Omar

Music by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels Libretto by Rhiannon Giddens

PRESENTED BY WELLS FARGO

Artistic Team

Conductor John Kennedy Director Kaneza Schaal Production Designer Christopher Myers Set Designer Amy Rubin

Costume Designer April Hickman

Costume Designer Micheline Russell-Brown

Lighting Designer Lucrecia Briceno Lighting Co-Designer Alejandro Fajardo Video Designer Joshua Higgason

Assistant Directors Ian Andrew Askew, Kiara Benn

COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON SOTTILE THEATRE

May 27 at 7:00pm; May 30 at 5:00pm; June 2 at 8:00pm; June 5 at 5:00pm; June 8 at 7:30pm; June 12 at 3:30pm

2 hours, 15 minutes Performed with an intermission

Sung in English with English supertitles

Cast

Omar Jamez McCorkle Omar’s Mother, Fatima Cheryse McLeod Lewis Omar’s Brother, Abdul/Man to be Sold, Abe Michael Redding Julie Laquita Mitchell Auctioneer/Taylor Adam Klein Katie Ellen/The Caller Catherine Anne Daniel Johnson/Owen Malcolm MacKenzie Owen’s Daughter, Eliza Rebecca Jo Loeb

Amadou/Renty George Johnson Olufemi Joshua John Suleiman/Ben/John Daniel Rich Slaveship Crewman 1/Man in Crowd Andrew Stack Slaveship Crewman 2 Aaron McKone Slaver David Drettwan Sally Crystal Glenn Billy To be cast Mary Kaswanna Kanyinda Farah Savannah Gordon Tess Samantha Burke

Dancers Brian Polite, choreographic lead Ebony Nichols, choreographic contributor Savannah Imani Wade, choreographic contributor Scott Wiley, choreographic contributor

Members of the Spoleto Festival USA Chorus Michael Adams, soprano Chantal Braziel, soprano Samantha Burke, soprano Crystal Glenn, soprano Luciana Piovan, soprano Emily Tiberi, soprano Tanisha Anderson, alto LaDejia Bittle, alto Allison Deady, alto Savannah Gordon, alto Kaswanna Kanyinda, alto Kaitlyn Tierney, alto Lonnie Reed, tenor Johnnie Felder, tenor Gabriel Hernandez, tenor Joshua John, tenor George Johnson, tenor Aaron McKone, tenor Claude Cassion, bass Matthew Dexter, bass David Drettwan, bass Isiah Maxey, bass Daniel Rich, bass Andrew Stack, bass

Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra

Assistant Conductor Kellen Gray Chorus Conductor Vinroy David Brown, Jr. Musical Preparation Renate Rohlfing Vocal Coach Diane Richardson Production Stage Manager Betsy Ayer

Generous support provided by Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation; Ford Foundation; Robyn and Tony Coles/TRATE Productions; Deborah Kennedy Kennard and William E. Kennard; OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation; New York Community Trust; The Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust; Post and Courier Foundation; Leslie K. Williams and James A. Attwood, Jr.; Mr. and Mrs. Richard K. DeScherer; Ms. Susan L. Baker and Mr. Michael R. Lynch; and Jan Serr and John Shannon.

Omar is co-commissioned and co-produced by Spoleto Festival USA and Carolina Performing Arts at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Carolina Performing Arts’ participation in this project is made possible through the support of the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust. Additional co-commissioners include LA Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Opera is endowed by the Arthur and Holly Magil Foundation.

These performances are made possible in part through funds from the Spoleto Festival USA Endowment, generously supported by BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America.

The opera is inspired by Dr. Ala Alryyes’s translation of Omar Ibn Said’s autobiography in his book, A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar Ibn Said. Reprinted by permission of the University of Wisconsin Press. © 2011 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. All rights reserved.

CBS News journalist Martha Teichner hosts a Conversation with Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels at 2:00pm on Saturday, May 28, at the Charleston Gaillard Center, 95 Calhoun St.

Over the last years, we have been in the bones of the country. The bones of our own psyches. And we have been in the bones of our industry, of opera, of what it means to gather and share breath.

