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A DC-BASED COMPANY, and at our core:
DEVELOPING AND PRODUCING ORIGINAL WORKS OF MUSIC-THEATRE,
FOSTERING THE GROWTH OF ARTISTS,
AND ENGAGING WITH THE COMMUNITY IN PARTNERSHIP
Changing the Conversation Through the Arts
Our Monthly Newsletter - October 2024
What’s Ahead for Alliance for New Music-Theatre in our 2024 -25 Season?
We are stepping up our activities this season in anticipation of celebrating in 2024-25 season our 30-Year Anniversary of our humble beginnings as a workshop for local artists to advance their collaborative capacities to experiment in the many art forms of music-theatre.
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Composer-Librettist Studio
Presentation of Works created in July Workshops
On November 3, Alliance for New Music-Theatre will offer a showcase featuring a generous sampling of the twenty-five collaborative short assignments from the Composer Librettist Studio held this past July hosted by the Music Department of the University of the District of Columbia (UDC).
Our five Singer/Performers at the final Composer-Librettist Studio session in July
Singer-actors Mia Athey, Ari Jacobson, Farah Kidwai, Greg Watkins, and Laura Whittenberger will reprise their solos, revisit scenes with a few duets or trios, and come together in a couple of full ensemble pieces. Music compositional styles will range from ‘classic’ cabaret and vaudeville to jazz-infused pieces and avant garde musical explorations, the combination of which pushed all participating artists out of their comfort zones.
Music Director Sonja Thompson will return to DC to lead the event from the piano.
And thanks to our talented group of
5 Composers: Deja Crenshaw, Elizabeth Gartman, William Kenlon, Danielle Moore, Thomas Whitman
And 5 Librettists: Susan Bywaters, Ned Eckhardt, Colette Gregory, Oren Levine, Marianna Mott Newirth
Looking forward to seeing you all again at UDC and enjoying your creative works.
Despite the CL Studio’s emphasis on process and risk-taking, several of these short pieces feel like gems in the making. The assigned collaborations which rotated every two days may have at first felt like speed dating, but all participants would probably agree with Mia Athey, our featured artist this month, that the space was made safe and sufficient trust was built so all artists felt supported to build new capacities, consolidate principles of collaboration, and venture into new ways of story-telling through music-theatre.
Applications for next year's CL studio, which will take place in June 2025, will open January 1. Think of applying for what many artists have called the most transformative experience of their professional lives. Read more about the Composer-Librettist Studio HERE.
The recital will take place at 3 p.m. on Sunday, November 3, in the small recital hall of the Music Department at UDC. Tickets are free but seating is limited, so reservations are required. If you are interested in attending, please register for free tickets HERE.
We hope you will join us to experience these new works by our talented group of artists.
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Return to Dupont Underground
We are pleased to announce that Alliance for New Music-Theatre is returning to the Dupont Underground, invited by DU's fabulous Executive Director Ana Harvey as part of its upcoming exhibit – Mosaico- a cultural and artistic exploration of the territory through some of Italy’s most beautiful mosaic icons sponsored by the Italian Embassy.
We are delighted to partner with Bel Canto in Tuscany, whose Artistic Director Giovanni Reggioli will devise a program of selected Italian classical songs specifically selected for this exhibit and the unique Dupont Underground venue. The program will be presented on two evenings:
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Friday, November 15
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Wednesday, Dec 11
Both performances will take place at 7:30 p.m.
Mosaico- offers a novel narrative journey with a deeply educational and inclusive core, unprecedented and contemporary film images, and high-tech installations where visitors will acquire the necessary tools to learn about precious fragments and gain an understanding of the ancient art of mosaic art.
Come early to enjoy this exclusive exhibition. We invite you to stay afterwards to meet the performers and re-immerse yourselves in the magical world of Italian mosaics in the mysterious, historic Dupont Underground, DC’s hippest cultural spot. For tickets go to HERE.
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Hispanic Youth Chorus - coro de la comunidad!
Weekly Rehearsals Resume in October
We are planning to resume our weekly rehearsals on Monday, October 21 and invite any interested Students to check us out.
