This weekend The Little Prince with Opera Parallele opens! I'm so thrilled to be playing the role of Water in this gorgeous scene which features artwork by Matt Kish!
[New Project Launch]
Today I launched my new project entitled Reassemble With Care, which is a staged song cycle for amplified soprano and chamber ensemble. The cycle is made up of composed music by Dominick DiOrio, spoken word and improvised music, all set to text by myself. The poetry is inspired by my own experience with sexual harassment and assault.
Check out the Teaser Trailer here, which is an improvisation to the text of Movement VII of Reassemble With Care featuring cellist Karen Ouzounian.
[Body Maps]
Maureen Kelly and I had a great time performing Paola Prestini's Body Maps with Fresh Squeezed Opera! #newmusic #electronics #freshsqueezedopera
[Recording from our first rehearsal at Opera America]
[World Premiere of Sophia's Forest]
We just finished a hugely successful production week and premiere of Lembit Beecher's opera Sophia's Forest! I've spent nearly a year workshopping the piece with Lembit and the Aizuri Quartet and to see the full opera take shape was a true thrill. This was one of those dream productions, filled with the most talented, sweetest and most passionate people around. We were lead by Brian Staufenbiel and Nicole Paiement of Opera Parallele and our Sophia was the amazing soprano Kiera Duffy. Lembit teamed up with the Drexel University Excite Center to create a forest of beautiful and haunting sound sculptures.
[Big Mouth Society Launch]
I'm back from an amazing time in Portland, OR where I worked with The Broken Consort on two world premieres by composer Emily Lau. We all spent two weeks living together, eating together, rehearsing, improvising and recording an album of Emily's music. Our time concluded with a live performance of The Glorious Cuntata and Radical Softness at the official launch party of the Big Mouth Society. It was a gift to live immersed in artistic expression and exploration with a group of such courageous, talented and loving people.
photo credit: Meg Nanna
[Urban Arias Debut]
Last week I spent five days improving and rehearsing with an amazing group of people! I joined Urban Arias for their Sizzlin' Summer Nights "Scenes, Not Screens!" at the Signature Theater in Arlington, VA. I've spent some time doing opera improv, but this was my first time doing it in front of an audience, and just as I suspected, it was even MORE fun that way! In addition to performing improvised opera, we put on a production of the new opera Service Provider. We were joined by composer Christopher Weiss and librettist/ choreographer John De Los Santos, who helped us block our (hilarious) fight scene and give us insights into this fantastic piece.
Dallas is very enthused about the specials, but Charlene would rather take wine selfies ;)
"I lied... that dress makes you look fat!"
[Classical Singer Magazine Feature]
I'm featured in Classical Singer Magazine's Summer 2016 publication! Michelle LaTour interviewed me for her column "Where I Last Got Paid To Sing." I was thrilled to tell her all about my amazing experience in South Korea with the PyeongChang Winter Music Festival back in February. Pick up a copy, or read the article here!
[S&R Washington Award]
I am so honored to be one of the five winners of the S&R Foundation 2016 Washington Award, which recognizes talented emerging artists in all disciplines. Last weekend I traveled to Washington DC to meet the other amazing winners for a beautiful dinner and to perform at the award Gala. It was amazing to spend the week in the company of incredible and inspiring artists. Huge thanks to President Dr. Sachiko Kuno, Dr. Ryuji Ueno, Molly Turner and Danielle Reed.
