Center for Contemporary Opera to Open Line Tjornhoj's ORATION World Premiere, 7/26

The native of Denmark describes her chamber opera as "a speech for humanity. Oration gives a unique description of the human experience and the love and hate, hope and despair, suffering and joy we see in our lifetimes." Cast features Alexandra Chemyshova, Marshall Coid, Leanne Gonzalez Singer, Barbara Le May, Gabriel Monro, and Kate Objerjat. Jeremy Bloom is Stage Director; Lidiya Yankovskaya is Music Director; Brian Rady is Scenic Director; Christopher Weston is Lighting Designer.

Line Tjørnhøj, native of Denmark, is a composer, sound-artist and performer. Since 1995 she has composed for theater, dance, musicals, and radio and TV. Her work with voices and sounds crosses the borders of style, tradition, expression and aesthetics, and her many interests include working in the areas of jazz, ethnic music, Bulgarian womens' voices, and throat singers. A member of the Danish Composers Society, her works include Antigone, performed in NY in 1996; I sing the body electric, performed by Den Anden Opera in Copenhagen; and Anorexia Sacra (for 6 voices, doublebass and liveprocessed stagesounds), also performed in Copenhagen.

Sara Jobin, Music Director/Conductor, was 16 years old when she attended Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges as a Leonard Bernstein Music Scholar. After graduation, as a John Knowles Paine Travelling Fellow, she studied conducting with Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux School in Maine. In 2004 she made history as the first woman to conduct mainstage performances at the San Francisco Opera (Tosca, Der Fliegende Hollander, Norma, the world premiere of Philip Glass' Appomattox, and Rachel Portman's The Little Prince). Other credits include the premiere of Philip Glass' The Bacchae for the NY Shakespeare Festival; John Musto's Volphone with Wolf Trap Opera; a suite from Ricky Ian Gordon's The Grapes of Wrath with Anchorage Opera; Ned Rorem's Our Town; Faust, Carmen, La Boheme, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Le Nozze di Figaro with Tacoma Opera, and more. As Music Director of CCO, she premiered Michael Dellaira's The Secret Agency in NY and at the Armel Festival in Hungary.

Audience members are invited to two additional events, one before and one after each performance. The evenings will begin with a short panel discussion with the composer and creative team, and performances will then be followed by a wine reception in which audience members can meet the cast and creative team and offer their feedback.

Founded in 1982, The Center for Contemporary Opera is a leading proponent of new opera in the U.S. Based in NYC, the Company focuses on producing and developing new opera and music theater works and reviving rarely seen American operas written after the second World War. CCO has staged the premieres of over seventy works and released five commercial recordings. In addition to its productions, an important part of its work is the development of new operas. Works are presented at all stages from libretto readings, ateliers, concert versions, to full productions. In line with its mission to promote an interest in new music, opera, and music-theater, CCO publishes the magazine "New Music Connoisseur,' which is one of the few periodicals in the world devoted to contemporary classical music. CCO has toured in Austria, Hungary, France, and Latvia. Two of its productions were broadcast live across Europe and the Company's production of William Mayer's A Death in the Family was named both Best Production and Audience Favorite at the 2012 Armel Opera Competition and Festival in Hungary.

Center for Contemporary Opera is very appreciative to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for their support of the CCO Development Series. For more information, visit www.centerforcontemporaryopera.org.

The concerts are set for July 26 & 27 at 8 PM at The Cell Theatre, 338 West 23 Street, NYC. Tickets: $30. Reservations: 1.800.838.3006 or www.brownpapertickets.com.