96-Hour Opera Project | presented by The Atlanta Opera

Monday, June 20, 2022 @ 7pm | Morehouse College’s Ray Charles Performing Arts Center

Thank you,

The Rich Foundation

for supporting the 96-Hour Opera Project.

welcome Welcome to the 96-Hour Opera Project.

One of my earliest memories of walking into a rehearsal room for Don Giovanni in Tel Aviv many moons ago was how dazzlingly multicultural it felt: an Italian opera written by an Austrian, sung by a French Soprano, American Baritone, Russian Bass, conducted by a Spanish maestro, directed by an Israeli.

I was energized by the number of languages I heard in that room and the wealth of perspectives that each one of those artists brought along with their rich heritage.

Just like that rehearsal room, our community here in Atlanta is a richly diverse melting pot. My daughters attend the Atlanta International School, where dozens of languages are spoken and families from all over the world come together to pursue the American dream. It is clear to me that Atlanta is as Black, Asian and Latino as much as it is White.

Yet opera has a long way to go to become a fully inclusive art form. The idea for the 96-Hour Opera Project emerged when we presented Porgy and Bess in 2020 and held a community event at the Auburn Avenue Research Library. Our Porgy, Morris Robinson, who is our artistic advisor for this project, shared that in his threedecade career he had never sung an opera written, directed, or conducted by a Black artist. Morris is correct: the majority of composers, librettists, and directors in this country belong to one dominant group.

It will take many years to correct that,

starting with the education system and the opportunities provided to students from diverse backgrounds. While we don’t have illusions that this challenge can be resolved overnight, we believe that this program can make one little step toward progress. Our mission is to identify talent of underrepresented communities, amplify it, and nurture it.

The participating composers and librettists were selected from more than 70 applicants and hail from all over North America, from Costa Rica to Puerto Rico and Canada, and the 10-minute works you will hear today are all original premieres. These are voices and perspectives that we are proud to share with you.

These pieces are inspired by stories based in Atlanta or with Georgia connections, thanks to our powerhouse non-profit partners at The National Center for Civil and Human Rights, We Love Buford Highway, The Atlanta History Center, The Japan American Society of Georgia, and the Fulton County Library System.

I’d like to thank our incredible panel of judges for their work this weekend and their support as we have built this showcase and competition. Additional gratitude goes to Dr. Uzee Brown Jr. and the Morehouse College team and our sponsors.

Finally, thank you for attending today. We hope you leave inspired and excited for the future of opera. With talented composers and librettists like our participants this year, we are headed in the right direction.

Tomer Zvulun Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. General & Artistic Director

sosa & martinez

story partner we love buford highway MEZZO-SOPRANO Xiaohan Chen TENOR Jose Caballero

PIANIST Choo Choo Hu DIRECTOR Ricardo Aponte

navarro & mounton

story partner national center for civil & human rights MEZZO-SOPRANO Ebony Collier BARITONE Randall Perkins

PIANIST Seung Hyun Yoo DIRECTOR Robert John Connor

norris & ebo

story partner atlanta history center SOPRANO Maria Clark TENOR Tyrone Webb

PIANIST Eric Jenkins DIRECTOR Robert John Connor

yi & tse

story partner the japan-american society of georgia TENOR Jeong Min Huh BARITONE André Chiang

PIANIST Erika Tazawa DIRECTOR Ricardo Aponte

shahi & dawis

story partner the fulton county library system TENOR Pedro Carreras, Jr. SOPRANO Alejandra Sandoval

PIANIST Andrew Bayles DIRECTOR J.L. Reed

castro & solomon-glover

story partner atlanta history center SOPRANO Tiffany Uzoije TENOR Timothy Miller

PIANIST Justin Maxey DIRECTOR J.L. Reed

judges’ deliberation followed by awards ceremony

the atlanta opera staff EXECUTIVE Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. General & Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun Managing Director Micah Fortson Executive Assistant Misty Reid ARTISTIC/MUSIC Carl & Sally Gable Music Director Arthur Fagen Artistic Administrator Meredith Wallace Artistic Associate Annie Penner Gilstrap Chorus & Orchestra Manager Chris Bragg Pianist/Coach Elena Kholodova Orchestra Librarian Phil Parsons PRODUCTION Director of Production Robert Reynolds Associate Director of Production Meggie Roseborough Technical Director Joshua Jansen

