Wingspace Theatrical Design to Present Free Virtual Salon On Reimagining Opera for the Next Generation

As part of its free virtual salon series, Wingspace Theatrical Design will present a conversation on Thursday, April 28 at 8:00pm ET with Jasmine Arielle Barnes, Noelle Deutsch, Priti Gandhi, Lila Palmer, Nehemiah Rolle, and Vita Tzykun. Moderated by Anna Driftmier, this conversation will focus on reimagining opera for the next generation. By introducing diverse voice types, welcoming new audiences, and engaging with innovative technology and staging, opera is evolving as a creative practice. The panelists will discuss the future of American opera and their place in it.

Reservations are strongly encouraged and are available here.

A recording of the salon will be available on the Wingspace Facebook page for a limited time following live broadcast and recordings of past salons are archived on the Wingspace Youtube page.

Jasmine Arielle Barnes is a promising composer/vocalist who has performed and has had her music performed all over the world. She is a multifaceted composer who embraces any writing style of music using a variety of instrumentation and specializes in writing for the voice. A full time composer, Barnes is a composer in residence for American Lyric Theater , and has held residencies as a composer fellow at Chautauqua Opera 2021 season, as well as a residency with All Classical Portland.

Noelle Deutsch is the Senior Operations and Production Manager at OPERA America, where she lends her experience as a former freelance stage manager to OPERA America's programming and the National Opera Center's daily operations. Noelle graduated from Adelphi University in 2014 with a BFA in Theatre Design/Technology, and she is an alumnus of CUNY's CreateNYC Leadership Accelerator. She is also a certified personal trainer and enjoys helping others find joy in fitness in her spare time.

Priti Gandhi is the Artistic Director of Portland Opera, previously serving as Vice President of Artistic at Minnesota Opera. She has served on a number of advisory panels regarding grants and commissions for new work relating to BIPOC stories, including the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Midwest, IDEA grants with Opera America, Atlanta Opera's 96 hour project, and American Lyric Theater. Passionate about creating more empowering spaces for artists in the industry, she has spoken on panels hosted by Opera America, Boston Lyric Opera, and the Broadway EPIC conference, among others. Before taking on leadership roles in administration, Ms. Gandhi enjoyed an international performance career in concert and opera.

Lila Palmer is a librettist. Upcoming performances in 2022 include The Fox Sisters, with Marc Migo for Theatre Liceu; In Her Own Valley, with Grace Mason (Liverpool Philharmonic); and Holy Ground with Damien Geter for Glimmerglass Opera. Lila's song cycle for soprano Golda Schultz, This Be Her Verse is out on Alpha Classics and is hailed as 'a new repertoire staple' (Opera News). Lila will attend the 2022 Aix-En-Provence Women's Opera Lab. Future works coming in 2023 & 2024 include her children's opera with Clarice Assad, The Selfish Giant (Opera Saratoga); Shell Shaker with Jerod Impichchaachaaha Tate & Splintered with Jorge Sosa & Justine Chen. Lila is a grateful alumnus of ALT's CLDP, where she is Associate Director for Partnerships & Promotions.

Nehemiah Rolle Florida-born, Atlanta-raised,  and NYC-obsessed, Nehemiah is a Black, non-binary, femme queer nerd that creates content and experiences at the intersection of public programming and events, and community building. With toes in several worlds, they’re interested in how what we watch, read, and experience shape our imaginations---cultural, political, and moral. By day, they work at TED Conferences on the Curation team. By night, they’re likely flittering about the city as drag performer and host Zora Speakeasy or exploring their passion for culture and social change, tv and movies, and cultural criticism in other ways.

Vita "Vita" Tzykun [tsee-'koon] has designed sets, costumes, and projections for companies such as the Norwegian Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, LA Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Wexford Opera Festival (Ireland), and Prototype Festival (NYC), among others. Her numerous film and tv credits include design and art direction for Lady Gaga, production design for several award-winning films, and commercials for leading brands such as PBS, DirectTV, Axe, Bulova, and Qualcomm. Her work was given a solo exhibition at the National Opera Center in NYC, and she was nominated for Designer of the Year by the International Opera Awards. Tzykun has served as an advisor for the National Endowment for the Arts and has worked with leading technologists on the advisory boards of both San Diego Opera's Opera Hack and Austin Opera's Innovation Council. Alongside performer/digital media artist David Adam Moore, Tzykun is a founding member of GLMMR - an NYC-based interdisciplinary art collective that fuses the worlds of fine art, audiovisual technology, and live performance. www.vitavision.net | www.glmmr.org

ABOUT WINGSPACE THEATRICAL DESIGN

Wingspace is an organization of theater artists that fosters conversations on design, strengthens the community, and furthers activism in the field. Formed in 2005 and with a membership composed of over 60 designers, directors, and dramaturgs, Wingspace looks at the theater landscape from a design point of view. By sponsoring public events and workshops, fostering early career designers in their Mentorship Program, and staging events for the design community as whole, Wingspace creates opportunities for theater makers passionate about design to come together, learn from one another, and grow together as a community.

www.wingspace.com

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