Chandler Carter was born in North Carolina and currently lives in New York City. His opera, Strange Fruit, written with librettist Joan Ross Sorkin, was showcased at City Opera’s VOX 2003 and subsequently commissioned by Long Leaf Opera. Critics hailed the 2007 premiere of Strange Fruit as a “stunner of an opening performance” for Long Leaf’s inaugural summer festival in Chapel Hill. This coming June, Long Leaf will premiere Carter’s recently-completed Mercury Falling, a monodrama for tenor and dancer composed for singer/librettist Daniel Neer. Critics also applauded Carter’s first opera, No Easy Walk to Freedom, as a “compelling musical recounting” of Nelson Mandela’s life that reveals the composer’s “true genius and courage.” The concert premiere in 2000 of this opera was featured at the Hofstra Cultural Center’s international conference "Contemporary Opera at the Millennium,” for which Carter served as co-director. No Easy Walk to Freedom was fully staged at The Riverside Church in New York City in 2001. Show more
Besides operas and works for the stage, Carter has written over 50 songs and numerous choral, chamber and orchestral works. He has received commissions from choral and chamber groups as well as individual performers. His instrumental music, which ranges from large and small conventional ensembles to novel instrumental combinations, has been performed by numerous groups, including the Da Capo Chamber Players, the Quintet of the Americas, the Latin American Wind Quintet, the Hofstra String Quartet, the Denver Chamber Orchestra and the Westchester Philharmonic. Notable choruses, like the Riverside Choir in New York City regularly program his original choral music and choral arrangements.
Carter has received several awards, including two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and prizes for his Mass, Symphony for Winds and Canticle for tenor and orchestra. He is an associate professor of music at Hofstra University and holds a Ph.D. in composition from the City University of New York, where he studied with Thea Musgrave and David Del Tredici. Carter also has master’s degrees in composition and vocal performance from Boston University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina.
The American Music Center’s Composer Assistance Program has generously funded the preparation of the score and parts for this performance of No Easy Walk to Freedom. For more information on Chandler Carter’s music, visit www.chandlercarter.com. Show less
American opera manifests our deepest sense of what it is to be American. From its very beginnings, opera has expressed our deepest sense of what it is to be human—our archetypal voice. Whether or not the characters and stories of American operas are specific to our time or place, these works express the conflicts and raw emotions that most deeply concern us as Americans. It’s no surprise that American composers are drawn to the great novels (Of Mice and Men, The Great Gatsby, An American Tragedy, Elmer Gantry) and even movies (Dead Man Walking) that help define our uniquely American identity. A crucial part of that identity has been forged in the heat of racial conflict. This struggle is the theme of both of my full-length operas, No Easy Walk to Freedom and Strange Fruit, and numerous other American works.
* Indicates excerpt performed in VOX 2009
No Easy Walk to Freedom is an opera based on the life of former South African President Nelson Mandela. The drama focuses on Mandela’s 27-year imprisonment, from 1963 to 1990, and his subsequent election in 1994. Show more
The drama per se begins with Mandela in jail, teaching himself Afrikaans. He recalls the campaign of defiance in the 1950’s that culminated in the massacre at Sharpeville of over 100 protesters by the police. This incident prompts Mandela to resort to sabotage, a turning point in his life, for it forces him into hiding and destroys his personal and family life. He is eventually arrested, tried and sentenced to life in prison.
Part Two focuses on the continuation of the struggle in Mandela’s absence and the agitation for his release. Mandela’s wife Winnie emerges as a forceful leader. Her repeated arrests and eventual banishment to internal exile forge in her a more radical identity. Authorized by the Prime Minister, the prison Governor offers Mandela clemency if he will “reject violence as a political weapon” (Part II, Scene 4).* But Mandela refuses to “sell the birthright of his people to be free.” As unrest intensifies and boycotts from Western countries isolate the white government, the Prime Minister relents and Mandela is released in 1990 (Part II, Interlude 4).*
Upon his release, Mandela greets his supporters in Cape Town amid general celebration and rejoicing (Part II, Scene 5).* But even as he speaks, various other voices emerge. Supporters voice their hopes and joys; Prime Minister DeKlerk postures; Zulus express their continued loyalty to their tribal king rather than the ANC’s centralized leadership; and radicals, coalescing around Winnie Mandela, demand immediate action. Mandela addresses each obstacle during the course of his speech.*
These conflicting forces threaten to disrupt the planned elections. But through his calm determination, Mandela helps bring this 40-year episode in South Africa’s struggle for freedom to a fulfilling conclusion with his own election as President in May 1994. Show less
