VOX: Showcasing American Composers 2006
Produced by New York City Opera
Presented by the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, New York University
566 LaGuardia Place (Washington Square Park South)
May 6 – 7, 2006
FREE
Sunday, MAY 7, 4:30 – 5:30 pm
Stephen Andrew Taylor, Paradises Lost, libretto by Kate Gale
Max Stern, Messer Marco Polo

Directions to Skirball Center:
The Skirball Center is located at 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square Park South, within a few blocks of most subway lines, including West 4th St. (A, C, E, F, V, and S), 8th Street (N, R, W), Astor Place (6) and Christopher Street (1).

Many opera composers only get to hear their works through their computer speakers. But since 1999, New York City Opera has offered American composers the opportunity to hear their compositions with a full orchestra and superb young singers. VOX is the only program of its kind in the country, and it has offered audiences the first chance to hear works by composers such as Mark Adamo, Charles Wuorinen, Richard Danielpour, and Michael John LaChiusa that have gone on to define an American musical voice.

This May, City Opera brings the VOX Showcase downtown to New York University’s Skirball Center, an intimate new theater devoted to developing young audiences for live performances. The City Opera Orchestra will play excerpts from twelve innovative new works by both established and emerging composers.

Discussions with the composers and other exciting events will make up a festival that is free and open to the public.

The full schedule:
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

MAY 6

12:00 – 1:30 pm
Panel Discussion: Transforming Literature into Opera
Moderator: Mark Adamo
Participants: Russell Banks, Frank Corsaro, Kate Gale, Herschel Garfein, Christopher Hawes, Philip Littell

2 – 3 pm
Herschel Garfein, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Robert Carl, Harmony, libretto by Russell Banks

3:15 – 4:15
Martin Hennessy, Letter to E. 11th St., libretto by Mark Campbell
H. Leslie Adams, Blake, libretto by Daniel Mayers

4:30 – 5:30
William Kraft, Red Azalea, libretto by Christopher Hawes
Thomas Pasatieri, Frau Margot, libretto by Frank Corsaro

8:00 – 10:00 pm
VOX On The Edge
Readings of new works by Center for Contemporary Opera, Music
Theater Group, Encompass New Opera Theatre, and American Opera
Projects

MAY 7

12:00 – 1:30 pm
Panel Discussion: Opera Electronica
Moderator: Tod Machover
Participants: Mason Bates, Justine F. Chen, Anne LeBaron, Stephen Andrew Taylor

2 – 3 pm
Jenny O. Johnson, Leaving Santa Monica
Mason Bates, California Fictions

3:15 – 4:15
Justine F. Chen, The Maiden Tower
Anne LeBaron, Crescent City, libretto by Philip Littell

4:30 – 5:30 pm
Stephen Andrew Taylor, Paradises Lost, libretto by Kate Gale
Max Stern, Messer Marco Polo