This Fall is the start of our fourth season and we are very excited about what this new year brings. I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t know if we would make it this long when our first season was halted by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Each season of our organization has been very different as each new year brings different challenges and fresh opportunities. 

 

We begin our fourth season with New Works, New Voices, our annual concert featuring the works of the winners of Aural Compass Projects’ Emerging Composer Competition. We return to the Marc A. Scorca Hall at Opera America in New York City to present these works in November 2022. 

 

In the beginning of the new year, we turn our focus back to our educational series, We, Too, Sing America. This docu-series explores 13 African American composers and poets who have contributed to the art song genre. To help expand our reach with this series, we will be creating a 13-week e-course to complement the videos. 

 

I am personally very excited about the next concert in the season, The Greatest Personal Privation. I first started working on the opera Castor & Patience in 2019, in my other life as a freelance collaborative pianist, and I had the opportunity to meet and work with Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy K. Smith, who also served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2017 to 2019. She is the librettist of Castor & Patience. She has a kind and warm presence which welcomes you or at least welcomed me to get to know her more. As we chatted I asked if she had any poetry that she would like to have set by a composer. I had had this idea of commissioning Jasmine Barnes, a fantastic young composer who is full of joy and humor, to write a piece for our second season. Jasmine and I had also worked together previously at The Glimmerglass Festival. Well, due to the pandemic and various other delays, the finished composition didn’t come to fruition until last summer and we are now ready to present The Greatest Personal Privation in April 2023. Key’mon Murrah, countertenor, and Donald Allen Lee III, pianist will join together to bring this collaboration to life.

 

Finally, our season will end in Phoenix, Arizona at the Arizona Opera Wittcoff Black Box with Floating Away on a Random Thought. This performance, happening in early May 2023, will feature two world premieres, Random Thoughts by Persis Vehar and Father’s Song by Clint Borzoni. The text to both of these pieces was written by Arizona poet, Judith G. Wolf. Judith has been a great friend of mine since we first met through Arizona Opera. She has a quick wit and refreshing humor, but also a kind and generous spirit. Along with these pieces, we will also perform vocal works by several other Arizona composers.

 

Please join us for our fourth season of new music-making! And tell your friends about us! We want to continue to grow our community and we have loved getting to share our projects with all of you. If you have been to one of our performances or have taken part in any of our online experiences, feel free to reach out and tell us what you thought! We are always looking to improve. Emails can be directed to info@auralcompassprojects.org

 

See you soon!

Michael