The opera we share with you touches all these bones: the story of Omar Ibn Said, a Fulani man, forced to the United States and enslaved, literate before stolen from his home in West Africa, and author of an autobiography.

The West has a fantasy of its singularity, it imagines itself as consistent and fixed. Opera lost itself to that lie. Tonight, we return the opera to itself. A form built on hundreds of years of cultural exchange, sonic exchange, formal and aesthetic encounters with “others.” A form dependent on many different kinds of artists teaming up. A form built of hybridity. Perhaps one of the only places big enough for Said’s journey, the contradiction, the violence, the holiness, the omissions, the terror, and the triumph.

Slavery, of course, existed before people were torn from their homes in West Africa at gunpoint and enslaved in the United States. The institution of American Slavery wrought new violences as an institution of language. American Slavery created and named a permanent condition attached to your body.

The ferocious clarity in American Slavery on the power of language, was such that one of the most sacrosanct laws was that you could not teach enslaved people to read. Or write.

And here, we have a text! From Omar Ibn Said. Written by Omar. An Islamic scholar who was literate before mercenaries enslaved him. His autobiography is the prayer from which the music and words you hear tonight were created. The glory and triumph that his words exist, even if generated under duress, is holy.

We gather to tell you Said’s story through the contest of languages in his life, spiritual languages, cultural languages, spoken and written languages, the language of materials like wood and fabric. And ultimately, his holding of all these languages simultaneously brims with resistance, omission, refusal, and reincarnation.

Listening to the story of Omar Ibn Said tonight, together, let us begin resetting the bones.

— Kaneza Schaal

Composers’ Notes

Omar is at once a story of one man and of many. He is himself, trying to understand the shape his life has taken; he is the enslaved Muslim (of which there were so many more than we will ever know) seeking his community in any way he can; he is the eternal outsider. The fractured yet steadfast nature of the culture that formed around the members of the African diaspora struggling for survival in the Americas wraps around his journey, as I have envisioned it; the anonymous voices of the countless Black musical creators from my musical lineage are shot through a score that is nevertheless firmly situated at a crossroads of the folk and western classical traditions. Who was Omar? We will never really know. This Omar is merely one of a thousand different possible interpretations of his writings and what we know of his life. Nevertheless, I heard an echo of his voice reaching out to me over the centuries—I felt the spirits rise in me with every word written and every note composed. I felt the connection to a time that I cannot easily imagine; a time that tested the ancestors, gave no quarter, and took an unfathomable strength of spirit to survive. I hope this is merely the beginning of the artistic renderings of this remarkable man—let this be not the last operatic word on Omar, but merely the first. And I am honored it is so.

— Rhiannon Giddens

Omar is the story of one man’s physical and spiritual journey, as told from veiled references in his own autobiography and interpreted through Rhiannon Giddens’s moving libretto. Musically, the piece shows as many influences as the many cultures it flows through, from the music of Senegal and the broader Muslim diaspora to the earliest melody transcribed from enslaved people in North America, to spirituals, bluegrass, Protestant hymns, Gershwin, and even a touch of Wagner. The chorus plays a prominent, active role in the work, as a way to center it in a Black community that is multifaceted and real. These diverse elements are unified via the use of a traditional orchestral palette and immensely singable vocal lines.

— Michael Abels

Synopsis

ACT 1, SCENE 1: 1806, Futa Toro. Omar’s mother, Fatima, leads the community in prayer. Omar’s brother, Abdul, enters and he discuss with Omar the need to organize protection from newcomers to their village. Omar insists that their fate is in Allah’s hands. Abdul exits and Fatima cautions Omar in his confidence. Abdul returns to warn them that the very men who had been negotiating protection have betrayed the village—raiders overrun the compound and begin taking villagers as prisoners. Omar and his mother are separated in the chaos, and before Omar is dragged away, he sees her death at the hands of a raider.

ACT 1, SCENE 2: The Middle Passage.

