SOLDIER SONGS Comes To The Ford Theatres 10/13

The Ford Theatres and LA Opera Off Grand, in collaboration with Beth Morrison Projects, present Soldier Songs, a monodrama for baritone and chamber orchestra, as part of Ford Theatres' IGNITE@ the FORD! Series, on Saturday, October 13, 2017 at 8:30pm.

Soldier Songs is a groundbreaking multimedia piece from award-winning composer David T. Little and filmmaker Bill Morrison. Combining elements of theatre, opera, rock-infused concert music and film,
the piece contrasts the perceptions and realities of war from the soldier's perspective. Soldier Songsstars David Adam Moore, who created the role of the Soldier at the work's 2008 premiere at Le Poisson Rouge in New York and the first fully-staged presentation at the 2011 International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, Connecticut.

Directed by Ashley Tata, this multimedia concert presentation is a Beth Morrison Projects production;Morrison is hailed as a "contemporary opera mastermind" (Los Angeles Times) and "the edge of innovation...her own genre" (Opera News). The conductor is Alan Pierson, leading members of the LA Opera Orchestra.

What started as a personal exploration for Little, became a much larger story about the complexities of war from the soldier's perspective. Source material for the libretto included recorded interviews with veterans of five wars, some of which are excerpted in the piece itself. Through his research, a theme emerged...that healing can only begin when the silence is broken. Soldier Songs traces changing perceptions of war in our society and by those who experience it, and how the media uses it. A nameless soldier is followed through three phases of life: Youth (playing war games), Warrior (time served in the military) and Elder (aged, wise, reflective). Each of its 11 songs explores a different aspect of the experience, ranging from rage to fear, joy and grief.

"Soldier Songs ingeniously uses multimedia to illustrate how our culture glamorizes war" said Olga Garay-English, Executive Director of the Ford Theatres. "We are so delighted to continue our partnership with LA Opera to present this gripping work that could easily be called opera-theatre but crosses genre lines in a wholly original way."

"David T. Little has emerged as one of today's most singular compositional voices in opera and we were gratified by the electrizing response to the West Coast premiere of his Dog Days at LA Opera in 2015," said Christopher Koelsch, LA Opera's Sebastian Paul and Marybelle Musco President and CEO. "I am thrilled to introduce his groundbreaking Soldier Songs to audiences in Los Angeles for the first time and for LA Opera Off Grand to return to the Ford Theatres for our second co-production."

Tickets are priced at $35, 55 and 75. Tickets and information about parking are available by visitingFordTheatres.org or by calling 323.461.3673.

The New York Times said that composer David T. Little has "a knack for overturning musical conventions. His gifts for setting text comfortably and effectively, and for writing music informed by Minimalism and rock but slavishly indebted to neither, are evident throughout the briskly paced work ... the presentation provided further evidence of Mr. Little's fast-rising stock as a vital theatrical creator."

Musical America said that Little "has earned acclaim for the imaginative way he draws on his varied musical interests to produce arresting and coherent works. Soldier Songs sustains that reputation."

Anne Midgette, writing about Little in the Washington Post said, "People are hailing Little as a major force on today's music scene ... he writes compelling, involving music. He is part of a generation of young composers eager to embrace pop influences and their other musical passions - a generation influenced by Bang on a Can."

She continues, "His thoughtful, quirky operas - Soldier Songs, Dog Days "- mingle the vigor of rock drumming, the complexity of counterpoint and the dramatic timing of musical theatre. His music has some of the same qualities of accessibility and broad appeal that his approach to community does. Not every composer can blend this kind of technical competence, gritty punk-rock colors, and an intimate knowledge of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! What appeals to music-lovers about Little's work is the effortlessness of the synthesis."

"I really believe that he's the future," says Beth Morrison, producer of Soldier Songs and Little's Dog Days. "He is one of the most important American composers of the 21st century." Conductor Alan Pierson said, "No one writes theatrical music like David does. His stylistic versatility, his psychological insight and his feeling for dramatic pacing come together to make David a composer with a rare gift for creating a powerful, dramatic experience."

The score for Soldier Songs was commissioned by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, which premiered a concert version of the work in 2006. Soldier Songs received a fully staged workshop production sold to standing room capacity by Beth Morrison Projects in New York in 2008 at Le Poisson Rouge with stage direction by Yuval Sharon. Beth Morrison Projects produced the premiere of the full production at The International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven, CT in June 2011 and was remounted during the inaugural PROTOTYPE Festival to tremendous critical acclaim. The multimedia semi-staged theatrical concert version having its west coast production premiere at Ford was co-commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects and Holland Festival in 2014. It was premiered at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington DC, and then traveled to Amsterdam for the 2014 Holland Festival, where it had its European premiere.

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