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & EDUCATION

MARKETING & AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT

Director of Community Engagement & Education Jessica Kiger

Chief of Marketing & Audience Development Ashley Mirakian

Education Manager Cantrell Williams

Director of Sales & Marketing Rebecca Brown

Project Manager Jonesia Williams

Senior Manager, Ticketing Services Renee Smiley

Assistant Project Manager Chantiane Smith DEVELOPMENT Chief Advancement Officer Paul Harkins Associate Director of Development – Leadership Giving Jessica Langlois Associate Director of Development – Major & Planned Gifts Jonathan Blalock Associate Director of Development - Operations Sandy Feliciano Senior Institutional Giving Officer Elana Grossman

Assistant Technical Director Britt Reagan

Development Operations Coordinator Diana Burns

Production Stage Manager Megan Bennett

FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION

Assistant Stage Manager Kristin Kelley

Director of Finance Kathy J. White

Props Manager & Artisan Wanda Amanda Creech

Controller Inga V. Murro

COSTUME Costume Director Joanna Schmink

Human Resources & Facilities Manager Kenneth R. Timmons

First Hand Fiona Leonard

Bookkeeper Ruth Strickland

Stitchers Jordan Carrier Hauzia Conyers Lauren Dunlop Matt Mallard Megan Maude

Accountant Ben Imbert

Guest Services Concierge Emily Crisp Creative Services Manager Matt Burkhalter Digital Content Manager Matt Dykeman TAO FILM STUDIO Director of TAO Film Studio Felipe Barral Film Associate Amanda Sachtleben Camera Operators Christina Massad Andie Knudson Darvensky Louis Performance Sound Recording & Mastering Tim Whitehead

sosa & martinez composer jorge sosa Jorge Sosa is a Mexican-born composer, currently residing in New York City. Opera News described his telematic opera Alice in the Pandemic, commissioned by White Snake Projects as “wildly imaginative, musically powerful and technically courageous” and commended “Sosa’s broad stylistic palette (which) incorporated lyrical impassioned melodies, kooky carnival music, and efficient recitative.” Jorge has recently been commissioned by American Lyric Theater to write a new opera Splintered, co-composed with Justine Chen and libretto by Lila Palmer. Jorge recently premiered a new work for Boston Children’s Chorus on the subject of climate change, and is currently working on The Beehive, a new comic opera for University of Northern Iowa with libretto by Melisa Tien. In 2020, Jorge was commissioned by Little Orchestra Society to write The Monarch of Uxmal, a monodrama for orchestra, electronics, and soprano with premiere scheduled for 2022.

Jorge’s first fully staged opera I Am A Dreamer Who No Longer Dreams, commissioned and premiered by White Snake Projects, will receive a second performance in Pittsburgh by Resonance Works in October 2022. Jorge is currently an Associate Professor at Molloy College. For more information please visit his website jorgesosa.com.

librettist alejandra villarreal martinez Alejandra Villarreal Martinez formally began writing for the stage in 2015, when her pastiche children’s opera, Alice in Operaland was produced at the Cleveland Children’s Museum and the Cleveland One World Festival by the Great Lakes Light Opera company. Another of her children’s operas, The Lunchbox Project was produced by Reimagining Opera for Kids as part of their 2018 season, touring to many schools in Southern Indiana. Ms. Martinez has been privately working on an original libretto, Higueras, for several years. In 2020, this libretto, inspired by her Mexican heritage, was included in Fort Worth Opera’s Frontiers Libretto Workshop. Another work, based on the lives of soldaderas in the Mexican Revolution, La Capitana, was completed in 2017, co-written with Nancy De Los Santos. La Capitana received recognition from Opera America and was the project for which Ms. Martinez won the Jacobs School of Music’s Innovation Competition. Ms. Martinez is also an award-winning soprano who specializes in Spanish and Latin American music as well as 20th and 21st century works. Her most recent work, The Queen, My Lord, Is Dead, is a new monodrama with music by Tomàs Peire Serrate and will premiere this June at UCLA.

