Spark of Imagination: Generations of the Pueblo Opera Program with Sonja & Seth Martinez
Key Change: Creating Opera for All Voices
Release Date: 07/20/2022
Points Unknown: Exploring Our Relationship To Otherness Through The Pigeon Keeper
Key Change: Creating Opera for All Voices
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...
info_outline
Music Born Out of a Modern Experience: The Pigeon Keeper Orchestral Workshop
Key Change: Creating Opera for All Voices
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...
info_outline
From Gardening to Greeting Guests, Volunteers Run the World! with Marissa Aurora, Artist & Volunteer Liaison
Key Change: Creating Opera for All Voices
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 her 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. She’s also introduced an exciting new performing arts production internship in collaboration with Northern New Mexico College. So, how do you quantify the...
info_outline
Harmony in Process: The Young Voices of the Santa Fe Opera with Amy "Process" Owens
Key Change: Creating Opera for All Voices
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...
info_outline
Making Learning Sticky: Creative Compassion for Kids & Educators Through Opera with Charles Gamble
Key Change: Creating Opera for All Voices
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...
info_outline
The Key Change Time Machine: Reflecting the Times, Speaking to the Human Condition
Key Change: Creating Opera for All Voices
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...
info_outline
Season 5: Stretching The Boundaries Of What Opera Can Be
Key Change: Creating Opera for All Voices
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...
info_outline
Connections Across Time and Space: Opera in the Cosmos
Key Change: Creating Opera for All Voices
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;...
info_outline
Competing Interests: How Do You Workshop a New Opera?
Key Change: Creating Opera for All Voices
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_outline
Hometown to the World Debuts on Broadway
Key Change: Creating Opera for All Voices
If a chorus of 12 teens can provide compelling commentary on immigration enforcement from the stage of a venerable performing arts center in Santa Fe, how might ten times that number of voices impact the debate? From a Broadway venue that has welcomed some of the twentieth century’s most influential social justice visionaries? Key Change co-hosts Andrea Fellows-Fineberg and Anna Garcia pilot the time machine east to find out, setting a course for the 2022 premiere of at New York’s storied . Adding their insights to this aural postcard are Hometown’s composer Laura Kaminsky...
info_outlineIf you’re unfamiliar with Santa Fe Opera’s Pueblo Opera Program (POP), take a quick journey back in time for part one of this conversation. Go ahead; we’ll wait. In it, you’ll meet Renee Roybal and Claudene A. Martinez, both members of Pueblo of San Ildefonso. The pair recall the early days of POP and the formation of the Pueblo Opera Cultural Council (POCC).
Now that you’re sufficiently caught up, join Andrea Fellows Fineberg as her time machine co-pilot Kyle Gray, SFO’s Manager of Community Relations & Government Affairs, wraps up the conversation (for now.)
Renee and Claudene return to share recollections of their early collaborative interactions with legendary director Peter Sellars in conjunction with the 2018 world premiere of Doctor Atomic. Then Sonja and Seth Martinez, Renee’s daughter and grandson, share memories of the SFO visits that shaped their affinity for opera. The discussion concludes with a roundtable wishlist of future POP-lead initiatives.
“I definitely remember paying attention to the weather,” Sonja laughs, recalling stormy visits to the outdoor opera house before its much-anticipated roof upgrade. The unexpected theatrics only added to the excitement of attending world-class opera in her own backyard.
What could compare to opera amid wild thunderstorms? The thrill of watching family and friends perform on that same majestic stage. “It was very exciting!” says Seth of the corn dance that POCC created as part of Doctor Atomic. He hopes SFO continues to integrate Indigenous traditions into its future seasons (along with more comedy, operas about space, and significant historical events). Meanwhile, his mother envisions expanded opportunities for Indigenous children to explore performance- and stagecraft-based endeavors.
POP and POCC ensure that that future is within reach.
FEATURING
Andrea Fellows Fineberg - Host, Key Change
Kyle Gray, Santa Fe Opera Manager of Community Relations & Government Affairs
Renee Roybal, Pueblo of San Ildefonso
Claudene A. Martinez, Pueblo of San Ildefonso
Sonja Martinez
Seth Martinez
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Doctor Atomic - Santa Fe Opera, 2018
RELATED EPISODES
Season 4, Episode 4: Story With Purpose: The Origin of the Pueblo Opera Cultural Council with Renee Roybal and Claudene A. Martinez
Season 2, Episode 6: The Universe is Made of Stories: A conversation with Peter Sellars
***
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.