Key Change – Details, episodes & analysis

We’ve arrived at the end, or the beginning, depending on how you mark time. Key Change co-hosts Andrea Fellows Fineberg and Anna Garcia close out this podcast season with an epic career coda and an equally impressive introduction. Join us as we say farewell (but not goodbye) to Andrea and welcome Olga Perez Flora, DMA, Associate Professor of Voice, University of New Mexico (UNM), who will assume Key Change co-hosting duties next season. And what would our final episode of the year be without a trip in the trusty Key Change Time Machine? Cue the tears and cheers as we set a course for legacy-defining moments and forward-focused collaborations. 

“I have big dreams,” says Olga, the visionary educator and performer excited to “pay it forward” with a collaboration between UNM and Santa Fe Opera. This partnership offers students multiple pathways into performance and other careers in opera. “My dream is for us to build on what has already been happening and give students at UNM just a little bit more room to learn what the professional side of opera is like,” Olga explains.

“We’re gonna work locally toward global impact,” affirms Andrea, who exits Santa Fe Opera after 33 years of championing broader student access to and community engagement with the art form. She leaves behind an enduring legacy that includes Opera For All Voices and this podcast, but not before previewing her exciting new synergies with Santa Fe Opera. 

And that’s the curtain call for season five!

FEATURING

Olga Perez Flora, Mezzo-soprano, Voice Area Head, Associate Professor of Voice, University of New Mexico

Charles Gamble, Director Of Community Outreach, Santa Fe Opera

Andrea Klunder, producer, Key Change Podcast

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Opera For All Voices

Young Voices Program | Santa Fe Opera

Opera Storytellers Summer Camp | Santa Fe Opera

Shoes For The Santo Niño

The University Of New Mexico School Of Music

Florida International University School of Music & Performing Arts

Ernesto Lecuona

Leo Brouwer

José María Vitier

Nathan Salazar

Marcy Rendon

Brent Michael Davids

Del Sol Quartet

University Of Michigan School Of Music, Theatre, & Dance 

RELATED EPISODES

Harmony In Process: The Young Voices Of Santa Fe Opera With Amy “Process” Owens

Making Learning Sticky: Creative Compassion For Kids And Educators Through Opera With Charles Gamble

Music Born Out of a Modern Experience: The Pigeon Keeper Orchestral Workshop

Building a Better Society with Florida International University Music Students

The View From 20,000 Feet: An Interview with General Director Charles MacKayConnections Across Time and Space: Opera in the Cosmo

Hometown to the World: Discovering "Postville" with Laura Kaminsky and Kimberly Reed

***

Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with Opera for All Voices.

Produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios

Hosted by Andrea Fellows Fineberg & Anna Garcia

Audio Engineer: Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe

Technical Director: Edwin R. Ruiz

Production Support from Alex Riegler

Show Notes by Lisa Widder

Theme music by Rene Orth with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe Becktell, cello

Cover art by Dylan Crouch

This podcast is made possible due to the generous funding from the Hankins Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and an Opera America Innovation Grant supported by the Anne & Gordon Getty Foundation.  

To learn more about Opera For All Voices, visit SantaFeOpera.org. And for more Key Change, visit SantaFeOpera.org/KeyChange

One of the greatest gifts you can offer a teen is confidence. The other? A process for refining that raw self-assurance into an impressive talent and invaluable life skill. But where to start? At the beginning, of course! 

Join Key Change co-hosts Andrea Fellows Fineberg and Anna Garcia as they happily infiltrate Orientation Day for the Young Voices program, one of several prestigious youth-focused initiatives at Santa Fe Opera.

Get to know this year’s cohort as they share their first-day impressions and program goals. Key Change favorites Amy Owens, director of the Young Voices program, and Charles Gamble, director of Community Engagement, also stop by to preview the program's curriculum and performance opportunities culminating in a much anticipated public recital. 

"They're coming into a good environment for nurturing," beams Charles as he watches 17 of the 19 high schoolers begin to bond with one another and absorb the creative energy around them. After today, each student will participate in private voice lessons before reuniting for retreats and ensemble work.

