FRESH SQUEEZED VOCAL LAB​

 

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For composers of all ages, nationalities, education levels, races, genders, and backgrounds. We invite you to apply to participate in the virtual Fresh Squeezed Vocal Lab. This VIRTUAL lab will give composers an opportunity to work with the renowned vocalists of Fresh Squeezed Opera to develop a new piece for voice and piano. Workshops and demonstrations from FSO members will help composers take command of writing for the voice. 

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What specifically is the Vocal Lab?

Starting in May 2022, and taking place 100% virtually, composers will be paired with a vocalist to write a new work collaboratively with.There will be an initial Zoom meeting with all the composers to discuss how they can best collaborate with the vocalists. Composers will then begin working on their new piece for voice and piano after this initial meeting

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In June, over the course of one weekend, composers will participate in a series of events that is the bulk of the education component of the Vocal Lab:

• An engraving workshop with Whitney George

• Atext-setting workshop with Sunny Knable

• A vocal-writing masterclass with Daniel Klein

• A panel discussion with all participating vocalists to help fine-tune their pieces. 

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Additionally, composers can choose to have a private composition lesson with one of two composition mentors, Whitney George and Sunny Knable.

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The following month (July), the compositions are due. Each composer will receive two 45-minute Zoom rehearsal sessions with their vocalists and pianists to review and fine-tune their works. Finally, the pieces will be professionally recorded (audio and video) and premiered both virtually and in-person in August 2022 at the Cell Theatre in NYC.

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 Participation Fee:

• Tuition for the program is $950. Scholarships are available.

• Private composition lessons are available with Whitney George and Sunny Knable for an additional $125 per session. Lessons are 1 hour long, and held via Zoom. 

• Optionally, composers can audit the Lab for $175. Auditors are able to participate in the Workshop Weekend (June 10-12, which includes vocal masterclass, engraving workshop, composer talk, and vocalist panel) but will not be writing a piece or have a piece premiered.

 

To Apply:

To apply, please submit via this online application

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• Free to apply

• 1-2 samples of scores with recordings (midis are acceptable), preferably including voice

• March 4, 2022 application deadline

 

Timeline:

• December 2021, application online

• March 4, 2022, application deadline

• April 2022, decisions, notifications, and scholarships

• April 2022, 50% tuition due

• May 2022, composers paired with vocalists

• June 10-12, 2022 - Workshop Weekend – vocal masterclass, engraving workshop, composer talk, and vocalist panel

• July 1, 2022, 50% tuition due

• July 3, 2022, compositions due

• July 2022, composer Zoom rehearsals and recordings

• August 2022, virtual and in person premieres

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About Fresh Squeezed Opera:

Fresh Squeezed Opera is a small ensemble-based opera company focused on presenting only new music with intimate and impactful productions. Eric Simpson of New York Classical Review states, “New York is rich in tiny upstart companies working to find ways to make opera engaging for new audiences. Fresh-Squeezed Opera stands out among these for its impressive commitment to championing new works.” Our mission is to present genre-pushing new works of the highest caliber that explore the depths of operatic music.

FSO focuses on producing works that not only are new, but resonate with contemporary audiences. As a result, we have consistently sold-out houses to a young population (average age of 30) who are oftentimes first-time opera goers. In our eight-season history, we have presented over 50 composers’ works through our various programs, including our annual Showcase of Vocal Chamber Music, our Main Stage Summer Operas, and our commissioning series

 

About Whitney George:

Whitney George’s music traverses the affective terrain between tragedy and ecstasy, fragility and strength, bringing together romantically delicate intimacy and the spectacular darkness of the macabre. Her operas, staged multimedia works, and chamber music have had both international and domestic premieres. Most recently, George was commissioned by dell'Arte Opera to write Princess Maleine, an adaptation of a Grim fairytale. She received the 2017 Elebash Award for her orchestration of Miriam Gideon’s opera Fortunato, which premiered under George’s baton in May 2019. George is the artistic director and conductor of The Curiosity Cabinet, a chamber orchestra formed in 2009. She holds an undergraduate degree from the California Institute of the Arts, a master’s degree from Brooklyn College, and is currently a PhD candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center. In addition to her composing and conducting, George teaches at the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, works at the Hitchcock Institute of American Studies, and is on the composition faculty for Face the Music.

 

About Sunny Knable:

Sunny Knable is an award-winning composer, a multi-instrumental performer, an educator and an author of multiple essays and books. Some of his awards include three Best Composition Awards from the Festival of New American Music and the ANALOG ARTS Iron Composers Award, for which he wrote a four-minute piece in five hours. Knable’s music has been described as "great!" (TheWholeNote), "genius" (Anchorage Press), "entertaining" (Audiophile Audition), "witty, romantic and lilting" (TheaterScene.net), offering up "sparks of color and inventiveness" (Sacramento Bee), and possessing a "wealth of thematic invention" (feastofmusic.com).  His prolific output is widely performed, including works for solos, chamber music, orchestra and opera.  Dr. Knable serves as Music Director of The Church-in-the-Gardens; composer for The Garden Players, a theatrical group for children; and as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Queens College and LaGuardia Community College.  He holds a PhD in Music Composition from Stony Brook University, a Master of Arts degree in Composition from Queens College (CUNY) and a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition, Piano Performance and Jazz Studies from CSU Sacramento.  Other professional credits include his debut album "American Variations" on Centaur Records and his second composition album with bassoonist Scott Pool and pianist Natsuki Fukasawa, "Song of the Redwood Tree" on MSR Classics. 

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About Dan Klein:

Imaginative, adventurous, and occasionally downright terrifying, audiences have found in Bass-Baritone, Daniel Klein an exciting example of versatility. This is his third engagement with Fresh Squeezed Opera, previously appearing as the Judge in Bound by Huang Ruo and originating the role of the Judge in Scopes by Spencer Snyder. He also has sung the role of Spencer Coyle in the New York Premiere of Benjamin Britten’s Owen Wingrave with the Little Opera Theater of New York. Recent appearances include Don 'Donnie’ Pizarro in Heartbeat Opera's acclaimed Black Lives Matter Fidelio which he reprised this past November; Marcello in La Boheme and Baron Gondremark in La vie Parisienne with Long Island Opera; Fra Melitone in La Forza del Destino with New Amsterdam Opera; Hyde in the New York Premier of Carlisle Floyd’s The Prince of Players with the Little Opera Theater of New York; Olin Blitch in Susannah with Lighthouse Opera, and The Pirate King in Pirates of Penzance with the Sharon Playhouse. Other credits include the title role Frank London’s new opera Hatuey: A Memory of Fire at the Sundance Theater Lab, Don Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia of which the New York Times said he was ‘an unusually dark and steely Bartolo.’ He joined the Altamura/Roundtop Festival as Geronimo in Il Matrimonio Segreto, and returned to Opera Company of Middlebury as Ping in Turandot where he has performed Marcello in La bohème, Rambaldo in La rondine and Mustafà in The Italian Girl in Algiers (L’Italiana in Algeri), Monterone in Annapolis Opera's Rigoletto, Tonio in Opera Providence's Pagliacci, and as the Recluse in Frank London’s Talmudic-Klezmer Oratorio A night in the Old Marketplace in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

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