sosa & martinez artistic statement Buford Highway Dreams was born in partnership with the community organization “We Love Buford Highway,” a nonprofit dedicated to celebrating the multicultural identity of this Atlanta neighborhood, and The Atlanta Opera. They recommended to us the true story of Guillermo, a Mexican migrant, who gradually lost his sight in adulthood. In his darkest hour, Guillermo began to visit a Taekwondo dojang in the community, where he studied and eventually became a Taekwondo master. Eventually, Guillermo started his own dojang and became an important leader of his community, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In our scene, Guillermo is just starting his journey in the martial arts and discovering a new sense of balance, purpose, and community in the teachings of his Korean instructor Seon-yeong. Both characters share their immigration stories, grieving their lost homelands, while finding hope and friendship in their adoptive community. We wanted to tell this story because too often we only hear of the treacherous journeys of immigration, of the discrimination and violence that migrants must overcome. While it is important that we tell those stories, it is equally necessary to share stories of success, achievement, and communities that cross multicultural borders to unite in a sense of hope.

story partner we love buford highway We Love Buford Highway is a 501(c)3 nonprofit preserving the multicultural identity of Atlanta’s Buford Highway. They see its people as the epicenter for advocacy and impact where immigrant communities thrive for generations.

performers & creative team mezzo-soprano xiaohan chen tenor jose caballero pianist choo choo hu director ricardo aponte

navarro & mouton composer johanny navarro Young Puerto Rican composer Johanny Navarro has worked on commissions for important music soloists like Elisa Torres, Luis Miguel Rojas, and Andrea González Caballero; and organizations like Multicultural Music Group, Inc. and Boston Opera Collaborative. She also composed for ensembles like The Catholic University of America Symphony Orquestra, American Harp Society, Inc., New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy, Victory Players, and Coralia from University of Puerto Rico. She has an ample catalog of diverse work and is deeply rooted in Afro-Caribbean musical aesthetics, essentially in Puerto Rican musical culture. For her opera ¿Y los Pasteles? Ópera Jíbara en dos actos she was awarded the Discovery Grant (2020) from Opera Grants for Female Composers by Opera America is scheduled to premiere in July 2022 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Navarro is resident artist at the American Lyric Theater in New York.

librettist deborah d.e.e.p. mouton Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton is an internationally known writer, educator, activist, performer, and the first Black Poet Laureate of Houston, Texas. Formerly ranked the number two Best Female Performance Poet in the World (PSI). Her work has appeared in “Houston Noir” by Akashic Press (2019), “Black Girl Magic” by Haymarket Books (2019), “The Texas Observer,” “Fjords Journal,” and on such platforms as NPR, BBC, ABC, Apple News, Blavity, Upworthy, and across the TedX circuit.

Honored by “The Houston Business Journal” as a part of their 2021 40 Under 40 class, she has been a contributing writer to “Texas Monthly,” “Glamour Magazine,” and ESPN’s “The Undefeated.” D.E.E.P.’s first opera, Marian’s Song which was composed by Damien Sneed, debuted at Houston Grand Opera in 2020. In 2021, she made her directorial debut, with The World’s Intermission, a one-act play that chronicled being Black in the pandemic and was highlighted in Performing Arts Houston’s season at Jones Hall. Poems from her recent poetry collection, “Newsworthy,” garnered her a Pushcart nomination.

A German translation, under the title “Berichtenswert,” was released in Summer 2021 by Elif Verlag. She is a Resident Artist at the American Lyric Theater and Rice University.

navarro & mouton artist statement In an effort to shine light on the atrocity of the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre, 1906 revisits the moment things changed through the eyes of a loving couple Jimmy and Rose Reed.

While Atlanta is blossoming into a progressive city touting Black Billionaires and numerous successful Black-owned businesses, everything becomes upended by a single newspaper headline. While many pieces focus on the trauma that comes through losing your life in a tragic event, 1906 offers that an equal, if not greater, threat existed for every person who lived on as a witness of this historic tragedy. It also serves as a testament to the love that carries us through even the worst times.

story partner national center for civil & human rights The National Center for Civil and Human Rights believes in justice and dignity for all – and the power of people to make this real. We inspire visitors and our other audiences with immersive exhibitions, dynamic events and conversations, and engagement and education/training programs. It opened in 2014, is a museum and human rights organization in Atlanta that inspires people to tap their own power to change the world around them.