ACT 1, SCENE 3: Julie, an enslaved woman, is dragged to the Charleston Slave Market by a kidnapper. Near the auctioneer’s podium, Julie notices Omar who is standing nearby. Though Omar cannot understand Julie’s words, he listens as Julie and other enslaved people warn him of what’s to come. She attempts to tell Omar of the Owens’ plantation in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where she plans to return if she can flee her trafficker. As the auction begins, Omar watches a family torn apart. He notices that Julie has managed to escape her bonds and, to distract the crowd, he falls to his knees in prayer. Julie seizes the moment to run, and Omar is sold to a man named Johnson.

ACT 1, SCENE 4: Enslaved laborers are working on a plantation as Johnson, the plantation owner, enters. He strikes a man before

ACT 1, SCENE 5: Months later, the spirit of Omar’s mother watches over Omar as he sleeps. Johnson’s voice can be heard offstage, and as Omar begins to stir, he hears both Johnson and his mother’s voice urging him to run to Fayetteville. A rage-filled Johnson approaches Omar; Omar flees.

Intermission

ACT 2, SCENE 1: Omar has been captured and held as a runaway in the Fayetteville County Jail. As he prays, he writes in Arabic on the walls of his jail cell, which catches the attention of the townspeople. Owen, a local plantation owner, enters with his friend, Taylor, who is visiting from the North. Owen’s daughter urges Owen to purchase Omar, insisting that God has led Omar to them. Owen, a devout Christian, brings Omar to his plantation.

ACT 2, SCENE 2: On Owen’s plantation, the enslaved are nearly done for the day. Katie Ellen speaks with Julie, who has recently found her way back to the plantation following her kidnapping. As they talk about Owen’s visitor, music and dance begin. Owen and Taylor enter with Omar and introduce Omar. Julie is surprised to see Omar again. When Omar asks Julie why she helped Omar, she tells him that Omar reminded her of her father.

ACT 2, SCENE 3: In the study, Owen and Taylor talk about the prospect of converting Omar to Christianity and how that could be used for personal gain. Owen presents Omar a Christian bible, written in Arabic. Taylor asks Omar to write “The Lord is my Shepherd” in his language.

ACT 2, SCENE 4: Later that day, Omar reads the bible and reflects on his path to this moment. Julie enters and encourages Omar to write his story.

ACT 2, SCENE 5: The spirit of Omar’s mother joins Julie in urging Omar to write about his experiences and faith. Omar begins to pray.

Artistic Team

RHIANNON GIDDENS (composer and librettist) uses her art to excavate the past and reveal bold truths about our present. A MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient, Giddens co-founded the Grammy Award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, and she has been nominated for eight Grammys for her work as a soloist and collaborator. She was nominated for her collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, there is no Other (2019). Giddens’s latest Grammy-winning album, They’re Calling Me Home, is a 12-track album, recorded with Turrisi in Ireland during the recent lockdown; it speaks of the longing for the comfort of home as well as the metaphorical “call home” of death, which has been a tragic reality for so many during the COVID-19 crisis.

MICHAEL ABELS (composer) is known for his genre-defying scores for the Jordan Peele films Get Out and Us, for which Abels won a World Soundtrack Award, the Jerry Goldsmith Award, a Critics Choice nomination, and multiple critics’ awards. Other recent media projects include the films Bad Education, Nightbooks, Chevalier, and the docu-series Allen v. Farrow. Abels’s concert commissions include At War With Ourselves for the Kronos Quartet and chorus, workshopped in 2021 at University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. His orchestral works have been performed by the New York Philharmonic, the Atlanta Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, and many others. Abels is co-founder of the Composers Diversity Collective, an advocacy group to increase visibility for composers of color in film, gaming, and streaming media.

JOHN KENNEDY (Spoleto Festival USA Resident Conductor and Director of Orchestral Activities) has been a change-maker in music for over 30 years, leading acclaimed performances and premieres worldwide of opera, orchestral, ballet, and new music. In recent seasons at the Festival, Kennedy has conducted operas by leading composers of our time including Francesconi, Glass, Lachenmann, Lim, Huang Ruo, Saariaho, and others. Kennedy is a prolific composer whose works have been performed worldwide; his family opera The Language of Birds will have a new production by Canadian Children’s Opera Company in Toronto in June. This summer, he will lead West Edge Opera in the US premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s opera Coraline.

