BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTS
ANNUAL FREE KWANZAA PROGRAM
featuring
AOP I HEAR AMERICA SINGING and
NKEIRU OKOYE'S FOLK OPERA on HARRIET TUBMAN
Second Performance at Brooklyn’s Rosetta Gaston Senior Center
Brooklyn, New York - AOP (American Opera Projects) in partnership with
The Walt Whitman Project will be participating in the Brooklyn Public
Library’s annual free Kwanzaa program on Thursday, December 27 at 3pm
at the S. Stevan Dweck Auditorium at the Central Library, Grand Army
Plaza, Brooklyn Public Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY 11238. On
Friday, December 28 at 2pm the program will be repeated at the Rosetta
Gaston Senior Center in Brownsville, 460 Dumont Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
11212. Both performances are free and open to the public. Reservations
are not necessary, but seating is first come, first served.
AOP I Hear America Singing will be presenting excerpts of Nkeiru Okoye’s
folk opera HARRIET TUBMAN: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom,
performed by soprano Sumayya Ali (B’way’s Porgy and Bess, Ragtime!),
mezzo-soprano Briana Hunter with AOP Resident Music Director Mila Henry
on piano. Direction is by Beth Greenberg (New York City Opera). The opera
is currently in development at AOP.
Created by American Opera Projects and The Walt Whitman Project
(Artistic Director, Greg Trupiano) in 2009, I Hear America Singing, inspired
by the poem of Walt Whitman, seeks to express the varied thoughts,
feelings, and stories of the people of our nation into a communal voice
that will resonate for all. Previous performances of I Hear America Singing
include works by AOP composers Gilda Lyons (Songs of the A Train and
Songs of the F Train) and Nkeiru Okoye (Brooklyn Cinderella) and based on
poetry written by Brooklyn children.
2012 marks the 8th year of the Kwanzaa program at the Brooklyn Public
Library. Poet Angeli Rasbury will return to curate the free celebration
honoring universal African-American heritage and culture with music
performances, readings, and reflections. In addition to the music by AOP,
storytelling will be provided by Elders Share the Arts’ “Pearls of Wisdom.”
Over the years, the event has enjoyed the participation of diverse
performers including CASYM Steel Pan Orchestra, the Restoration Youth
Arts Academy, and features the works of composers and librettists currently
working in Brooklyn as well as new creations of young writers.
Singers Sumayya Ali and Briana Hunter and pianist Mila Henry appear
courtesy of American Opera Projects and The Walt Whitman Project, made
possible in part by generous support from the New York City Department of
Cultural Affairs.
MEDIA RELEASE
ANNUAL FREE KWANZAA
PROGRAM at BROOKLYN
PUBLIC LIBRARY
Featuring opera excerpts of
“Harriet Tubman: When I
Crossed That Line to
Freedom”
Music by Nkeiru Okoye
Performances by
Sumayya Ali and Briana
Hunter
Thursday, Dec. 27, 3:00
PM
S. Stevan Dweck Auditorium
Brooklyn Public Library
10 Grand Army Plaza,
Brooklyn, NY 11238
(718) 230-2173
www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org
Friday, Dec. 28, 2:00 PM
Rosetta Gaston Senior
Center
460 Dumont Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11212
(718) 345-5665
Tickets: Free
Contact:
Matt Gray
AOP Producing Director
[email protected]
718-398-4024
Press Photos:
www.operaprojects.org/press
BIOS
A native New Yorker of African American and Nigerian
descent, Nkeiru Okoye has had her music performed on
four continents. Okoye's penchant for infusing popular
and non-Western influences in a 'classical' framework
shows in her most performed works, SONGS OF HARRIET
TUBMAN (2007), the precursor for her opera, PHILLIS
WHEATLEY (2005, commissioned by the Boston Landmarks
Orchestra, and recorded by the Moscow Symphony),
VOICES SHOUTING OUT (2002); RUTH: an Orchestral Choreopoem, (1998);
THE GENESIS (1997) and AFRICAN SKETCHES. Okoye's orchestral works have
been performed by the Philadelphia, Detroit, St. Louis, Virginia, Grand
Rapids, Indianapolis, Mississippi, Richmond, New Jersey Chamber,
Cambridge Symphony, Western Piedmont, Rutgers University, Central
Jersey, Hopkins, and New Horizons Symphony orchestras. Okoye has gotten
awards, commissions and commendations from MEET THE COMPOSER,
MetLife Creative Connections, John Duffy Composer Institute, Composer's
Collaborative, Inc., Yvar Mikhashov Trust for New Music (1999); and
numerous awards by the NAACP. Okoye is a frequent guest lecturer and
panelist. In 2005, Okoye was a composer mentor at the University of Ghana
for the International Society of Contemporary Music's World New Music
Days. In 2007, Okoye was honored at Nigeria's 40under40 ceremony, in
Lagos. Nkeiru Okoye (in KEAR roo oh KOY yeh) has BM in composition from
Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and an MA and a Ph.D. in theory and
composition from Rutgers University. In addition to being a composer, Dr.