performers & creative team mezzo-soprano ebony collier baritone randall perkins pianist seung hyun yoo director robert john connor

norris & ebo composer marcus norris Marcus Norris’ first foray into making music came in the form of producing rap beats on pirated software, installed on a Windows 98 computer that he ‘MacGyvered’ together from spare parts while laying on the floor of his childhood bedroom. Though he came to composing concert music later, he transferred that same imagination and ingenuity to writing music of all kinds. Marcus has been called a “new musical talent in our midst” by Chicago’s “N’digo” magazine, and has made a number of achievements, including being selected as an inaugural Composer-in-Residence for the Chicago Philharmonic from 2021 through 2024, being awarded the prestigious Cota-Robles fellowship for pursuing his PhD in Music Composition at UCLA, and being chosen in 2020 for the LA Philharmonic’s National Composers Intensive. His violin concerto GLORY opened to three sold-out performances when premiered by the Jackson Symphony Orchestra in 2019, and then was subsequently performed in Guangzhou, China later that year. In 2020 Marcus founded South Side Symphony, which recently recorded the original score for the feature film “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.” starring Regina Hall & Sterling K. Brown, written and directed by Adamma Ebo. South Side Symphony remains the only orchestra that would perform Back That Thang Up on the same concert as Beethoven.

librettist adamma ebo Adamma Ebo is an American-Nigerian writer and director, who completed her first feature film project “Honk For Jesus.

Save Your Soul.” in 2021. The film is produced by her identical twin sister Adanne Ebo, alongside 59% (Daniel Kaluuya’s production company), and starring Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown. She is also writing partners with her producer, also her twin sister, together their TV writing credits include the upcoming Amazon series “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” run by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Donald Glover, and Julie Plec’s “The Girls On The Bus” for Netflix/WBTV. Adamma and her sister are developing their animated pilot spec “SupaShawty Girls, Funkamatic BangBang” at 20th Television Animation with Tiffany Haddish producing, and their live action pilot spec “Supply, 404” at MRC with Gloria Sanchez producing. They are also writing an episode for the upcoming anthology series “Strange Adventures” with DC Entertainment/WBTV, and Adamma recently directed an episode of FX’s “Atlanta.”

Adamma is a Spelman College and UCLA Film School graduate. She is also a 2019 Sundance Episodic Lab fellow, and 2019 Sundance Screenwriting fellow.

norris & ebo artist statement Ebo and Norris are interested in exploring the dark comedy in their prompt provided by The Atlanta History Center.

When “Gone With the Wind” made its Atlanta debut in 1939, the city celebrated Atlantan author Margaret Mitchell and film stars over three days. Events included performances by the Morehouse Glee Club and Big Bethel Choir, whose participants had unique perspectives on recreating the antebellum South.

story partner atlanta history center The Atlanta Historical Society was founded in 1926 to preserve and study Atlanta history. In 1990, after decades of collecting, researching, and publishing information about Atlanta and the surrounding area, the organization officially became Atlanta History Center. It has grown to encompass 33 acres of curated Goizueta Gardens, four historic houses, varied programming, and the Atlanta History Museum (completed 1993).

performers & creative team soprano maria clark tenor tyrone webb pianist eric jenkins director robert john connor

tse & yi composer roydon tse A composer of “exquisitely layered soundworlds” (I care if you listen) hailed for works “glittering with professionalism” (Vancouver Sun), Chinese-Canadian composer Roydon Tse is passionate about communicating to audiences from all backgrounds. His music is influenced by the intersections of Eastern and Western traditions, the global climate crisis, psychology, places of being, and loss. He is the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s NextGen composer (2022) and is embarking on a new work for the Esprit Orchestra. Tse has won multiple national and international awards for composition, including six SOCAN Foundation Awards for Composers, the Washington International Composition Prize, Grand Prize from the iSing! International Composition Competition, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta’s Emerging Artist Award, Sir James Lougheed Award of Distinction, and the Metcalf Performing Arts Protégé Prize. He was named one of “Top 30 under 30” Canadian Classical Musicians by the CBC in 2017. Born in Hong Kong, Dr. Tse studied in the U.K. before majoring in composition at the University of British Columbia (B.Mus) and the University of Toronto (M.Mus, D.M.A). Based in Toronto, he is an associate composer of the Canadian Music Center and works frequently with the Canadian Opera Company as a teaching artist.