Young Voices is an intense program. "So, I've built in some things that make it a little bit easier for them,” Amy assures us. Does she have any advice for this year's cohort? "Whatever is meant to happen––whether you pursue a career in music or something else––that's gonna happen no matter where you go," she offers. "Taking a little bit of pressure off and letting them experience the joy of interacting with their process, with music, is what I hope this program can provide them within a season of stress."

FEATURING

Amy Owens, director of the Young Voices program, Santa Fe Opera

Charles Gamble, director of Community Engagement, Santa Fe Opera

Andrea Klunder, producer, Key Change Podcast

Young Voices Of Santa Fe Opera 2024/25: Rylee Baca, Cianna (Gigi) Clay, Kadiah Dragone-Gutierrez, Landen Kessler, William Landahl, Gavin Lopez, Eleanor Lucas, Ava Mitchie, Alexander Nicolas Neas, Alexandra Raskin, Nicolas Taccetti

Young Voices Studio: Petra Archuletta, Iris Butcher, Rose Gubelmann, Brooklyn Moeno, Elsa Dhonau-Egan, Seraphina Goldstein, Ida Shelton, Jade Zeno-Neal

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Opera Storytellers Summer Camp | Santa Fe Opera

Opera Makes Sense | Santa Fe Opera

Taos Opera Guild

RELATED EPISODES

Harmony In Process: The Young Voices Of Santa Fe Opera With Amy “Process” Owens

Making Learning Sticky: Creative Compassion For Kids And Educators Through Opera With Charles Gamble

***

Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with Opera for All Voices.

Produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios

Hosted by Andrea Fellows Fineberg & Anna Garcia

Audio Engineer: Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe

Technical Director: Edwin R. Ruiz

Production Support from Alex Riegler

Show Notes by Lisa Widder

Theme music by Rene Orth with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe Becktell, cello

Cover art by Dylan Crouch

This podcast is made possible due to the generous funding from the Hankins Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and an Opera America Innovation Grant supported by the Anne & Gordon Getty Foundation.  

To learn more about Opera For All Voices, visit SantaFeOpera.org. And for more Key Change, visit SantaFeOpera.org/KeyChange.

Roadtrip! After many long months of necessary virtual collaboration, the creative team behind The Pigeon Keeper, a Santa Fe Opera Opera For All Voices (OFAV) commission, finally got to spread their wings for an emotional workshop in San Francisco. 

Key Change co-hosts Andrea Fellows Fineberg and Anna Garcia discover what it was like to have everyone (well, almost everyone) in the same room for the very first time––featuring composer David Hanlon, librettist Stephanie Fleischmann, stage director Mary Birnbaum, music director Kelly Kuo, dramaturg Cori Ellison, Ruth Nott, consultant for OFAV, plus Elinore (Ellie) Pett-Ridge Hennessy, Azaria Stauffer-Barney, and Ruby Recht-Appel, all members of the San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC).

"Stephanie and I really love working and responding in the moment," says David, excited to sit beside The Pigeon Keeper's librettist in real time and space. 

For those unfamiliar with the process of developing new operatic works, workshops put the pieces and performers together for a rigorous, accelerated series of rehearsals, and what some may call a smash-through – the first time the piece is heard by the artists in person all the way through, without stopping (even if there are mistakes.) Then the piece is presented to an invited audience of folks who may be interested to produce or present the opera in the future.  “We're always trying things out, which is really exciting. But,” David admits, “there's a lot of flux to that.” 

Workshops are, by their nature, intense. Witnessing The Pigeon Keeper live, with its fairytale-like exploration of chosen family and mass migration, profoundly impacted participants of this workshop, especially members of the San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC), whose voices add poignant commentary to the storytelling. "I'm not gonna lie to you. I read through the music, and I started tearing up," recalls Ellie. "It just feels like home."

And it feels one step closer to realizing The Pigeon Keeper as a fully staged production.

