What’s Opera to a Bunch of High School Students? Young Voices, “The New Crop”
Key Change
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 , 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...
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Points Unknown: Exploring Our Relationship To Otherness Through The Pigeon Keeper
Key Change
To workshop a new opera in front of an audience is a little like agreeing to a trust fall: at some point, you’ve just got to surrender to the unknown and… trust. Andrea Fellows Fineberg and Anna Garcia return to the orchestral workshop for The Pigeon Keeper, a collaboration between Santa Fe Opera’s Opera For All Voices (OFAV) initiative and the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD). Andrea and Anna introduce folks to Caitlin Lynch, Assistant Professor of Music at U-M, and Jayce Ogren, Director of Contemporary Directions Ensemble at U-M, the visionary duo...
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Music Born Out of a Modern Experience: The Pigeon Keeper Orchestral Workshop
Key Change
It takes a village - and multiple revisions! - to mount a modern, original opera. Key Change co-hosts Andrea Fellows Fineberg and Anna Garcia journey to an orchestral workshop for The Pigeon Keeper, a first for (OFAV)! Imagine a stage filled with an eight-member student orchestra, four principal singers, and a women's chorus. Drop in the composer, librettist, and members of the OFAV team. Truncate the rehearsal period and invite an audience for a live presentation plus a feedback session. Now, you understand the excitement and angst surrounding an orchestral workshop. Andrea reconnects...
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From Gardening to Greeting Guests, Volunteers Run the World! with Marissa Aurora, Artist & Volunteer Liaison
Key Change
Cue the lights! It’s time to illuminate a vital yet often invisible component of life at Santa Fe Opera: volunteerism. Key Change co-hosts Andrea Fellows Fineberg and Anna Garcia chatted with Marissa Aurora, Santa Fe Opera’s , on Marissa's first anniversary in the role. And what a year it’s been! Marissa, a multi-discipline artist and radio DJ, has worked hard to revitalize relationships between the Opera and its volunteers. They've also introduced an exciting new performing arts production internship in collaboration with Northern New Mexico College. So, how do you quantify...
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Harmony in Process: The Young Voices of the Santa Fe Opera with Amy "Process" Owens
Key Change
What does an award-winning, multi-disciplinary artist, dynamic educator, and former Sweet Potato do for an encore? She brings that boundless energy and collaborative spirit to her new Santa Fe Opera role, fueled by a deep passion for opera and music education. Co-hosts Andrea Fellows Fineberg and Anna Garcia roll out a virtual red carpet welcome for Amy Owens, Director of the . Get to know this exuberant, optimistic talent and learn more about the program under her stewardship. Andrea, Anna, and Amy also explore the profound community impact of two beloved SFO programs: , a storytelling...
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Making Learning Sticky: Creative Compassion for Kids & Educators Through Opera with Charles Gamble
Key Change
We're taking an Opera For All Voices-adjacent excursion to the realm of wiggly kiddos, innovative teachers, and fresh vocabulary words, highlighting the power of playful arts integration. Join Key Change co-hosts Andrea Fellows Fineberg and Anna Garcia with special guest Charles Gamble, Santa Fe Opera's Director Of School Programs, as they introduce two of Santa Fe Opera's most dynamic community engagement programs: , a multi-session residency within the Santa Fe Public Schools that incorporates creative arts to make learning delightfully sticky; and , professional development...
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The Key Change Time Machine: Reflecting the Times, Speaking to the Human Condition
Key Change
It’s all systems go for season five of Key Change! But before we commence with the anniversary celebrations, co-hosts Andrea Fellows Fineberg and Anna Garcia dust off the time machine for a whirlwind tour of seasons past. Think of this episode as part process evaluation––an appraisal of Opera For All Voices (OFAV), the Santa Fe Opera initiative committed to co-commissioning and co-producing new, diverse operatic works––and part indispensable playlist for repeat audiences and newcomers alike, covering the essential artistic and emotional moments that have made Key Change an...
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Season 5: Stretching The Boundaries Of What Opera Can Be
Key Change
It's season 5! This season, we're inviting you, our favorite listeners, on a journey through time and space -- traveling back in time to the origins of Key Change and Opera For All Voices and forward into the future of boundless possibilities. This spring, Andrea Fellows Feinberg and Anna Garcia take you through through the community engagement portal to hear from the voices transforming the future of opera. And in the fall, they'll offer a backstage pass to latest Opera For All Voices commissions as we continue to shift the conversation about what opera is and what it can be. New...
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Connections Across Time and Space: Opera in the Cosmos
Key Change
Seven years ago, Santa Fe Opera started a conversation that would reverberate throughout American Opera, shaping this celebrated art form into something more reflective of the world in which it's created. Today, Opera For All Voices (OFAV) commissions have surpassed even our wildest storytelling expectations. Key Change co-hosts Andrea Fellows Fineberg and Anna Garcia tuck into the time machine for a season-ending trip around the OFAV universe, revisiting the initiative's greatest hits and offering fans a glimpse at what's to come––with Ruth Nott, consultant, Opera for All Voices;...
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Competing Interests: How Do You Workshop a New Opera?
Key Change
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...
info_outlineA hummingbird, a beatboxer, and a sweet potato walk into a theatre…
We should probably mention the bees, the dog, the squirrel, the baby pigeons, and a few woodpeckers, too. These are some of the creatures that inhabit the magical garden community of Sweet Potato Kicks the Sun, and in 2019, they lit up the stage performing opera in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
But a menagerie as complex and unpredictable as this one didn’t just arrive fully formed, ready for its world premiere. Instead, Opera for All Voices’ first-ever premiere required years of lead time, months of prep work, and several changes to its artistic team.
Key Change host Andrea Fellows Fineberg fires up the time machine once again to travel behind the scenes with members of the Sweet Potato... creative crew. Andrea asks them about the artistic challenges inherent to wrangling myriad talents and viewpoints into a cohesive staged performance. Their answers reveal a shared vision that binds these creative individuals to the OFAV mission, the production, and each other.
Librettist Leslie Dunton Downer discusses the risk and ultimate reward of relinquishing control to the interpretive artists on stage. Dramaturg Cori Ellison and collaborator Ruth Nott recall decisions that helped shape the show’s production team. Director John de los Santos and costume designer Ashley Soliman trade thoughts on the role ambiguity played in their designs, while offering glimpses into their working relationship.
And it’s composer Augusta Read Thomas who offers an observation that best captures Sweet Potato Kicks the Sun’s collaborative and connective genius. In an age of so much uncertainty, the production is a reminder that anything is still possible. “It’s a joyful piece. I think everybody feels it, every single character, and it jumps off the stage.”
RELATED EPISODES
Season 1, Episode 3 “Beatboxing and Opera: a love story” - interview with Nicole Paris and Augusta Read Thomas
Season 2, Episode 1 “Press Play” - Sweet Potato’s Augusta Read Thomas and Leslie Dunton Downer on story and score development on the eve of the Chicago workshop
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Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with Opera for All Voices.
Hosted by Andrea Fellows Fineberg
Featuring Cori Ellison, Ruth Nott, Stage Director: John de los Santos, Costume Designer: Ashley Soliman, Librettist: Leslie Dunton Downer, Composer: Augusta Read Thomas
Produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios
Audio Engineer: Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe
Theme music by Rene Orth with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe Becktell, cello.
Cover art by David Tousley
Additional music in this episode composed and provided by Augusta Read Thomas, with permission from Nimbus Records.
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