librettist marcus yi Marcus Yi is an award-winning theatre writer, composer director, and performer based in New York. He has created work in Singapore, Atlanta, and New York. He is the artistic director of Morbid Dumpling Productions. Marcus has worked on over 100 productions and his recently created works include Micro Shrimp The Musical (Winner of 11th Annual NJ Playwrights Contest), 29x/y (WIld Project, Paradise Factory), Pretty Little Mouth (Roy Arias), The Procedure (Gene Frankel Theater), The Ephemeral Lightness of Dreams: the dream plays (Lynn Redgrave Theatre), Thicker Than Water: the blood plays and Baby Baby! His work has been produced by the National Asian Artists Project, Yangtze Rep, Prospect Theater, Pan Asian Rep, Asian American Film Lab, The Secret Theatre, New Jersey Playwrights Contest, Ingenue Theater, Modern Griot Theatre, Ticket2eternity Productions, Queens Players, and more. His work has been seen at the New York Times Center, Green Room 42, The Duplex, National Opera Center, and more.

Marcus was named one of Indie Theater Now’s 2014 People of the Year, is an Indie Theater Now Playwright, and an inaugural member of the 92nd Street Y Musical Theater Development Lab Collective. He is also a Resident Artist with American Lyric Theater and a New Victory 2021 Labworks Artist.

tse & yi artist statement Our story, Shikata Ga Nai, was inspired by Jimmy Doi, a World War II veteran who was also a Japanese internment camp detainee. We were inspired by his unwavering positivity in the face of adversity, and his relentless search for his father. The one act opera traverses fifteen years of his life and is divided into five tableaux that capture pivotal moments in his journey.

The music draws from a variety of styles and paints a portrait of a man who clung onto his humor and humanity through the darkest of times.

story partner the japan-american society of georgia The Japan-America Society of Georgia (JASG) is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization’s mission is to promote mutual understanding between the people of Japan and the State of Georgia through establishing and promoting ties and programs in the areas of culture, customs, education, commerce and politics. Also, to make Georgia the most desirable place in North America for Japanese and other international visitors to live and work – and to make Georgia’s citizens and businesses the most internationally aware in North America.

performers & creative team tenor jeong min huh baritone andré chiang pianist erika tazawa director ricardo aponte

shahi & dawis composer saman shahi Saman Shahi is an award-winning and published composer, pianist, conductor and educator based in Toronto. His music has been described as “powerful and empowering” (The Wholenote), and “lucid and dramatic” (Musicworks). He is also a co-founder and the Executive Director at ICOT since 2011.

He also works as a composer and teaching artist with the Canadian Opera Company. Saman is also an active member of the Circle music band, a rock fusion group in Toronto since 2011, as well as the pianist for the Rogue Duo, a violin piano deut with Bijan Sepanji. In 2020 Saman’s debut composition album Breathing in the Shadows was recorded and released

by Leaf Music. His chamber composition album,“Microlocking” was also released by People|Places|Records in 2021. His song cycle Orbit in this album won the second prize in Canadian Amateur Musician’s Associations’ composition Competition in 2019. Saman was also named the recipient of the 2020 Riversong Commission award by Whispering River Orchestra in 2020. The commission piece also was selected by Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s 2021 “Explore the Score.”

librettist isabella dawis Isabella Dawis is a Filipina-American playwright and performer. As a librettist and lyricist, she is the recipient of the 2022 Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre, the 2021 Fred Ebb Award for musical theatre songwriting, and the 2020 Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award. Works written with composer Tidtaya Sinutoke include Half the Sky (5th Avenue Theatre Digital Radio Play/First Draft Commission, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Theater Mu’s New Eyes Festival, Theater Latté Da’s NEXT Festival) and Sunwatcher (Civilians’ R&D Group, Goodspeed’s Writers Grove, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Ancram Opera House Play Lab, Tofte Lake Center).