FEATURING

David Hanlon - Composer, The Pigeon Keeper

Stephanie Fleischmann - Librettist, The Pigeon Keeper

Mary Birnbaum - Stage Director

Kelly Kuo - Music Director

Cori Ellison - Dramaturg

Ruth Nott - Consultant, Opera for All Voices

Elinore (Ellie) Pett-Ridge Hennessy, Azaria Stauffer-Barney, and Ruby Recht-Appel - Members, San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) led by Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe

RELATED EPISODES

KCP0204: Hope Is the Thing With Feathers: A first look at The Pigeon Keeper

KCP0404 - In a Room Making Music With People: The Pigeon Keeper with Stephanie Fleischmann and David Hanlon

***

Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with Opera for All Voices.

Produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios

Hosted by Andrea Fellows Fineberg & Anna Garcia

Audio Engineer: Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe

Show Notes by  Lisa Widder

Theme music by Rene Orth with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe Becktell, cello

Cover art by Dylan Crouch

This podcast is made possible due to the generous funding from the Hankins Foundation, the Andrew W Mellon foundation, and an Opera America innovation Grant supported by the Anne & Gordon Getty Foundation.  

To learn more about Opera For All Voices, visit us at SantaFeOpera.org.

If a chorus of 12 teens can provide compelling commentary on immigration enforcement from the stage of a venerable performing arts center in Santa Fe, how might ten times that number of voices impact the debate? From a Broadway venue that has welcomed some of the twentieth century’s most influential social justice visionaries? 

Key Change co-hosts Andrea Fellows-Fineberg and Anna Garcia pilot the time machine east to find out, setting a course for the 2022 premiere of Hometown to the World at New York’s storied Town Hall.

Adding their insights to this aural postcard are Hometown’s composer Laura Kaminsky and librettist Kimberly Reed; Melay Araya, artistic director at The Town Hall; several chorus members from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and Repertory Company High School for Theatre Arts, as well as the audience.

Hometown––an original work commissioned by Santa Fe Opera for its Opera For All Voices (OFAV) initiative––follows the events of a 2008 raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, IA. The opera explores themes of religion, acceptance, and community, igniting a communal desire to create a more equitable world. “People that are already empathetic, they need fuel,” says Melay. “They need the refocusing that Laura and Kim provide in language and song to think larger and to address these issues, not just on the granular level, but as spiritual and ethical questions.”

Hometown closes with a Hebrew call to action, delivered by that sprawling chorus of young, hopeful voices: Tikkun Olam! Repair the world!

FEATURING

Laura Kaminsky - Composer, Hometown to the World

Kimberly Reed - Librettist, Hometown to the World

Melay Araya - Artistic Director, The Town Hall

A chorus comprised of 100+ public high school students from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and Repertory Company High School for Theatre Arts

RELATED EPISODES

Season 1, Episode 6 “Hometown to the World” - Hometown’s Laura Kaminsky and Kimberly Reed on telling history and collaboration.

Season 2, Episode 9 “America Is Impossible Without Us” - Revisiting Hometown’s story, structure, music, and what it means to be an American during the San Francisco workshop.

Season 3, Episode 3 “Responding to the World” - with Stage Director Kristine McIntyre and Dramaturg Cori Ellison.

Season 3, Episode 8 “Bridging Communities with Carmen Flórez-Mansi” - with Chorus Master Carmen Flórez-Mansi.

Season 4, Episode 1 “This Doesn’t Happen Without Audience” - Andrea prepares for the world premiere in Santa Fe with core members of its artistic team, young performers, and the most influential collaborator: the audience.

Season 4, Episode 2 “Influence and Inclusion: The Impact of Hometown to the World with Estevan, Ely, and Francesco of the Youth Chorus” - Post-show reactions from artists, creators, collaborators, and the audience buoyed by musical excerpts from Hometown’s premiere at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe.

***

Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with Opera for All Voices.

Produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios

Hosted by Andrea Fellows Fineberg & Anna Garcia

Audio Engineer: Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe

Show Notes by  Lisa Widder

Theme music by Rene Orth with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe Becktell, cello

Cover art by Dylan Crouch

This podcast is made possible due to the generous funding from the Hankins Foundation, the Andrew W Mellon foundation, and an Opera America innovation Grant supported by the Anne & Gordon Getty Foundation.  

