“A hip and adventurous event...A focus of the new music scene every year.”
The New York Times

VOX 2008May 10 & 11, 12:00–5:30pm

Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
New York University
566 Laguardia Place
(Washington Square Park South)
Get directions

Preview the future of opera at VOX 2008, the only program in the country that gives composers the opportunity to hear new works and works-in-progress with full orchestra and professional soloists.

Music Director George Manahan presides over this year’s festival, which features 10 new opera excerpts spanning the gamut of musical and dramatic styles. Video introductions and panel discussions with the composers make up a festival that is free and open to the public.

Listen to the VOX Podcast featuring David T. Little, Justine F. Chen, and John King.

VOX 2008: Showcasing American Composers has been made possible, in part, by the generous leadership support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Helen F. Whitaker Fund, The Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trust and The Alice Tully Foundation. Additional funding has been provided by The Amphion Foundation; The ASCAP Foundation Irving Cesar Fund; The Aaron Copland Fund for Music; Music Performance and Film Funds, The New York Times Company Foundation, Inc.; Trustee John C. Hall, Jr.; Frederick S. Upton Foundation; Mr. John Baumgardner; and Ms. Younghee Kim-Wait.

Saturday, May 1012:00–5:30pm

12:00–1:30pm

Panel Discussion: Politically Engaged Music-Theater

Moderator: Yuval Sharon, VOX Project Director
Participants: Charles Flowers, Sorrel Hays, David T. Little, Steve Potter, Cary Ratcliff, Scott Davenport Richards, Alice Shields

Can opera, an art form commonly perceived as elitist, act as the right platform for the depiction of topical issues? A roundtable discussion with some of this year’s VOX composers and librettists focuses on this question and discusses the distinction between works that are political and those that are, as composer David T. Little describes them, "socially engaged."

2:00–3:10pm

Our Giraffe

Music by Sorrel Hays
Libretto by Charles Flowers

This imaginative historical fable uses the arrival of the first giraffe in Paris to show the clash of cultural expectations from different societies. Sorrel Hays’ eclectic, hybrid musical writing has earned her eight commissions from the Westdeutscher Rundfunk’s Experimental Drama department, with her subjects ranging from the microtonal fluctuations of tone generators to a post-modern opera on the life of bees.

Sorrel Hays

Charles Flowers

Eleni

Music by Cary Ratcliff
Libretto by Cary Ratcliff, with Robert Koch
Based on the book Eleni by Nicholas Gage

During the Greek Civil War, 28,000 children were abducted to Eastern bloc countries. Nicholas Gage, a New York Times reporter, returned to Greece in 1980 to uncover the story of his mother's defiance, and to track down her executioner with a gun. Ratcliff is a pianist with the Rochester Philharmonic, has taught orchestration and choral writing courses at Eastman School of Music, and has created orchestral soundtracks for the Smithsonian's Einstein Planetarium.

Cary Ratcliff

Robert Koch

3:30-4:30pm

The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth

Music by Veronika Krausas
Libretto by Tom Pettit, after Shakespeare

Los Angeles-based composer Krausas telescopes Shakespeare’s play into an eerie, intense 25-minute chamber work for Lady Macbeth and the Three Witches. Krausas has created multimedia events and concert pieces for the Darmstadt New Music Festival, the Penderecki String Quartet, the Motion Ensemble, and other ensembles in America, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, and Romania.

Veronika Krausas

Tom Pettit

The Officers

Music and libretto by Steve Potter

A deadpan discourse subtitled “Scenic Music for Regulatory Voices and Instruments,” The Officers follows the characters Parvula Consequence and Mister F as they travel from Venice, Italy, to Venice, California to determine whether God is still “dead.” Steve Potter has written for diverse ensembles such as Lontano (London), Teatro Lirico Sperimentale (Spoleto, Italy), and ASKO Ensemble (Amsterdam), and he is currently working on a PhD in composition at King’s College London under the supervision of Silvina Milstein and George Benjamin.

Steve Potter

4:50pm

Dice Thrown

An opera by John King

A striking aleatoric soundscape built from chance operations and based on a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé. Composer and guitarist King has collaborated with companies like Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Stuttgart Ballet, and New York City Ballet, with presentations at festivals like tba/Time-Based Arts Festival in Portland and BAM’s Next Wave Festival.

John King

Sunday, May 1112:00–5:30pm

12:00–1:30pm

Panel Discussion: Singing New Music

Moderator: Cori Ellison, City Opera Dramaturg
Participants: James Bobick, Lauren Flanigan, Melissa Fogarty, Emily Pulley

Four featured singers in this year’s VOX discuss their approach to new opera, as well as the challenges and joys of singing new music.

2:00–3:10pm

Charlie Crosses the Nation

A jazz opera by Scott Davenport Richards

Set in the Big Band era of the ‘30s and ‘40s, this jazz opera tells the story of a fictional mixed-race jazz musician and his struggle for artistic freedom and survival across America. Composer Scott Davenport Richards is the recipient of Jonathan Larson and Frederick Loewe Awards. He is assistant professor at Montclair State's Cali School of Music and a member of the faculty at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program.

Scott Davenport Richards

Criseyde

Music by Alice Shields
Libretto by Nancy Dean

An opera set in “funky middle English” that offers a feminist reinterpretation of Chaucer’s version of the Troilus and Criseyde legend. Composer and classical singer Alice Shields has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Opera Institute, and Meet the Composer; her lyrical style encompasses Gregorian chant, Indian ragas, and electronic music.

Alice Shields

Nancy Dean

3:30–4:30pm

Jeanne

Music and libretto by Justine F. Chen

A fractured retelling of Joan of Arc’s story by composer and violinist Justine F. Chen, whose computer-enhanced chamber opera The Maiden Tower was featured in VOX 2006. New York-based Chen received a doctorate in composition from Juilliard and is Composer-in-Residence at North Carolina’s Long Leaf Opera.

Justine Chen

Soldier Songs

Music and text by David T. Little

A theatrical cantata based on actual interviews, Soldier Songs explores different aspects of a soldier’s experience in a war-based society. Little is a young composer, performer, and band leader whose compositions have earned him awards and fellowships from the Tanglewood, Aspen, and Cabrillo Music Festivals, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, BMI, and ASCAP.

David T. Little

4:50pm

Dylan and Caitlin

Music by Robert Manno
Libretto by Gwynne Edwards

A lyrical account of the last year in the life of poet Dylan Thomas and his volatile relationship with his wife Caitlin. Manno’s music includes over 30 chamber works, a concerto for horn and orchestra, two song cycles, pieces for chorus, solo piano pieces, art songs and arrangements, and he is the recipient of several Meet the Composer and ASCAP awards.

Robert Manno

Gwynne Edwards