Upcoming Performances
June 2 and 3 - Concert reading of BLUESTEM at Nautilus Music Theater in St. Paul and Minneaplis
“Bluestem” (music by Kim D. Sherman, libretto by Eric Anderson) is an intimate opera weaving together two works by American writer Willa Cather. The first part of “Song of the Lark” is set in the 1890s, and tells of Thea, a fledgling opera singer, ready to burst forth from her hometown in rural Colorado. This story alternates with Cather's short story “The Sculptor’s Funeral”, set in the same town but our time, with the apprentice sculptor Stephen accompanying the body of his mentor and lover Harvey Merrick, a world-renown sculptor, back to the artist's hometown for burial. Both are from humble roots, nurtured and stifled by their early environments. A chorus guides us between the interwoven stories.
Performers: Norah Long, Jenny LaDoux, Andy Wilkowske, Jim Ramlet, Evan Tyler Wilson, Trevor Lemon Todd, Justin Spenner, Jake Endres, Mary Laymon, Krisanne Weiss, Felix Tomlinson, and Daniel Greco.
Music Direction and coaching: Sonja Thompson and Jill Dawe. Direction & dramaturgy: Ben Krywosz
June 2, 7:30 pm at Nautilus Music Theater 308 Prince Street, #190 St. Paul, MN
June 23, 7:30 pm at Sateren Auditorium 1977 7th 1/2 Street, Minneapolis, MN
RSVP 651-298-9913 or email staff@nautilusmusictheater.org
Tickets are $10 or pay what you can.
I hope you will be able to join us on June 2nd or 3rd.
Past Performances
May 8, 2023 The Clara Cycle at The Harvard Club featuring Allison Charney Epstein, Kelly Hall-Tompkins and Donna Weng Friedman.
The ARK TRIO has created their first recording, and I am very pleased to be a part of it. Not only are two of my compositions included on this album, but it is my debut as a recording producer, in collaboration with Allison Charney. My fellow composers Moshe Knoll and Michael Ching are also featured on this beautiful recording. The music on ARK RESOUNDING was composed and arranged for the ARK trio: Allison Charney, soprano, Kajsa William-Olsson, cello, and Reiko Uchida, piano. Released on February 3, 2023, “Ark Resounding” spent several weeks in the Number One spot on Amazon’s Hot New Releases (Classical.)
Still Waters in a Storm is a one-room schoolhouse, a reading and writing sanctuary for immigrant families in the neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn… and now also in Poughkeepsie, New York.
The structure of our meetings is the same in English, Spanish, Latin and Musical Notation: children and grown-ups study a text together, each writes something inspired by the text, then they take turns reading their writings out loud while everyone listens in a sacred hush.
The one rule is, “Everyone listens to everyone.”
The simple grace of this ritual changes lives for the better.
In June 2020, the kids of Still Waters in a Storm began translating Virgil’s The Æneid from Latin into Spanish and English. We all collaborated with The Animation Project to adapt the ancient Roman myth of refugee people fleeing their ruined homeland, sailing the seas in search of a new, safe home. Every child participated in the process — you can see the many different styles of drawing, with Latin, Spanish and English words embedded in the images, and hear the many home-made sound effects and multilingual spoken vocals, joined by the yearning voice of Jamie singing the song she co-wrote with Kim and Jonathan and Olivia.
Additional videos can be found on the Still Waters website: https://www.stillwatersinastorm.org/videos/
Song of Songs from the April 17 concert at The Eldridge Street Museum
Invocation from the April 17 concert at The Eldridge Street Museum