To learn more about Opera For All Voices, visit us at SantaFeOpera.org.

What do you know about the life and legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer? Chances are, not much. That's about to change. 

Co-hosts Andrea Fellows Fineberg and Anna Garcia dust off the Key Change time machine for a trip back through time and place to the real-life inspiration for This Little Light of Mine (TLLoM), the modern operatic masterpiece commissioned by Santa Fe Opera's Opera For All Voices initiative. Good thing this ride is roomy because joining them are two women who can claim a direct connection to Mrs. Hamer: Jacqueline "Cookie" Hamer Flakes, Mrs. Hamer's last surviving daughter, and LaToya Ratlieff, Mrs. Hamer's grand-niece. 

Mrs. Hamer was born to sharecroppers early in the last century when life for an undereducated Black woman was difficult at best. She endured unimaginable cruelty at the hands of white people who sought to block voting access for folks who looked like her. While those encounters battered her body, her powerful, passionate voice never broke. And yet, many are still unaware of Mrs. Hamer’s contributions to the Civil Rights movement or the rousing, emotional speech she delivered at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

Cookie shares painful, visceral details of Mrs. Hamer’s life and poignant memories of her spirit in celebration of a life committed to community––and as a reminder that the fight for civil rights is still ours today. 

This transformative voyage also features familiar voices from the TLLoM creative team: composer Chandler Carter, librettist Diana Solomon-Glover, music director Jeri Lynne Johnson, stage director Beth Greenberg, and stage manager Laurel McIntyre. Charles Gamble, SFO's director of school programs, Devin DeVargas, Pojoaque Valley High School choir teacher, and members of the Pojoaque Valley Choir complete this episode’s passenger roster.

This episode is dedicated in memoriam to Jacqueline "Cookie" Hamer Flakes (September 22, 1966 - March 27, 2023).

FEATURING

Jacqueline "Cookie" Hamer Flakes

LaToya Ratlieff

Diana Solomon-Glover – Librettist

Chandler Carter – Composer

Jeri Lynne Johnson – Conductor & Music Director

Beth Greenberg – Stage Director

Laurel McIntyre – Stage Manager

Charles Gamble – SFO Director of School Programs

Devin DeVargas – Pojoaque Valley High School Choir Teacher

Members of the Pojoaque Valley High School Choir 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Fannie Lou Hamer: Stand Up

THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE PLAYLIST

A Day In The Life Before A World Premiere

Mother of a Movement: This Little Light of Mine

BONUS: Is This America? 

Singing A Call to Action: Is This America? 

Making a Choice With Conviction: A conversation with Jeri Lynne Johnson

Lighting a Fire: The Legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer

***

Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with Opera for All Voices.

Produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios

Hosted by Andrea Fellows Fineberg & Anna Garcia

Audio Engineer: Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe

Show Notes by  Lisa Widder

Theme music by Rene Orth with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe Becktell, cello

Cover art by Dylan Crouch

This podcast is made possible due to the generous funding from the Hankins Foundation, the Andrew W Mellon foundation, and an Opera America innovation Grant supported by the Anne & Gordon Getty Foundation.  

To learn more about Opera For All Voices, visit us at SantaFeOpera.org.

It’s October 28, 2022. As a brisk, still night settles over Santa Fe, things are heating up inside The Lensic Performing Arts Center. Longtime opera patrons mingle alongside never opera goers. Soon, the curtain will rise on This Little Light of Mine (TLLoM), a modern operatic masterpiece composed by Chandler Carter with libretto by Diana Solomon-Glover. 

The one-act production is an unflinching yet uplifting dramatization of the life of Fannie Lou Hamer, a Black woman born on the very lowest rung of the American caste system. A Black woman who nonetheless rose to speak at the 1964 Democratic National Convention and became an exemplar of the Civil Rights movement. A Black woman who knew her worth despite a world that told her otherwise. 

But hold on! A lot has happened between the time Opera For All Voices (OFAV) of The Santa Fe Opera first commissioned TLLoM and this triumphant evening. Key Change co-hosts (yep, a lot has happened) Andrea Fellows Fineberg and Anna Garcia check in with members of the production’s creative team in the hours leading up to the world premiere.