Okoye is a soft sculpture artist/creator of the "Canbie Collection" of
multicultural dolls, which may be found in museums and galleries
nationwide, including the Smithsonian.
www.nkeiruokoye.com
Briana Hunter’s previous credits include Summer and Smoke (Rosa
Gonzales), Ragtime (Sarah), and The Mikado (Peep Bo). Scene work
includes Norma (Adalgesia), Les contes d’Hoffmann (Giulietta), Le nozze di
Figaro (Countess) with La Lingua della Lirica in Italy, and Don Giovanni
(Donna Elvira) at Manhattan School of Music where she hold her Master’s
degree. Additionally, she has worked under the direction of The Royal
Shakespeare Company as both actress (performing the roles of Hippolyta
Midsummer Nights Dream and Lord Westmorland Henry IV: Part I) and
vocal soloist (performing Rossini’s “The Willow Song”) in an original
production For Every Passion Something that premiered at the Fringe
Festival in Scotland. This past summer she spent two months in China with I
SING BEIJING. Ms. Hunter holds a B.A. in Theatre from Davidson College
where she studied directing, and performed in plays including Thomas
Middleton’s Women Beware Women (Livia) and Wonder of the World
(Karla) by David Lindsay-Abaire.
She has performed in public master
classes with Marilyn Horne, Paul Gemignani, and Johanna Meier. In 2013
she heads to Sarasota Opera as an Apprentice Artist, and is thrilled to join
American Opera Projects in presenting this new work.
Director Beth Greenberg is renown for her work at the New York City
Opera. For the Lincoln Center company she directed original mainstage
productions of Tales of Hoffmann and Turandot, as well as revivals
including Der Rosenkavalier, Tosca, La Traviata, Intermezzo and La
Boheme. Across the river, aboard an oil tanker moored in Red Hook,
Brooklyn, she recently directed the site-specific Il Tabarro. Upcoming New
York productions include The Arianna Project for Musica Nuova and for
Opera Hispanica, Maria de Buenos Aires. Both shows will be at Le Poisson
Rouge.
Mila Henry is a New York-based pianist who specializes in contemporary
opera, musical theater, and chamber music. She is currently Resident
Music Director with American Opera Projects, where she is a regular at their
OPERAtion Brooklyn series and music directs for their nationally recognized
Composers & the Voice workshop series. She has worked with both
emerging and established composers alike, including Libby Larsen, Conrad
Cummings, Douglas Cuomo, Herschel Garfein, Gilda Lyons, Tarik O’Regan,
Gregory Spears, and Daniel Felsenfeld. Notable performances: New York
Premiere of John Musto’s Later The Same Evening (Albany Records 2009);
OPERA America New Works Sampler with Jack Perla’s Love/Hate; HERE’s
Culturemart festival with Stefan Weisman’s The Scarlet Ibis; New York
Children’s Theater Festival with Scheme of the Super Bullies!; Philip Glass's In
the Penal Colony with the String Orchestra of Brooklyn (vocal coach). Mila
holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and Elizabethtown
College. She lives in Brooklyn. milahenry.com
ABOUT THE PRODUCER
For 25 years, AOP (American Opera Projects) has been creating, developing and presenting new American opera and music theatre projects. AOP,
based in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, has produced over 20 world premiere
operas including Patience & Sarah (1998), Stefan Weisman's Darkling
(2006), Lee Hoiby's This is the Rill Speaking (2008), and Phil Kline's Out Cold
(2012), part of BAM's 30th Next Wave Festival. AOP produces concerts and
events including presentations of new music at Works and Process at the
Guggenheim, the Rubin Museum of Art, and Carnegie Hall. AOPdeveloped projects include Stephen Schwartz's Séance on a Wet Afternoon (New York City Opera, 2011), Jorge Martín's Before Night Falls (Fort
Worth Opera, 2010), Tarik O'Regan's Heart of Darkness (Royal Opera House
(UK), 2011), and Jack Perla's Love/Hate (ODC Theater and San Francisco
Opera, 2012). UPCOMING: Gregory Spears's Paul's Case (UrbanArias, and
Roulette, 2013). www.operaprojects.org
END