KANEZA SCHAAL (director) works in theater, opera, and film, and is based in New York City. Schaal’s work has shown in divergent contexts from courtyards in Vietnam, to East African amphitheaters, to European opera houses, to US public housing, to rural auditoriums in the UAE. By creating performances that speak many formal, cultural, historical, aesthetic, and experiential languages, she seeks expansive audiences. Domestically her work has shown at LA Philharmonic, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Kennedy Center, Detroit Opera, The Shed, Walker Arts Center, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and The New Victory Theater. Schaal is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Herb Alpert Award in Theatre, United States Artists Fellowship, SOROS Art Migration and Public Space Fellowship, Ford Foundation Art For Justice Bearing Witness Award, and Creative Capital Award.

CHRISTOPHER MYERS (production designer) is an artist and writer who lives in New York. While he is widely acclaimed for his work with literature for young people, he is also an accomplished fine artist who has lectured and exhibited internationally. He is interested in the aesthetic bridges that have been built organically across cultures, classes, and geographies, and has been creating work in those in-between spaces for years. Myers has curated shows in Vietnam; worked with traditional shadow puppet makers in Jogjakarta, young musicians in New Orleans, and weavers in Luxor; designed theater that has travelled from PS122 in New York City to the Genocide Memorial Theater in Kigali, Rwanda; and collaborated with Hank Willis Thomas on a short film Am I Going Too Fast which premiered at Sundance. He participated in the Whitney Independent Studio Program and has written essays that have been published by The New York Times. Currently, he is working on a book comparing global censorship methodologies.

AMY RUBIN (set designer) is a designer of environments for theater, opera, and dance. Recent credits include Aging Magician (San Diego Opera); Snowy Day (Houston Grand Opera); Blue (Michigan Opera Theatre); Octet (Signature Theater/Berkeley Rep); Cyrano (The New Group); and Thom Pain (based on nothing) (Signature Theater). Her designs have been featured at American Repertory Theater, McCarter Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Walker Arts Center, MassMoCA, Z Space, The Kimmel Center, and numerous TED Talks.

APRIL HICKMAN (costume designer) is a Connecticut based costume designer, stylist, and costume illustrator for stage and film, originally from Denver, Colorado. Her most recent design credits include How to Catch Creation at Geva Theater Center; Stick Fly at St. Louis Repertory; Nine Night at Round House Theater; The Mountain Top at Weston Playhouse; Blue at Detroit Opera; and Capricorn 29 at The Tank. April also currently holds a position at Wesleyan University as an Assistant Professor in the Practice of Costume Design. She received an MFA in Costume Design from Yale School of Drama and a BFA in Costume Design and Technology from The University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

MICHELINE RUSSELL-BROWN (costume designer) Trained as a modern dancer and choreographer, Micheline Russell-Brown’s real love has always been as a costume and design professional. Russell-Brown began her wardrobe career at the Roundabout Theater and then the Metropolitan Opera after a recommendation from her mentor at Bard College. From the Met, she moved on to Broadway, working backstage for several years at Rent. After making a career in theater, she shifted to film and television. Always missing the pulse of live theater, she is thrilled to be returning to the wings of the stage. She lives in Brooklyn with her wife and two children, forever dreaming up ways to better dress her family. LUCRECIA BRICENO (lighting designer) is a Peruvian artist currently based in Brooklyn. Much of her work has been in association with artists developing innovative and original pieces. Her work includes theatre, opera, puppetry, and dance, as well as collaborations in several non-performance projects. Her designs have been presented at such venues as Oxford Playhouse (UK), The Public Theater, Arena Stage, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dallas Theatre Center, BAM (Fisher), Kennedy Center, Atlas Performing Arts, Berlind Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, among many others. Internationally her work has been seen in Caracas, Peru, Turkey, Scotland, Seoul, Bogota, Norway, and England. Her design work for Crime and Punishment was part of the Venezuelan delegation for the 2015 Prague Quadrennial. She is an associate artist with The Civilians, a Core Member of Anonymous Ensemble, a resident designer with Pregones Theatre/PRTT and La Micro; she has also been a guest artist/lecturer at NYU, Princeton University, Hunter College, and the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