What do they want folks to understand about Mrs. Hamer’s life and legacy? How has the piece expanded discussions around whose stories get told onstage? And what’s the connection between self-care and a tiny table? 

If OFAV’s goal to foster community beyond opera’s traditional audience is central to this conversation, then TLLoM acts as the initiative’s standard bearer. It’s a fitting tribute to Mrs. Hamer’s innate ability to speak truth to power and galvanize individuals under one unifying voice. 

FEATURING

Chandler Carter – Composer

Diana Solomon-Glover – Librettist

Jeri Lynne Johnson – Conductor & Music Director

Beth Greenberg – Stage Director

Laurel McIntyre – Stage Manager

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

The Lensic Performing Arts Center

Kentucky Opera

REPS ON SET

New Mexico Black Leadership Council

THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE PLAYLIST 

Mother of a Movement: This Little Light of Mine

BONUS: Is This America? 

Singing A Call to Action: Is This America? 

Making a Choice With Conviction: A conversation with Jeri Lynne Johnson

Lighting a Fire: The Legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer

***

Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with Opera for All Voices.

Produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios

Hosted by Andrea Fellows Fineberg & Anna Garcia

Audio Engineer: Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe

Show Notes by  Lisa Widder

Theme music by Rene Orth with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe Becktell, cello

Cover art by Dylan Crouch

This podcast is made possible due to the generous funding from the Hankins Foundation, the Andrew W Mellon foundation, and an Opera America innovation Grant supported by the Anne & Gordon Getty Foundation.  

To learn more about Opera For All Voices, visit us at SantaFeOpera.org.

If you’re unfamiliar with Santa Fe Opera’s Pueblo Opera Program (POP), take a quick journey back in time for part one of this conversation. Go ahead; we’ll wait. In it, you’ll meet Renee Roybal and Claudene A. Martinez, both members of Pueblo of San Ildefonso. The pair recall the early days of POP and the formation of the Pueblo Opera Cultural Council (POCC).

Now that you’re sufficiently caught up, join Andrea Fellows Fineberg as her time machine co-pilot Kyle Gray, SFO’s Manager of Community Relations & Government Affairs, wraps up the conversation (for now.) 

Renee and Claudene return to share recollections of their early collaborative interactions with legendary director Peter Sellars in conjunction with the 2018 world premiere of Doctor Atomic. Then Sonja and Seth Martinez, Renee’s daughter and grandson, share memories of the SFO visits that shaped their affinity for opera. The discussion concludes with a roundtable wishlist of future POP-lead initiatives.

“I definitely remember paying attention to the weather,” Sonja laughs, recalling stormy visits to the outdoor opera house before its much-anticipated roof upgrade. The unexpected theatrics only added to the excitement of attending world-class opera in her own backyard.

What could compare to opera amid wild thunderstorms? The thrill of watching family and friends perform on that same majestic stage. “It was very exciting!” says Seth of the corn dance that POCC created as part of Doctor Atomic. He hopes SFO continues to integrate Indigenous traditions into its future seasons (along with more comedy, operas about space, and significant historical events). Meanwhile, his mother envisions expanded opportunities for Indigenous children to explore performance- and stagecraft-based endeavors.

POP and POCC ensure that that future is within reach.

FEATURING

Andrea Fellows Fineberg - Host, Key Change

Kyle Gray, Santa Fe Opera Manager of Community Relations & Government Affairs

Renee Roybal, Pueblo of San Ildefonso

Claudene A. Martinez, Pueblo of San Ildefonso

Sonja Martinez

Seth Martinez

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Doctor Atomic - Santa Fe Opera, 2018

RELATED EPISODES

Season 4, Episode 4: Story With Purpose: The Origin of the Pueblo Opera Cultural Council with Renee Roybal and Claudene A. Martinez

Season 2, Episode 6: The Universe is Made of Stories: A conversation with Peter Sellars 

***

Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with Opera for All Voices.

Produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios

Hosted by Andrea Fellows Fineberg

Audio Engineer: Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe

Show Notes: Lisa Widder

Theme music by Rene Orth with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe Becktell, cello

Cover art by Dylan Crouch

This podcast is made possible due to the generous funding from the Melville Hankins Family Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and an OPERA America Innovation Grant, supported by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.  

To learn more about Opera For All Voices, visit us at SantaFeOpera.org.

All aboard the Key Change time machine for a two-part trip! On this half of the journey, we toggle back to the origins of a beloved community-based program and then forward to celebrate its exciting expansion. 2023 will mark the 50th anniversary of the Pueblo Opera Program, lovingly known around the Santa Fe Opera as POP. 

Key Change commemorates this momentous event by passing the mic to colleague Kyle Gray, SFO’s Manager of Community Relations & Government Affairs. Kyle and his guests discuss the POP legacy and Pueblo Opera Cultural Council (POCC), which blossomed out of an artistic collaboration between legendary director Peter Sellars and SFO’s Indigenous neighbors during the 2018 production of Doctor Atomic — with guests Renee Roybal, Pueblo of San Ildefonso, and Claudene A. Martinez, Pueblo of San Ildefonso.

“I’m 63 years old, and I’ve been going to and enjoying opera since I was a teenager,” Renee says. For nearly 50 years, POP has introduced thousands of Native American children to the grand adventure of opera. Both women have fond memories of inspiring behind-the-scenes tours, inventive performances, and rides on plush buses to the most anticipated social event of the summer. 

With POP’s legacy secure, the women have focused on POCC, which features members of the San Ildefonso Pueblo, Santa Clara Pueblo, and Tesuque Pueblo. POCC seeks to foster the Indigenous tradition of cross-cultural hospitality. Claudene says the Doctor Atomic experience was a meaningful beginning for the advisory. “I think that’s how POCC [will] continue to work with the opera, on other future moments that we could get involved in and educate.”

FEATURING

Andrea Fellows Fineberg - Host, Key Change

Kyle Gray, Santa Fe Opera Manager of Community Relations & Government Affairs

Renee Roybal, Pueblo of San Ildefonso

Claudene A. Martinez, Pueblo of San Ildefonso

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Doctor Atomic - Santa Fe Opera, 2018

RELATED EPISODES

DSFO0201: More Voices at the Table: Community Engagement and Opera with Kyle Gray

***

Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with Opera for All Voices.

Produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios

Hosted by Andrea Fellows Fineberg

Audio Engineer: Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe

Show Notes: Lisa Widder

Theme music by Rene Orth with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe Becktell, cello

Cover art by Dylan Crouch

This podcast is made possible due to the generous funding from the Melville Hankins Family Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and an OPERA America Innovation Grant, supported by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.  

To learn more about Opera For All Voices, visit us at SantaFeOpera.org.

Hurry up and wait. When your world premier is stopped in its tracks by forces beyond your control, “momentum” is measured a bit differently. Andrea Fellows Fineberg chats with composer David Hanlon and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann, the creative duo behind The Pigeon Keeper, about maintaining artistic progress during the pandemic, the limits of virtual collaboration, and finally (finally!) preparing for live performances. 

All aboard the Opera For All Voices time machine for a quick review! The Pigeon Keeper was initially scheduled for a workshop in 2020 and its world premier in 2021. Best laid plans, right?

But one thing opera and a pandemic have in common is the power to stretch time. Or maybe freeze it. However defined, those protracted months presented David and Stephanie with additional opportunities to tinker, aided by technology and unexpected (if limited) solitude. 

“One of the joys of working with Stephanie is it's a very collaborative back-and-forth thing,” David says. Still, he admits that some discoveries can only happen in real life.

Now that conditions have improved (fingers crossed), The Pigeon Keeper is set to soar. Accompanied by a stirring chorus of young voices provided by the San Francisco Girls Chorus, this OFAV commission follows a father and daughter as they navigate unimaginable loss. 

