In a Room Making Music With People: The Pigeon Keeper with Stephanie Fleischmann and David Hanlon
Release Date: 06/29/2022
Taking Care of the Art with Chandler Johnson, Director of the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program for Singers
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Pop quiz: Name an opera training initiative that creates space for self-discovery, serious fun, and a bit of Broadway adoration. Spoiler alert: there’s only one answer. On this episode of Key Change, co-hosts Anna Garcia and Olga Perez Flora get to know Chandler Johnson, Director of Santa Fe Opera’s Apprentice Program for Singers, and uncover what early-career singers selected for this internationally acclaimed program can expect from their 13 weeks in the desert. “It’s a pressure cooker!” exclaims Chandler of the four-month-long apprenticeship, initially developed by John...
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TEASER: Unlocking Opera Success
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Audition trends, career pivots, and pragmatic advice for young opera talent... It's all coming up in our 2-part series of Key Change with Chandler Johnson, Director of the world renknowned Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program for Singers. *** Key Change is a production of , Department of Community Engagement & Education. Produced and edited by Hosted by Anna Garcia & Audio Engineering: Collin Ungerleider & Kabby Technical Director: Edwin R. Ruiz Production Support from Alex Riegler Show Notes by Lisa Widder Theme music by with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe...
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Safe Space for Creative Risks with Community Engagement and Education
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Bet you didn’t know that nurturing the next generation of opera performers, technicians, and enthusiasts begins in classrooms. Join Key Change co-hosts Anna Garcia and Olga Perez Flora on an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the Santa Fe Opera Department of Community Engagement and Education, featuring guest appearances by Season 5 favorites Charles Gamble, Director of Community Engagement, and Marissa Aurora, Community Engagement Liaison, plus new friend Olivia Dorrell, Administrative Coordinator. “We’re all moved by the extraordinary pageantry, music, and movement of opera,”...
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TEASER: Community Engagement Pop Quiz [VIDEO]
Key Change
What is the minimum age you have to be to start training at the Santa Fe Opera? What are 3 ways you can volunteer at the Santa Fe Opera? What secret do we reveal on Season 6, Episode 2 about our new Director of Community Engagement, Charles Gamble? *** Key Change is a production of , Department of Community Engagement & Education. Produced and edited by Hosted by Anna Garcia & Audio Engineering: Collin Ungerleider & Kabby Technical Director: Edwin R. Ruiz Production Support from Alex Riegler Show Notes by Lisa Widder Theme music by with Corrie Stallings,...
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Six Carmens Later & Putting On Productions with Olga Perez Flora and Anna Garcia
Key Change
What do disco naps, pantsuits, and chili preferences have to do with life at the opera? If you’re new to the art form in general and Key Change specifically, welcome! And don’t worry, all will be revealed. To our returning fans, a hearty welcome back! We’re excited to share another season and a fresh focus with you. Back to that opening inquiry... “I was thinking it would be really great if we did a lightning round together where we got to know a little bit more about each other and about what's coming up this season,” explains Olga, making her official debut as Key Change co-host,...
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TEASER: Welcoming our new co-host! [VIDEO]
Key Change
Coming up on Season 6, Episode 1 of Key Change... *** Key Change is a production of , Department of Community Engagement & Education. Produced and edited by Hosted by Anna Garcia & Audio Engineering: Collin Ungerleider & Kabby Technical Director: Edwin R. Ruiz Production Support from Alex Riegler Show Notes by Lisa Widder Theme music by with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe Becktell, cello Cover art by Dylan Crouch This podcast is made possible due to the generous support of the Hankins Foundation, Principal Education Sponsor of the Santa Fe Opera. To learn...
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Season 6: Nurturing the Next Generation of Artists [VIDEO]
Key Change
What does it take to build a rewarding and sustainable career in opera? What happens when you realize you don’t really have the drive to BE an opera singer? How do you find the courage to take more creative risks in your own work and life? The answers to these questions and more on Key Change Season 6 from the Santa Fe Opera Department of Community Engagement and Education, with the returning co-host you know and love, Anna Garcia, and the new co-host you’re going to love, Olga Perez Flora! If you're new here, catch up on seasons 1-5 with this recommended playlist: Season 1 Episode 1:...
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Season 6: Nurturing the Next Generation of Artists
Key Change
What does it take to build a rewarding and sustainable career in opera? What happens when you realize you don’t really have the drive to BE an opera singer? How do you find the courage to take more creative risks in your own work and life? The answers to these questions and more on Key Change Season 6 from the Santa Fe Opera Department of Community Engagement and Education, with the returning co-host you know and love, Anna Garcia, and the new co-host you’re going to love, Olga Perez Flora! If you're new here, catch up on seasons 1-5 with this recommended playlist: Season 1 Episode 1:...
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An Opportunity to Encounter Excellence (and Big News!)
Key Change
We’ve arrived at the end, or the beginning, depending on how you mark time. Key Change co-hosts Andrea Fellows Fineberg and Anna Garcia close out this podcast season with an epic career coda and an equally impressive introduction. Join us as we say farewell (but not goodbye) to Andrea and welcome , DMA, Associate Professor of Voice, University of New Mexico (UNM), who will assume Key Change co-hosting duties next season. And what would our final episode of the year be without a trip in the trusty Key Change Time Machine? Cue the tears and cheers as we set a course for legacy-defining moments...
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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...
info_outlineHurry up and wait. When your world premier is stopped in its tracks by forces beyond your control, “momentum” is measured a bit differently. Andrea Fellows Fineberg chats with composer David Hanlon and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann, the creative duo behind The Pigeon Keeper, about maintaining artistic progress during the pandemic, the limits of virtual collaboration, and finally (finally!) preparing for live performances.
All aboard the Opera For All Voices time machine for a quick review! The Pigeon Keeper was initially scheduled for a workshop in 2020 and its world premier in 2021. Best laid plans, right?
But one thing opera and a pandemic have in common is the power to stretch time. Or maybe freeze it. However defined, those protracted months presented David and Stephanie with additional opportunities to tinker, aided by technology and unexpected (if limited) solitude.
“One of the joys of working with Stephanie is it's a very collaborative back-and-forth thing,” David says. Still, he admits that some discoveries can only happen in real life.
Now that conditions have improved (fingers crossed), The Pigeon Keeper is set to soar. Accompanied by a stirring chorus of young voices provided by the San Francisco Girls Chorus, this OFAV commission follows a father and daughter as they navigate unimaginable loss.
The story couldn't be more immediate in light of so many concurrent global tragedies, says Stephanie. “Now, with Ukraine, the question of refugees and children leaving their homes, making huge journeys to other places and losing everything that they know, the resonance and relevance of this piece have only grown in the time we've been waiting to bring it into the world.”
FEATURING
David Hanlon, Composer
Stephanie Fleischmann, Librettist
Audio Sample from the San Francisco Girls Chorus from The Pigeon Keeper
Audio Sample of “We’ve Been Getting By” from The Pigeon Keeper featuring bass-baritone Michael Sumuel and pianist Kseniia Polstiankina Barrad.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Opera America - New Works Exploration Grant
RELATED EPISODES
Season 2, Episode 4 “Hope Is The Thing With Feathers” - A first look at The Pigeon Keeper
***
Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with Opera for All Voices.
Produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios
Hosted by Andrea Fellows Fineberg
Audio Engineer: Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe
Show Notes: Lisa Widder
Theme music by Rene Orth with Corrie Stallings, mezzo-soprano, and Joe Becktell, cello
Cover art by Dylan Crouch
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.