A look at a Black teaching artist residency s inaugural musicians
It’s a kind of open secret: Very few artists make a living solely from their creative work. The vast majority of painters, poets, dancers, and actors hold down day jobs. The same goes for most musicians – and perhaps especially Black composers and musicians, who often lack the institutional support given to their white peers.
Kendra Ross, of ACT3 Consulting, co-created the residency program.
Credit Denele D. Biggs
That s the problem the Black Teaching Artist-in-Residence Program hopes to address. In February, this initiative of the Pittsburgh-based nonprofit UniSound – a collaborative of some three dozen area organizations that helps kids create music – welcomed its inaugural class of two artists.
Theatre Now Announces National Musical Writers Group
The group is comprised of ten writing teams from eight states who will meet regularly to develop new musicals.by BWW News Desk
Theatre Now New York, a non-profit artists service organization and theatre company dedicated to supporting musical theatre writers, has established a new National Musical Writers Group which will bring together lyricists and composers from across the nation.
The group is comprised of ten writing teams from eight states who will meet regularly to develop new musicals by presenting their work, sharing their process, and offering and receiving support from one another and from Theatre Now New York.
On February 14, 2021, Valentine s Day, Pittsburgh Festival Opera presented seven singers in a romantic concert entitled
Some Enchanted Evening. James Lesniak and Robert Frankenberg provided thoughtful and supportive piano accompaniment while Festival Opera Board members added charming love stories. Bass Brian Kontes opened the program with a smooth, legato rendition of its namesake: Richard Rogers Some Enchanted Evening from
South Pacific. It was a delightful way to start off an in-home program for couples of all descriptions.
Alice Chung is a dramatic mezzo currently attending the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. Fabulous singers graduate from that school and Chung will be no exception. She has both the silvery high notes and the resonant low tones needed for Bizet s
Opera performers to perform, deliver presents to children at Western Psych
PITTSBURGH –– Internationally recognized opera performers will deliver holiday presents to children on Tuesday at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital.
Marianne Cornetti, artistic director of the Pittsburgh Festival Opera, and Kevin Glavin, international opera singer, will dress as Santa and Mrs. Claus on Tuesday while delivering presents to children and adolescents at Western Psych.
Cornetti and Glavin will also perform outside of the hospital for UPMC s frontline workers, according to a press release.