The story couldn't be more immediate in light of so many concurrent global tragedies, says Stephanie. “Now, with Ukraine, the question of refugees and children leaving their homes, making huge journeys to other places and losing everything that they know, the resonance and relevance of this piece have only grown in the time we've been waiting to bring it into the world.”

FEATURING

David Hanlon, Composer

Stephanie Fleischmann, Librettist

Audio Sample from the San Francisco Girls Chorus from The Pigeon Keeper

Audio Sample of “We’ve Been Getting By” from The Pigeon Keeper featuring bass-baritone Michael Sumuel and pianist Kseniia Polstiankina Barrad.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

San Francisco Girls Chorus

Opera America - New Works Exploration Grant

RELATED EPISODES

Season 2, Episode 4 “Hope Is The Thing With Feathers” - A first look at The Pigeon Keeper 

***

Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with Opera for All Voices.

Produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios

Hosted by Andrea Fellows Fineberg

Audio Engineer: Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe

Show Notes: Lisa Widder

Theme music by Rene Orth with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe Becktell, cello

Cover art by Dylan Crouch

This podcast is made possible due to the generous funding from the Melville Hankins Family Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and an OPERA America Innovation Grant, supported by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.  

To learn more about Opera For All Voices, visit us at SantaFeOpera.org.

You’ve heard of main character energy? Well, get ready for youth chorus energy!

Andrea Fellows-Fineberg connects with an optimistic, pragmatic, and empathetic mindset courtesy of the youth chorus members who participated in the December 2021 world premiere of Opera For All Voices’ Hometown To The World. Their insights and post-performance emotion speak to art's ability to foster community––with Ely Aguilar, Francesco Aimale, and Estevan Flórez-Mansi.

We also hear post-show reactions from artists, creators, collaborators, and the audience buoyed by musical excerpts from the premiere at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe. 

So much has changed in the decade since the events of Hometown took place in Postville, IA. And yet. “At the end of the opera, I was thinking to myself this opera is beautiful but, like, there's no resolution. And that kind of hurt me,” Estevan says of the myriad issues that still complicate our national discourse on immigration. 

The youth chorus took on an increasingly significant role during the evolution of Composer Laura Kaminsky and Librettist Kimberly Reed’s intimate yet expansive one-act opera, questioning character motivations and responding to individual struggles for acceptance.

That experience helped Ely deepen his awareness of human interdependence onstage and off. “This is a world premiere. I feel like this is going to be really touching for a lot of people. And I feel like it's going to bring more people together. But, like, everyone has to put in their own part so we could all do this together.”

Francesco combines Ely’s idealism with a practical call to action. “I don't think twelve kids and three kind-of famous actors are gonna get a ton of messages across. More people in power need to start spreading these issues about how it's wrong to just hate people for being themselves.”

Don’t worry about the chorus. These kids are alright.

FEATURING

Ely Aguilar - Youth Chorus Member, Hometown To The World

Francesco Aimale - Youth Chorus Member, Hometown To The World

Estevan Flórez-Mansi - Youth Chorus Member, Hometown To The World

Laura Kaminsky - Composer, Hometown To The World

Kimberly Reed - Librettist, Hometown To The World

Blythe Gaissert - Linda Larsen, Hometown To The World

Michael Kelly - Abraham Fleischman, Hometown To The World

Many audience members, collaborators, and friends of Hometown To The World.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

The New Colossus - by Emma Lazarus

RELATED EPISODES

Season 1, Episode 6 “Hometown to the World”

Season 2, Episode 9 “America Is Impossible Without Us” 

Season 3, Episode 3 “Responding to the World” 

Season 3, Episode 8 “Bridging Communities with Carmen Flórez-Mansi” 

Season 4, Episode 1 “This Doesn’t Happen Without Audience” 

***

Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with Opera for All Voices.

Produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios

Hosted by Andrea Fellows Fineberg

Audio Engineer: Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe

Show Notes: Lisa Widder

Theme music by Rene Orth with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe Becktell, cello

Cover art by Dylan Crouch

This podcast is made possible due to the generous funding from the Melville Hankins Family Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and an OPERA America Innovation Grant, supported by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.  

To learn more about Opera For All Voices, visit us at SantaFeOpera.org.