Beth Morris News

Looking ahead to winter, David T. Little's evening-length multi-media music-theatre work, Soldier Songs (2006), receives its New York City premiere as part of BMP and HERE's inaugural PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now festival January 11-13 + 16-18, 2013, showcasing pioneering work by a new generation of opera-theatre and music-theatre composers. Created and composed by Little, Soldier Songs is based on recorded interviews with veterans of five wars, with a libretto adapted by the composer.

On Saturday, September 29, David T. Little's long-awaited debut full-length opera, Dog Days, created in collaboration with librettist Royce Vavrek, and based on the eponymous short story by Judy Budnitz (1998), receives its world premiere, opening a run of five performances: Sep. 29, Oct. 6 at 8:00 PM; Sep. 30, Oct. 7 at 3:00 PM; Oct. 5 at 7:30 PM. The fully-staged production, directed by Robert Woodruff, premieres at Montclair State University's Alexander Kasser Theater in Montclair, NJ. Watch a behind-the-scenes video with rehearsal footage and interviews with the Dog Days creative team below!

After three years in the making, David T. Little's "Dog Days" will receive its world premiere at Peak Performances' Alexander Kasser Theater, September 29-October 7.

Cellist Maya Beiser will see the New York premiere of her new production, ELSEWHERE, a "CelloOpera," in four performances from October 17 through 20 at 7:30pm, during the 2012 BAM Next Wave Festival in the inaugural season of the Fishman Space, part of BAM's new Richard B. Fischer Building which opens in September 2012 at 321 Ashland Place in Brooklyn. ELSEWHERE is produced by Beth Morrison Projects.

Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) and HERE announce programming for the inaugural PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now, running January 9-19, 2013, in New York City. This two-week festival, distilling the curatorial visions of artistic directors Kristin Marting (of HERE), Beth Morrison (of BMP), and Kim Whitener (of HERE), features visionary music-theatre and opera-theatre works by pioneering artists from NYC and around the world. PROTOTYPE is unique in providing a permanent theatrical home for the presentation of such quality productions, spotlighting the high-caliber creations of an exciting new generation of composers and collaborators, with a focus on chamber-sized works.

Pace University has announced the 2012 / 2013 season of Pace Presents, hosted at The Michael Schimmel Center for The Arts located at 3 Spruce Street between Park Row and Gold Street in downtown Manhattan. Pace Presents is a world-class performing arts and culture series with an emphasis on music superstars from around the globe, charismatic and crowd-pleasing dance performances, spectacular theatre and contemporary cabaret. The Pace Presents season begins on September 22 with Gypsy brass superstars Fanfare Ciocarlia and culminates on April 20 with Jazz's living treasure, Hugh Masekela.

Tonight, July 21 at 2:00pm, and Sunday, July 22 at 7:30pm, American Opera Projects, in association with Opera New Jersey, will premiere Blessed Art Thou Amongst Women

HERE proudly announces its 20th Anniversary Season, spanning September 2012 through June 2013, featuring three world premieres from Resident Artists in the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP); two co-productions delivering hybrid performing arts premieres; the launch of PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre Now, an annual festival; and HERE's yearly CULTUREMART festival which gives audiences a first look at new work from HERE Resident Artists. Works include groundbreaking multidisciplinary productions from HARP Artists, representing the culmination of commissions and developmental residencies of up to three years, as well as presentations by visiting artists, curated by HERE, as part of HERE's various programs including the Dream Music Puppetry Program and much more.

Cellist Maya Beiser, described by the Boston Globe as having "virtuoso chops, rock-star charisma, and an appetite for pushing her instrument to the edge of avant-garde adventurousness," will see the New York premiere of her new production, ELSEWHERE

On Saturday, July 21 at 2:00pm, and Sunday, July 22 at 7:30pm, American Opera Projects, in association with Opera New Jersey, will premiere Blessed Art Thou Amongst Women

At 36, Paola Prestini has already forged a singular and celebrated path in new music. Both through her production company, VisionIntoArt, and as a composer, she has garnered praise from fellow artists, presenters and critics. Osvaldo Golijov has described Prestini's music as "wrenching and tender and luminous and pure and exuberant: always vivid and always generous." Terry Riley has called it "music [that] speaks from the heart and inspires," and The New York Times has called it "radiant" and "amorously evocative."

At 36, Paola Prestini has already forged a singular and celebrated path in new music. Both through her production company, VisionIntoArt, and as a composer, she has garnered praise from fellow artists, presenters and critics. Osvaldo Golijov has described Prestini's music as "wrenching and tender and luminous and pure and exuberant: always vivid and always generous." Terry Riley has called it "music [that] speaks from the heart and inspires," and The New York Times has called it "radiant" and "amorously evocative."

Peak Performances has been rapidly making Montclair State University a major cultural destination, even for New Yorkers. Nine premieres including stunning, often startling, new music, dance and theater works by composers David T. Little, Laurie Anderson, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Toshi Reagon; choreographers Benjamin Millepied, Richard Alston, Vusi Mdoyi, Jasmin Vardimon; directors Robert Wilson and Romeo Castellucci are among the highlights of the 2012/13 Peak Performances season. Peak is where exceptions rule.

Paola Prestini's multimedia opera Oceanic Verses is described as :the most ambitious undertaking of her career to date, and the one that best reveals her sensibility. With her collaborators-including the film artist Ali Hossaini, the librettist Donna Di Novelli and the directorKevin Newbury-Prestini has expanded the work from a 35-minute oratorio to an evening-length opera commissioned by VisionIntoArt and produced by her frequent cohort, Beth Morrison Projects in association with Washington Chorus and Trinity Wall Street.'

Now the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, under the direction of founder Dianne Berkun, concludes its anniversary celebration with five events in five months.

The Brooklyn Phil, in its debut "reboot" season under Alan Pierson, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, celebrating its 20th anniversary under Dianne Berkun, are two of the borough's venerable arts institutions. Recently Roulette, the famed experimental music venue in Manhattan, moved into a new home in Downtown Brooklyn, a gorgeous renovated 1920's art deco theater. Together all three are part of a cultural renaissance which is taking place in Brooklyn, and they have now formed an unprecedented partnership to present a multimedia spectacular: BROOKLYN VILLAGE, an homage to the creative spirit of Downtown Brooklyn as it has evolved over the last 200 years.

Now the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, under the direction of founder Dianne Berkun, concludes its anniversary celebration with five events in five months.