JOSHUA HIGGASON (video designer) is a video, scenic, lighting, and interactive designer, creating experiences for theater, concerts, opera, and events. Recent video designs include Cosi Fan Tutte and Falstaff for Opera di Firenze; Die Ägyptische Helena and Hansel und Gretel for La Scala; Blue for Detroit Opera; Purcell’s King Arthur for Staatsoper Berlin and Theater An Der Wien; Mackie Messer-Eine Salzburger Dreigroschenoper for Salzburger Festspiele; and Sufjan Stevens’s Carrie and Lowell Tour. His work has been seen at Carnegie Hall, Salzburg Festspiele, Bayreuth Festival, BAM, TED, The Public, MoMA, Panorama Festival NYC, Beacon Theatre, and many others. He is an instructor of performance design at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

ALEJANDRO FAJARDO (lighting co-designer) is a Colombian lighting designer based in Lenapehoking/Brooklyn. His recent credits include The Hombres (Two River Theatre Co.); Gem of the Ocean (Trinity Rep); NYC Free, a month long performance festival at Little Island Park; Murmur (Kafka Collective); The Bengson’s Broken Ear Setlist: Songs from OHIO (St. Ann’s Warehouse); / wē/ and fôr (Michiyaya Dance); and Sacha Yanow’s Cherie Dre (Danspace Projects). Alejandro designed two escape rooms at Big Sky Resort in Montana, as well as a series of theatrical immersive games at the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center (Big Sky, MT). Alejandro has designed the site lighting for music festivals (Electric Forest, Okeechobee Music, and Arts Festival, Life is Beautiful) and many New York Fashion Week shows with Rob Ross Design and IMCD Lighting; he is one of the associate Lighting Directors for Fall for Dance Festival at New York City Center.

IAN ANDREW ASKEW (assistant director) is an artist working in music and performance. Their project SLAMDANCE began in 2019 and continued at The Performing Garage in 2021. SLAMDANCE TV, a video component, was premiered by The Kitchen online in 2021. As a sound artist collaborating with Camila Ortiz, they have created

scores for projects by Christopher Myers, Kaneza Schaal, Jackie Sibblies Drury, and Joie Lee. As an assistant director alongside Zack Winokur, Askew has shown work at American Repertory Theater and The Metropolitan Museum. As an associate director and sound designer with Kaneza Schaal, they have presented work with Detroit Opera and Performance Space New York.

KIARA BENN (assistant director) is an artist and producer pursuing a career in the realm of creative direction. Benn attended Wesleyan University where she received Wesleyan’s DanceLink Fellowship 2019 – 2020 and was awarded a grant to intern with Whitney Biennial Artist Brendan Fernandes. Benn assisted with his movement-based installations at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and at Wesleyan’s Zilkha Gallery. She danced with Brooklyn youth company, Dancewave, where she performed the works of Kyle Abraham, Camille A. Brown, Andrea Miller of Gallim Dance, and others. Additionally, she danced these works at renowned venues like The Pocantico Center and Jacob’s Pillow. Benn has produced three choreographic pieces, Will You Reminisce For Me?, tempo take me…, and excuse me while I take up space. Kiara’s artistry often asks: How does music serve as a portal to privately experienced memories and trigger our bodies to move in ways that reference the past?

Cast

JAMEZ MCCORKLE (Omar) is an innate musician and trained pianist. McCorkle is gathering acclaim as a hugely exciting talent. Following his time at the Zürich International Opera Studio in 2019, McCorkle was a finalist in the much-coveted Neue Stimmen competition and has since made anticipated debuts at the Metropolitan Opera, Detroit Opera, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Bayerische Staatsoper. Highlights of the 2021—22 season include his house and role debut as Telemaco in a new production of Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria with Theatre Basel; and Leonard Woolfe in Kevin Puts’ new opera The Hours with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