Under the direction of Leo Herrera, our Youth Chorus -Coro de la comunidad has grown, attracting students as young as precocious third graders up through high school and is conducted in weekly after-school classes taught in Spanish and based in the heart of DC’s bilingual neighborhood at the DC Scottish Rite Center. Students acquire music literacy skills, learn basics of choral singing, and practice repertoire while experiencing the joy making music and making new friends.
We are working with the Latin America Youth Center (LAYC) to enlarge our coro with a "Meet & Greet" event with Maestro Leo Herrera and plan to participate in GALA Theatre's Holiday recital on December 18.
We are currently recruiting for our Fall season to start October 21. If you know of any students who are interested, please register on our coro webpage HERE.
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Featured Artist and New Company Member - Mia Athey
Mia first came to the attention of Alliance for Music-Theatre leadership at Glimmerglass Festival in the opera Blue by Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori and Emmy Award–nominated librettist and director Tazewell Thompson. The work was cited as “Best New Opera of 2020” by The Music Critics Association of North America.
Having been selected as one of five singers, Mia joined New Music-Theatre in the DC Composer Librettist Studio in July 2024, led by Ben Krywosz of Nautilus Theater and founder of the CL Studio, and we had the opportunity to work closely with this most serious practitioner of opera and crossover works and exceptionally gifted singer.
In turn, Mia shared that at first it was challenging to tackle a brand-new score in real time in front of the group, as she was used to learning a score painstakingly on her own. Urged to trust the process by Ben, she learned to do just that and engaged in principles of true collaboration. Like so many of us who have participated in one or more CL Studios, Mia ultimately found the experience life-transforming. “Everyone made it a safe space,” she said with her dazzling Mia smile.
The creative teams who worked with her found her voice and her intellectual and emotional maturity and curiosity inspiring, creating works for her capacities that ranged from bluesy-jazz to opera, taking on an historic roles to embodying the role of Kamala Harris in song. Join Mia on November 3 when she, four other wonderful singers from CL Studio 2024, and the cohort of composers and librettists share music-theater assignments in miniature.
We are proud to welcome her into the company as she is truly that rare triple threat – Singer Dancer Actor – with a hunger to work across the spectrum of genres that represent music-theatre, -- and a fierce appetite to develop writing skills as a librettist to boot! We are also delighted she has also accepted a role in our Creative Admin Team leadership.
Mia grew up in Hyattsville, Maryland, and received her undergraduate degree magna cum laude in vocal performance from The Catholic University of America. She later went on to consolidate her technique at The College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati.
She cites one her favorite operas to be Bizet’s Carmen, and a favorite experience when she sang the role of Mercédès at The Minnesota Opera in a production directed by Denyce Graves in her directorial debut.
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Our Artists and Partners on View
As part of our Live & About Series, we took a group to experience Helen Hayes Award-winning actress Roz White starring as the legendary singer Billie Holiday, in the role she was born to play in Mosaic Theater Company's production of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill.
Featuring classics such as “God Bless the Child” and “Strange Fruit,” this acclaimed play with music transports you to a small bar in Philadelphia for one of the icon’s final concerts, transforming the theater into an immersive nightclub complete with a live band and cocktails.
The production runs through Sunday, October 13.
Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill by Lanie Robertson — Mosaic Theater
Some of our group with Roz White at the show at Atlas.
Roz White will also be featured in our Cabaret Series on Tuesday, December 3 at 7:00 pm at the Arts Club of DC. Roz will perform her interpretation of Roberta Flack at Mr. Henry's.
Roz is an Alliance company member and in May 2022, Roz took on the pivotal role of Mary Burrell in the Alliance premiere of Voices of Zion: The Black Georgetown Cemeteries Project and will be joining us again for our new work to premiere in April 2025 - DC Emancipation and the Right to Vote.
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As a small not-for-profit 501(c)3 public charity organization, Alliance for New Music-Theatre’s mission is to:
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Nurture the creation, development and production of new works of music-theatre
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Foster the development of professional and young artists
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Engage audiences in the creative process to promote a deeper understanding and critical appreciation of the transformative power of music-theatre.
We need your support to continue to fulfill our mission. There are many opportunities to provide support at various levels by supporting an artist, a production, or general support.
The Donate page on our website has information about ways to contribute. Donate | New Music-Theatre (newmusictheatre.org)