Melanie Knolls Project
AMERICA/WE NEED To TALK
This is a proposal to partner with the Intercultural Music Initiative, playwright and filmmaker Niyi Coker, Jr. to present a public reading of a new opera, titled “AMERICA/WE NEED to TALK.” The opera is comprised of music composed by Fred Onovwerosuoke and libretto co-written with Dr. Coker, and will be based on poems and other writings by Paul Dunbar, Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, George Orwell and the late St. Louis Poet Laureate, Michael Castro. The synopsis of the opera was accepted by Opera America and approved for a full proposal for their 2020/2021 IDEA Opera Grant Competition in Los Angeles. The subject matter of this opera examines the great experiment that is America – an uncertain amalgam of cultures and immigrants with diverse experiences, attracted, forced and cajoled from every corner of the globe to build a dream nation in the New World.
Media Highlights
Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival: DEFENSE-DEFIANCE-DEDICATION
The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, 450 West 37th Street New York, NY 10018
Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival: VIRKO BALEY AT 85
The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, 450 West 37th Street New York, NY 10018
Plastic Dream Fugue – Aaron Larget-Caplan in Concert
First Church Boston, 66 Marlborough Street, Boston 02116