Isabella’s writing has been supported by the Primary Stages Rockwell Scholarship, the Kurt Weill Foundation’s Lotte Lenya Songbook, Musical Theatre Factory, Coalition of Asian American Leaders, and more. B.M. summa cum laude, piano performance, University of Minnesota, with vocal study at New England Conservatory. isabelladawis.com

shahi & dawis artist statement When discussing the 1996 Olympics and Paralympics with the Fulton County Library, we were struck by a tension inherent in the city of Atlanta. The epic dreams of success on a global stage — and the lasting wounds of the systematic, racialized displacement of vulnerable residents. Our opera explores and humanizes these themes of ambition, home, and visibility. We also set out to create a role for a singer with a physical challenge or disability, which has been a real highlight of the process.

story partner the fulton county library system The Fulton County Library System serves as a cultural and intellectual center that enriches the community and empowers all residents with essential tools for lifelong learning. It is the largest library system in the state, with 34 libraries. It offers innovative programs, services, and virtual resources tailored to meet the needs of each branch’s community.

performers & creative team tenor pedro carreras, jr. soprano alejandra sandoval pianist andrew bayles director j.l. reed

castro & solomon-glover composer carlos castro Carlos Castro is a Costa Rican composer and 2008 Latin Grammy winner. He is the artistic director of Ensamble Eco, the foremost chamber ensemble in Central America.

His music has been played all over the world. His music has been performed by important ensembles and soloists like North South Consonance Ensemble (NY), Edmundo Ramirez (NYSound Circuit), Composer’s Concordance, Shattered Glass, The Ear, Mario Ulloa, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica, Orquesta Sinfónica de Heredia, Orquesta Filarmónica de Caracas, Rubén Riera, Iván Chinchilla, Javier Valerio, Irwin Hoffman, David Robert Coleman, among others. Castro’s guitar music is edited by Les Productions d’OZ, Quebec, Canada.

His compositions range from solo guitar to orchestra and opera. Has composed and produced numerous scores for dance, theatre, video, film, and radio, including a long list of collaborations with Radio Nederland for a series of radio dramas and documentaries. Carlos Castro teaches at the Universidad de Costa Rica, where he is the Coordinator of the Composition Department and is a member of the Board of ACAM (Asociación de compositores y autores musicales de Costa Rica).

librettist diana solomon-glover Diana Solomon-Glover’s artistic talents, showcased on the operatic stage, in concert, oratorio, recital, musical theater, cabaret, and on radio and television across the world, have long served humanitarian and social efforts. In October, her opera This Little Light of Mine, about 1960’s Civil Rights activist, Fannie Lou Hamer, with music by Chandler Carter, will premiere at the Santa Fe Opera. Ms. Solomon-Glover and composer, Maria Thompson Corley, are 2022 recipients of Opera America’s IDEA grant to develop a semi-staged oratorio commissioned by The National Chorale and based on seminal events in the life of Congressman John Lewis. As producer and featured soloist of Project People Foundation’s Celebration of Life concerts, Ms. Solomon-Glover raised over $250,000 for programs benefiting South African children orphaned by AIDS. Ms. Solomon-Glover has also been a featured soloist for the Annual Gala of The Innocence Project, an organization dedicated to freeing incarcerated Americans who were wrongly convicted. Ms. Solomon-Glover is co-owner with singer, composer Kristin Norderval of Reduta Deux, a nonprofit organization dedicated to producing theatrical works that represent an unusual integration of vision and techniques whose subject matter reflects a broad human consciousness.

castro & solomon-glover artist statement Words begging to be heard and stories shouting to be told inspire me to write and the threads of African American heroism interwoven into our illustrious American tapestry — tales of men and women who give their last measure to push an obstinate nation toward its loftier tenets — are the very stuff of opera.

During the Civil War, nearly two hundred thousand African American men fought to free this country from the evils of chattel slavery. Many of their own words survive to this day and we are fortunate enough to have read them or seen their narratives dramatized on stage and in film. Some of their stories live through the artifacts they touched leaving us to wonder who shed tears of joy upon their return or how their ancestral brilliance traveled generations to ignite our resolve in our own time of trial.

In examining the collection of relics from the U.S. Colored Troops curated by The Atlanta History Center, composer Carlos Castro and I were awed by their symbolism. They lend irrefutable credence to our current social reckoning for, across the ages, they shout that “Black Lives Matter.”

story partner atlanta history center The Atlanta Historical Society was founded in 1926 to preserve and study Atlanta history. In 1990, after decades of collecting, researching, and publishing information about Atlanta and the surrounding area, the organization officially became Atlanta History Center. It has grown to encompass 33 acres of curated Goizueta Gardens, four historic houses, varied programming, and the Atlanta History Museum (completed 1993).

