
Druckman. Her former teachers include Greg Zuber, Joe Pereira, Roland
Kohloff, Keith Aleo, Mariko Okada and John Alfieri. Her awards include
the Zildjian Scholarship for the past three years, Irene Diamond
Graduate Fellowship at The Juilliard School in 2007-08, Weekes Memorial
Scholarship from the Glassmen Drum and Bugle Corps in 2006 and the
third prize winner of the PAS(Percussive Arts Society) High School
Keyboard Competition in 2003. Chihiro is an active performer as a
soloist, member of orchestras, small ensembles and a co-founder of MuSE
(Multicultural Sonic Evolution), which pursues to create a
multicultural environment through sound and collaborations with other
fields of art such as dance, theater, and film. She regularly performs
with The Juilliard Orchestra, New Juilliard Ensemble, Juilliard
Percussion Ensemble and AXIOM. She has performed concertos as a soloist
with orchestras including Great Lake Symphony Orchestra and Manitou
Music Festival Orchestra. She was also a member of Spoleto Music
Festival in Italy in 2004, Daytime Emmy's Award Orchestra at Radio City
Music Hall in 2005 and Drum Corps International Finalist, The Glassman
as a timpanist in the summer of 2005 and 2006. Among other notable
performances, Chihiro was one of the on-stage percussionists in the U.S
premiere of Tan Dun’s opera, "TEA – A mirror of soul" at
The Santa Fe Opera in Santa Fe in the summer of 2007. |
|||
Nicole Tori, soprano (female
lead) Soprano
Nicole Tori (the Mother) is an accomplished singer of opera, oratorio
and musical theater. Her credits include Musetta in La
Bohème
(New York Opera Forum), Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera (NYOF), Despina
in Cosi fan Tutte (Mannes), Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos
Dell’Arte Opera Ensemble), and Mother Abbess in The Sound of
Music (Millbrook Playhouse). International credits include
L’Elisir d’Amore (Urbania, Italy), and the Asian
tour of
The Sound of Music. Nicole performed as a finalist in the Classical
Productions Vocal Competition at Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall) and
studied voice performance/opera at Wheaton College (IL) and New England
Conservatory of Music. |
|||
| Calling Support Team: | |||
| Isabelle Deconinck, Media Relations | |||
| Hattie Elliot, Director of Development | |||
| Dominique Stone, Director's Assistant | |||
| Viktoria
Televnyy, Graphic Design Viktoria Televnyy was born on May 9 in the small Ukrainian town of Ternopol. When she turned 13 her parents immigrated to the United States. Her passions are photography and graphic design . This year she received her B.A. in Business Communication with a Major in Graphic Design from Weissman School of Art (aka Baruch College). Viktoria participated in Young Guns6 (an international art competition), and was awarded first place for design of a theatrical poster. She has extensive layout and design experience and enjoys working on precise and detail-oriented projects. Currently she is interning at Forbes Magazine. |
|||
Azikiwe Mohammed, Photography Azikiwe Mohammed graduated from Bard College where he studied photography under the tutelege of Larry Fink, Stephen Shore and An-My Le'. Since graduation he has been shooting his way through the city while working on a photo essay entitled Pictures My Dad Took. A freelance printer, digital and film shooter, Azikiwe currently works at the Camera Club of New York, teaches at the Educational Alliance and is represented by Gallery Sensei. |
|||
American
born bass-baritone Roland Burks is emerging as one of the leaders of a
new generation of vocalists whose range and flexibility recall the
great masters of the bel canto era. Hailing from
America’s
Midwest, Mr. Burks is the recipient of numerous vocal scholarships and
awards, including top honors in the Midwest region of the Metropolitan
Opera National Council auditions. He has performed
extensively
throughout the United States and Europe, with such companies as Houston
Grand Opera, Tri-Cities Opera, Connecticut Opera, The Phoenix
Symphony, Teatro Real (Madrid, Spain), Ernen Festival of Tomorrow,
(Ernen, Switzerland), Bregenz Festival (Bregenz, Austria), and
International Opera Theater in Umbria, Italy. Mr.
Burks’
engaging stage presence and versatility have garnered critical acclaim
in Opera, Oratorio, and Musical Theater alike. In addition to
the
sacred Oratorios and Cantatas of Bach, Handel, Mendelssohn, and Mozart,
other favorite portrayals of Mr. Burks include; Raimondo in
“Lucia di Lammermoor”, The Four Villains in
“Les
Contes d’Hoffmann”, Colline in “La
Bohème”, and the title roles in Handel’s
masterpiece
“Giulio Cesare”, and Stephen Sondheim’s
award winning
Broadway Musical “Sweeney Todd”.