NOOMA, an Opera for Babies, Returns to Carnegie Hall

Daily from Monday, October 14 through Friday, October 18 at 10:00 and 11:30 a.m., Carnegie Hall presents 10 performances of NOOMA, a work co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, Minnesota Opera, and San Francisco Opera, which received its world premiere at Carnegie Hall in spring 2019. This opera, composed specifically with babies in mind, uses colorful parachutes to articulate breathing patterns and make space for wondrous interactive play. Designed and performed by Moving Star Vocal Ensemble in Carnegie Hall's Resnick Education Wing, NOOMA invites audiences into a vocal circus where the artists chase and transform their breath ('NOOMA' is a play on the ancient Greek word pneuma, meaning both breath and spirit or soul), sing the world into being, and co-create their story with the young children. Admission is free and will be granted on a first-come, first-served basis for the first 40 babies and their parents or guardians.

These performances are part of Carnegie Hall's expanding series of early childhood programs for babies and toddlers ages 0-2, which also includes OTOYOTOY!, an immersive musical theater piece to be presented in the spring that gives children the chance to play in a world where sounds and words are shared, mimicked, and transformed; and the Lullaby Project, a program that pairs pregnant women and new parents with professional artists to write and sing personal lullabies for their babies.

This season, in response to overwhelming demand, NOOMA will be offered twice a day during the week of October 14-18, 2019 and OTOYOTOY! will be offered twice a day from April 20-24, 2020.

To better understand the effect of music in early childhood development, Carnegie Hall commissioned a research paper from Dr. Dennie Palmer Wolf, an expert in the field. Entitled Why Making Music Matters: Singing, Playing, Moving, and Sharing in the Early Years, the paper points to several key reasons why investing in children early and often is critical to healthy development and a successful future-and demonstrates that music can play a powerful role in everyday interactions that support our next generation.

Moving Star is a vocal ensemble that creates original music for a cappella voices infused with a wide variety of improvisational techniques. Improvisation is the lifeblood that runs throughout Moving Star's experimental rehearsal process, compositions, and on-the-spot improvisations. The ensemble is currently in residence at Carnegie Hall and includes singers and musicians from diverse traditions and backgrounds. Singers include practitioners of the vocal improvisation techniques of Bobby McFerrin and Rhiannon, members of The M6: Meredith Monk Music Third Generation, as well as composers, songwriters, and singers trained in classical, jazz, and other musical genres from around the world

Photo Credit: Richard Termine

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