Kenneth Wells, a UCLA psychiatrist and professor, has spent years working with veterans in Los Angeles, as a clinician and a researcher. He has worked with veterans, and their families, seeking solace from trauma and mental health issues.
But as rewarding as science and practice have been, Wells, who has sung and been a choral director for pleasure since he was a teenager, decided to do something more: write an opera, drawing on more than a decade of experience as a practitioner. Based on research interviews of veterans and family members, and his own personal experience as a provider, and the experiences of his family members as veterans, this is Wells’ third opera on mental health themes to premiere at UCLA.
Debuting orchestrations for Caribbean song cycle
COREY MCMAKEN | The Journal Gazette
When the Manchester Symphony Orchestra performs “Songs of the Islands” this weekend, the audience will immediately note that the song cycle isn t like any classical work they have heard before.
With its Caribbean sound, “this ain t Beethoven, baby!” conductor Debra J. Lynn says with a laugh.
“Songs of the Islands” was originally written for voice and piano by composer Dominique Le Gendre, a native of Trinidad and Tobago. It starts with six Caribbean folk songs that were arranged by Le Gendre and includes six Caribbean poems set to music she composed. Sunday s performance is the premiere of orchestrations by Le Gendre and Lynn.
ECU graduates celebrate their big day during spring commencement. | Photo: Cliff Hollis
For the first time in too many months, cheers of PURPLE! and GOLD! rang through Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium Friday as East Carolina University celebrated the accomplishments of more than 4,200 graduates during a series of spring commencement ceremonies.
In his first commencement as chancellor, Dr. Philip Rogers welcomed students from the Class of 2021 as well as the Class of 2020, whose graduates had online ceremonies last May and December due to the coronavirus pandemic. Three in-person commencement ceremonies on Friday allowed for social distancing with fewer people in the stadium for each event.