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Singers in a Strange Land
By Richard Owens
It is with gratitude to our steadfast readers and new followers alike that we ring in the new year with this Winter Edition of the Sacred in Opera Initiative Newsletter. We begin with greetings and words of inspiration from Richard Owens, founder of The American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. A longtime friend of the National Opera Association, Professor Owens reminds us why the Sacred in Opera Initiative exists, and why its mission is as relevant as ever. Continue Reading...
From the Editorial Board
Article Submission and the Peer Review Process
Although traditional print journal and monograph publishing is still alive and well, non-traditional forms of publishing such as the Sacred in Opera Web and Blog based format can serve as wonderful supplements or alternatives to traditional scholarship. Web based publications such as ours can enable the broadest possible readership of your research outputs and become an important way to maximize the dissemination and impact of your findings. In order to better serve our community members, the SIO committee continues working diligently to refine its formalized peer review process for the vetting of article submissions and materials to our newsletter. We welcome you to visit our updated submission criteria found in the SIO pages of the NOA website. We are always interested in hearing from potential contributors and supporting the good work you are doing in the field of Sacred in Opera. Let us hear from you.
Dr. Isai Jess Muñoz, Chair and Senior Editor
The Sacred in Opera Initiative of the NOA
The current list of the SIO Committee and Editorial Board includes:
Dr. Isai Jess Muñoz
University of Delaware
SIO Chair and Senior Editor IJMunoz@udel.edu
Professor Ruth Dobson
University of Oregon
Dr. Tammie Huntington
Indiana Wesleyan University
Dr. Michelle Louer
Second Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis
Professor Susan McBerry
Lewis and Clark College
Dr. Ryu-Kyung Kim
University of Dayton
Dr. Kurt-Alexander Zeller
Clayton State University
Composer Spotlight On: Marisa Michelson... Cultivating Spiritual Movement in Music Drama
By Dr. Isai Jess Muñoz and Nicole Boysen
Marisa Michelson’s 2013 off-Broadway music drama, Tamar of the River, was noted by New York Magazine as “One of the most extraordinary new scores in years.” Since then, Michelson has been busy with multiple projects including Namaah’s Ark, a dramatic oratorio co-written with Pulitzer Prize winning librettist Royce Vavrek which will be seen this June at lower Manhattan's "River to River Festival" starring Tony-winner Victoria Clark. Michelson's latest musical, One Thousands Nights and One Day (a re-imagining of Arabian Nights), is also scheduled to open off-Broadway this coming Spring. Perhaps her most daring venture to date is Desire/Divinity Project, a hybrid of genres in which she explores the relationship between the sensual and the sacred, the body and the spirit, through an exegesis of the Western world’s oldest erotic poem, Song of Songs. The work also draws from the lives of Hildegard of Bingen and Sappho. SIO Chair, Isai Jess Muñoz, recently sat down with Ms. Michelson, who took time to share on her wholistic writing process, that is breaking the boundaries of formal convention, and encouraging audiences to reflect on the complexities of humanity’s relationship with otherworldly discussion. Continue reading...
Feature: Katie Luther, A One-Woman Monodrama by Glenn Winters
In Response to the Reformation's 500th Anniversary
By Dr. Michelle Louer
With words and music by Glenn Winters, Katie Luther the opera, is a one-woman monodrama for soprano and piano in three scenes. Inspired by The Morning Star and the Nightingale, a play by Paul Schreiber, the opera was originally conceived and commissioned by Soprano Lori Lewis. Continue Reading...
Feature: Luther, An Opera by Kari Tikka
In Response to the Reformation's 500th Anniversary
By Dr. John Pfautz
NOA Past President and The Sacred Opera Initiative's founder John Pfautz, took time to this past December to converse with Kari Tikka,Finnish composer, conductor, teacher at the famed Sibelius Academy,
performer, Lutheran, family man, and composer of the opera Luther. Continue Reading...
Celebrations...
NOA's Sacred in Opera Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree:
Susan Hulsman Bingham
The Sacred in Opera Initiative recently hosted a celebratory plenary session at this year’s NOA Conference in New Orleans, honoring the life and work of composer Susan Hulsman Bingham– who the National Opera Association proudly honored this year with the Sacred in Opera Lifetime Achievement Award. Highlights from six of Bingham’s many operas were performed by students from the University of Delaware. The event was moderated by Dr. Michelle Louer, and directed by Dr. Isai Jess Muñoz (SIO Chair), Dr. Samuel Mungo (Peabody Conservatory), and Dr. Blake Smith (University of Delaware). Continue Reading...
Singers in a Strange Land