CATHERINE ANN DANIEL (Katie Ellen/ The Caller) made her Opera Tampa debut in Carmen singing the title role in 2020. Daniel studied voice with Coloratura soprano Tracy Dahl at the University of Manitoba. She was a member of the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, and later became a member of the Opera Studio Nederlands in Amsterdam. Her career highlights include singing Emelda Griffiths in Grammy Award-winner Terence Blanchard’s opera Champion with l’Opéra de Montréal, debuting Klytemnestra in Edmonton Opera’s production of Elektra, singing Elisabetta in Knoxville Opera’s production of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, and debuting at Carnegie Hall as a soloist in Haydyn’s Mass in Time of War. ADAM KLEIN (Auctioneer/Taylor) has enjoyed a long career which includes Yniold (Pellas et Mélisande), Count Elemer (Arabella), Chevalier de la Force (Dialogues des Carmélites), Števa (Jenůfa), Chekalinsky (The Queen of Spades), and Yaryshkin (The Nose). Klein’s appearances at Spoleto Festival USA include Georg (Der Fliegende Holländer), Bacchus (Ariadne Auf Naxos), Sly (Faustus, the Last Night), and Leonardo (The Little Match Girl). Other roles include Don José, Cavaradossi, Rodolfo, Pinkerton, Chekalinsky, Canio, and Duca di Mantova, in cities from Chihuahua to Toronto and Portland East to Portland West. He also makes and plays many folk instruments including banjo, dulcimer, and autoharp.

CHERYSE MCLEOD LEWIS (Omar’s Mother, Fatima) enjoys a diverse career in opera, musical theater, commercial, print, and voiceover. Lewis makes her Spoleto Festival USA debut this season as Omar’s Mother in the world premiere opera Omar. Recent highlights include Bess Understudy/ Ensemble Swing in the 1st National Broadway Tour of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Girlfriend 3/Congregant 3 in Blue (Seattle Opera), and Cinderella’s Stepmother in Into the Woods (Village Theatre). Lewis’s recent commercial, print, and voiceover credits include national ads for Amazon, Microsoft, Costco, T-Mobile, and Zillow.

REBECCA JO LOEB (Owen’s Daughter, Eliza) returns this season to the Metropolitan Opera in Boris Godunov, reopens the New York Festival of Song concert series, returns to Deutsche Oper Berlin in Parsifal, and debuts with the Albany Symphony. Loeb recently sang at Theatro Municipal de Sao Paolo reprising her role as Lumee in the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera prism, which was also released on Decca Gold. Other notable performances include Flora in La traviata at The Metropolitan Opera, prism at Los Angeles Opera, Pierrot Lunaire with Donald Runnicles, Written on Skin at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Love Life at Theater Freiburg, and as an ensemble member of the Hamburgische Staatsoper and Deutsche Oper Berlin. Loeb has also performed at Alice Tully Hall, Ravinia Festival, Tanglewood, Oper Köln, Dutch National Opera, Teatro Municipal de Santiago, the Kurt Weill Festival, Gimmerglass Opera, and as a regular with New York Festival of Song.

MALCOLM MACKENZIE (Johnson/Owen) has appeared with prestigious opera houses throughout the United States and Europe, including the Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opera (Bastille), Finland’s Savonlinna Festival, Washington National Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, San Diego Opera, Arizona Opera, Fort Worth Opera, and Pittsburgh Opera, in roles including Simon Boccanegra, Iago, Tonio, Baron Scarpia, Don Giovanni, Count di Luna, Renato, Jack Rance, Marcello, Germont, and Count Almaviva. His 2021-2022 season featured his return to the Metropolitan Opera for Don Carlos, Germont in La traviata at Toledo Opera, Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana with Opera Colorado, and Gianni Schicchi at Piedmont Opera.

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LAQUITA MITCHELL (Julie) consistently earns acclaim on eminent international opera and concert stages worldwide. Mitchell performed as the soprano soloist in the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road at Carnegie Hall with Oratorio Society of New York which was nominated for a 2021 Grammy for Best Choral Performance. She appeared in New York Philharmonic’s Bandwagon concerts and the Kauffmann Music Center’s Musical Storefront as part of New York City’s Pop-Up Arts Revival, as well as in Bard Music Festival’s concert performances of Nadia Boulanger and Her World. She has performed with San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Washington National Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, The Tanglewood Festival, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Detroit Symphony, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and many more.