performers & creative team soprano tiffany uzoije tenor timothy miller pianist justin maxey director j.l. reed

judges donald byrd Donald Byrd is the Artistic Director of Spectrum Dance Theater, a Tony Award nominated (The Color Purple) and Bessie Award winning (The Minstrel Show) choreographer. He has created works for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Dance Theater of Harlem, and The Joffrey Ballet among others; and worked extensively in theater and opera including The NY Public Theater, The 5th Avenue Theater, Seattle Opera, Dutch National Opera, and San Francisco Opera.

khori dastoor Khori Dastoor joined Houston Grand Opera as General Director and CEO in August 2021. She oversaw the expansion of online art-sharing initiative HGO Digital to include the first livestream of a company world premiere, The Snowy Day. Under her leadership HGO has commissioned a new, original, mainstage production, Dame Ethel Smyth’s forgotten 1906 opera The Wrecker. Before joining HGO, Dastoor was the General Director of Opera San José. Dastoor holds a bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music and a master’s degree from UCLA. An artist herself, she is a lyric soprano who has performed on stages around the world. She and her husband are the proud parents of two young daughters.

andrea davis pinkney Andrea Davis Pinkney is the acclaimed librettist for The Snowy Day, which enjoyed its world premiere at the Houston Grand Opera. Ms. Pinkney is The New York Times bestselling and Coretta Scott King award-winning author of numerous books for children and young adults. She is a four-time NAACP Image Award nominee, recipient of both the Regina Medal and the Arbuthnot Honor Award, for her singular body of work and distinguished contribution to the field of literature. Ms. Pinkney has been inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame, and has served on the creative teams for several theatrical and audio productions, including those drawn from her acclaimed books. Ms. Pinkney and her work are the subject of the Emmy-nominated short film, Andrea Davis Pinkney: National Author Engagement.

judges priti gandhi Priti Gandhi joined Portland Opera as Artistic Director in the fall of 2021, as part of a new collaborative leadership team structure for the company. An artistic and strategic leader, her role leads the discussions for season planning, casting, developing the young artist program, and oversight of the company’s community engagement and educational programs. Previous to her post in Portland, she was Vice President of Artistic at Minnesota Opera.

kevin puts Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts has established himself as one of America’s leading composers, gaining international acclaim for his “plush, propulsive” music (The New York Times), and described by Opera News as “a master polystylist.” He has been commissioned and performed by leading organizations around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Opera Philadelphia, Minnesota Opera, and many more, and has collaborated with world-class artists such as Renée Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Marin Alsop, among others. Since 2006, he has been a member of the Composition Faculty at the Peabody Institute, and currently is the Director of the Minnesota Orchestra Composer’s Institute.

morris robinson, artistic advisor Mr. Robinson regularly appears at the Metropolitan Opera where he debuted in a production of Fidelio and has since appeared as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte (both in the original production and in the children’s English version), Ferrando in Il Trovatore, the King in Aida, and in roles in Nabucco, Tannhäuser, and the new productions of Les Troyens and Salome. His many roles include the title role in Porgy and Bess, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Ramfis in Aida, Zaccaria in Nabucco, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlos, Timur in Turandot, the Bonze in Madama Butterfly, Padre Guardiano in La Forza del Destino, Ferrando in Il Trovatore, and Fasolt in Das Rheingold.

special thanks The Atlanta Opera would like to thank the following people and organizations for their help in making the 96-Hour Opera Project possible: Arthur Fagen Brandall Jones Jamil Jude Elena Kholodova Rolando Salazar Chantiane Smith Cantrell Williams Jonesia Williams

story partners Kristian Weatherspoon & Claire Haley, The Atlanta History Center Shani Drake Duncan & Toni Friday, The Center for Civil and Human Rights Marcia Divak & Claudia Strange, The Fulton County Library System Yoshi Domoto, The Japan American Society of Georgia Natalia Garzon & Lily Pabian, We Love Buford Highway

georgia public broadcasting Keocia Howard Burt Huffman Sonia Murray William Overall Teya Ryan Mandy Wilson

morehouse college Chair of The Division of Creative & Performing Arts Dr. Uzee Brown, Jr. Director Of The Morehouse College Glee Club/ Academic Program Director Of Music Dr. David E. Morrow Director, Event Support Services James E. Smartt Event Support Services Coordinator Shiekgo Carter A/V Technician Kenneth Harris Jr. Office Manager Stephanie Whittaker

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