2020 Women Composers Festival – Kate Soper; Gabriela Ortiz; Jessica Krash

The Latest Update
ANA Y SU SOMBRA – Video
Video selections from IN Series’ production of Gabriela Ortiz’s ANA Y SU SOMBRA
Featuring:
Mia Rojas, ANA
Elizabeth Mondragon, SOMBRA
Joseph Katz, Pete
Stage direction by Mauricio Pita
Music direction by Emily Baltzer
Set design by Jonathan Dahm-Robertson
Costume design by Donna Breslin
Lighting design by Marianne Meadows
HERE BE SIRENS – Video
See a trailer of IN Series’ production of Kate Soper’s opera HERE BE SIRENS as well as O SAILOR and SHE IS NEITHER
Staring
Noelle McMurtry
Julie Bosworth
Camille Crossot
Directed by Brian Shaw
Set design by Jonathan Dahm-Robertson
Costume design by Donna Breslin
Lighting design by Marianne Meadows
Rave Reviews for HERE BE SIRENS

IN Series’ production of Kate Soper’s first opera HERE BE SIRENS was a huge hit with audiences and critics alike – both in the theater world and the classical music world. We couldn’t be prouder to have been able to bring this piece to life.
Marketing Materials Released


The festival, which now also includes the works of Caroline Shaw, Emily Lau, Louise Thalma, and others in addition to the announced performances of works by Kate Soper, Jessica Krash, Gabriela Ortiz, and Lori Laitman, has just released it’s marketing postcards. In addition, a 3pm conversation will be sponsored by the Mexican Cultural Institute of Washington with Gabriela Ortiz talking about her work and the politics of making art.
Overview
On the weekend of March 6-8 2020, the In Series will mount a festival of operas and staged vocal works by living female composers. Taking place at GALA Hispanic Theatre in Washington, DC, the centerpiece of the festival will be six performances of two fully staged operas, both local premieres. The first of these is Kate Soper’s “Here Be Sirens”. This remarkable work which blends contemporary music with theatrical dialogue fits the profile of the work created by the In Series, but is meant to introduce our audiences to new music by a living composer, a new step for our organization. The In Series also has a long history of Latin American programming and programming for families. As part of honouring this tradition, the 2020 Women Composers Festival will also include “Ana y Su Sombra” by Gabriela Ortiz, introducing important new music to our young audiences. The festival will also include three performances of a staged concert of vocal chamber music by female composers including Kate Soper’s “Only The Words Themselves Mean What They Say”, Emily Lau’s “Emily Dickinson Songs”, Ana Sokolovic’s “Love Songs” and local composer Jessica Krash’s “Sulpicia’s Songs” and “Cantigas de Amigo”. Finally the festival culminates with the announcement of a new opera by Jessica Krash to be presented in 2021 as part of the In Series’ 40th anniversary season.
The In Series’ 2019-2020 Lean-IN season culminates with this festival celebrating the brilliance of living female composers – composers who have been under-represented in the classical music scene of the nation’s capital, as well as in the canon of works produced by the In Series. As part of a new vision for the company to radically reshape the image of who makes opera, we have devised a festival that will change our audience’s perceptions. Artists from the In Series’ core group of artists will perform, produce, design, and direct these 10 performances of 10 works by 6 living female composers. A series of free outreach events will include panels with composers and performers on the role of female composers in today’s new music industry, as well as a public conversation with Anne Midgette of the Washington Post who has championed the catalogue of operatic works by living women composers. All of our performances feature audience talk-back sessions, and “Ana y Su Sombra” will, through a partnership with the DC collaborative, thereafter be offered as a field trip experience to DC Public Schools.
Project Media
Soprano Emily Noel performs with local DC composer Jessica Krash a movement from her reimagining of the Cantigas de Amigo of the Martin Codex, which will receive a premiere staging as part of the 2020 Women Composers Festival. The festival will also include composer Krash’s “Sulpicia’s Songs”, and the announcement of a commissioned full length opera by Krash to be produced in 2021.
This excerpt from the premiere of Kate Soper’s “Here Be Sirens” shows the importance and novelty of this work which will be given its Washington DC premiere in the Women Composer’s Festival. The vibrancy and wit of its opening dialogue expresses an aesthetic for blended spoken and sung text to which the In Series is committed, and the trio that begins at minute 2:11 shows the extreme sensitivity and beauty of Soper’s writing.
This special feature on Gabriela Ortiz’s “Ana y Su Sombra” highlights the immediacy and charm of Ortiz’s music. This work is a particular accomplishment as it deals with the issues of youth migration through music. Having a firm presence in the Latin American immigrant community in Washington DC, the In Series hopes to use this work to reach out to young audiences of diverse backgrounds with this music of vitality and poignancy as we offer the Washington, DC premiere of “Ana y Su Sombra” and create a new touring version for DC Public Schools.
Start and End Dates
03/20/2020 — 03/29/2020
Location
Washington, District Of Columbia
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