MICHAEL REDDING (Omar’s Brother, Abdul/Man to be Sold, Abe) has been thrilling audiences in the United States and in Europe with his vocalism and theatrical presence in work ranging from Mozart to classic American Music Theatre. His recent performances include Uncle Paul in the world premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones with Opera Theatre of St Louis, Carl Magnus’s A Little Night Music with Piedmont Opera, Escamillo’s Carmen with Opera on the James, Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the Madison Symphony, concert performances of Porgy and Bess with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic, La Verdi Orchestra, Milan, and the Berlin Philharmonic.

Music Staff

DIANE RICHARDSON (vocal coach) received degrees in music from Oberlin College, Columbia University, and also trained professionally at The Juilliard School, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and L’Università per Stranieri in Perugia, Italy. Skilled in operatic and lieder repertoire, Richardson has toured extensively with leading artists throughout the United States and Europe. She taught at the Yale School of Music, served as assistant conductor with New York City Opera and the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, and has been associated with Spoleto Festival USA since its first season. Richardson holds concurrent faculty appointments at The Juilliard School and Binghamton University.

RENATE ROHLFING (musical preparation) is winner of the Sonderpreis Klavier (Special Pianists’ Prize) at the 2016 Internationaler WettbewerbStuttgart. Rohlfing is an active pianist and music therapist. Described as “pianistic perfection” (Niedersächsische Allgemeine), her recent and upcoming highlights include engagements at the National Gallery of Art, Wigmore Hall, Schloss Elmau, the Isabella Gardner Museum, Beethovenhaus Bonn, and Musikfest Bremen. Rohlfing is passionate about integrating music and public health and is an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music. She is focused on researching the impact of music on neurodiverse populations and communities deeply affected by grief and trauma. Rohlfing is a native of Honolulu, Hawaii, and a graduate of The Juilliard School.

VINROY D. BROWN, JR. (chorus conductor) holds credits in conducting, sacred music, and music education. He is a member of the conducting, organ, and sacred music faculty at Westminster Choir College, where he conducts the Westminster Jubilee Singers and teaches African American Choral Literature. A church musician, he is director of music and worship arts at Elmwood United Presbyterian Church. Maintaining an active conducting schedule, he is founder and artistic director of Elmwood Concert Singers and is artistic director and conductor of Capital Singers of Trenton. He holds the Master of Arts in Practical Theology degree from Regent University and Bachelor of Music degrees in Sacred Music and Music Education from Westminster Choir College.

KELLEN GRAY (assistant conductor) has earned a reputation as a versatile and imaginative conductor through his enthusiasm for traditional, experimental, and multimedia projects. He serves as assistant conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and associate conductor of the Charleston Symphony (USA). Prior to his present appointments, Gray was a Project Inclusion Freeman Conducting Fellow, and later, Assistant Conductor at Chicago Sinfonietta. From 2014 – 2016, Gray was Assistant Conductor at the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra and conducting fellow at Eastern Music Festival. His recent and upcoming conducting endeavors include the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, English National Opera, Virginia Symphony, Boston Symphony, and the Charlotte Symphony, among others.

THE SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA CHORUS is a new professional choir, led by Festival Director of Choral Activities Joe Miller, that builds upon the Festival’s longstanding tradition of exceptional choral music. The Festival Chorus consists of more than 50 vocal fellows with broad and versatile skillsets. Each season, vocal fellows perform major choral works; serve as the choir for Spoleto’s mainstage operas, with select singers covering both large and small roles; and take part in special projects or smaller ensemble works.

THE SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA ORCHESTRA serves as a backbone to the Festival’s programming, appearing in many different configurations as part of opera, symphonic, choral, chamber, and contemporary performances. Comprised of early career musicians, the Orchestra is formed anew each year through nationwide auditions. Alumni of the Orchestra can be found in orchestras throughout the world, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Concertgebouw Orchestra, LA Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, and many others.

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