A DC-BASED COMPANY, and at our core:
DEVELOPING AND PRODUCING ORIGINAL WORKS OF MUSIC-THEATRE,
FOSTERING THE GROWTH OF ARTISTS,
AND ENGAGING WITH THE COMMUNITY IN PARTNERSHIP
Changing the Conversation Through the Arts
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The George Fulginiti Series: Cabaret, Cocktails, & Conversation
We continue our second season with
Baritone Javier Arrey
in his curated program
"Music without Borders"
The first performance is
Friday, February 6 at 7:30pm
at the Lyceum in Alexandria, VA
Tickets to the Lyceum Cabaret are available HERE.
Please join us for this Cabaret!
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The Cabaret at the Arts Club of Washington
on Feb 3 was rescheduled due to weather.
The new date is Friday, February 27 at 7:30 pm
Tickets available HERE.
Javier Arrey will curate his own program for the Cabaret series that highlights his extensive performances around the world in many different music genres. This is Javier's description of his program, "Music Without Borders:"
Art in general, especially music, has long been a way to express deep feelings without words. In a way, music elevates us and connects us with the divine essence. It has also served as an ‘exhaust valve’ throughout history for people from different cultures, fulfilling a fundamental human need for “expression” in a deeper and more beautiful way. Cabaret is often associated with specific popular music in small venues, but this music can come from different eras and cultures—truly, music without borders. Music from composers like Dvořák was considered ‘popular music’ in their time, largely because of the strong folklore influence in their work.
The concert “Music Without Borders" will be a journey through various periods, cultures, languages and musical influences. This informal musical experience pretends not just to entertain, but to inspire through a universal and divine language that has no borders or barriers: music.
Javier's program will include works of Dvorak, Schumann, Chilean composers, and some ‘popular’ Spanish songs, showcasing different ‘musical textures’ and styles from Europe to Latin America. A versatile bel canto baritone, this Chilean born American baritone has appeared with The Vienna State Opera, The Metropolitan Opera, Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Palau de Les Arts, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Nacional de Chile, Washington National Opera, San Francisco Opera. Read more HERE.
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Featured Artist - Javier Arrey
Interview with featured Artist Baritone Javier Arrey by Susan Galbraith
I first came into contact with the amazing Baritone Javier Arrey when I caught him in performance at Castleton Festival under the baton of Maestro Lorin Maazel. The opera was Verdi’s Otello, and his performance was simply astonishing. His Iago was charming, even personable, which made his machinations even more chillingly lethal. Maestro and I agreed Javier was among the best in the world – an opera singer who could act.
Many years later, Javier joined New Music-Theatre, taking the lead role in the development of an original chamber opera, On the Road to Arivaca, I was working on with composer Rosino Serrano. His meticulous work, his attention to the nuance of character, and his generosity to the members of the children’s bilingual chorus elevated everyone’s commitment and capacities.
Perhaps the singer’s “secret sauce” is his preparation with text over weeks before even tackling the score. His deep understanding of language allows him to navigate each sentence with a new and precise intention.
Now we are bringing Javier back to do his own a special program “Music Without Borders.” It’s my pleasure to have this singer share in his own words. I began by asking him:
The title of your program is "Music Without Borders," Do you consider yourself a global citizen as well as an artist who excels not only as an opera singer, but someone who love many challenges and styles of music?
I do believe that music is a universal language. Every style has been influenced in one way or another by different cultures or traditions, so we could say that music has “no borders”. Personally, I love different musical styles as well, and not just opera but from Antonin Dvořák to popular Latin American music –all this will be in my cabaret program --and I think that the more musical languages we explore, the richer our interpretation becomes.
We first worked together on the chamber opera On the Road to Arivaca, and you were part of the development of the opera from the beginning, how was this original story important to you?
It's still very meaningful to me. Migration is a hot topic today, now more than ever and, in my opinion, we should embrace it with compassion and justice.
What to you is the role of the artist in these precarious times and do you search for opportunities to use your artistry to bring attention to certain stories or issues.
Our role as artists must be to share not just beauty through the Art but also hope and inspiration. I do believe that the labor of every Artist achieved it's greatest potential only when it's shared with someone else.
You have made you family's home in the DMV and I'm curious, how you would like music to be an even greater influence to enrich people's lives, especially for the next generation.
To be a greater influence in society, Art in general must be present, and at the highest level, from early childhood and on in our daily life. Everywhere, not just inside our concert halls or opera houses; we do have the mission to bring the beauty of the Art outside our theaters and share it with love, using a simple language to the new audiences. Art is not to “impress” people, but to inspire them. If we put the focus on the children, giving them not the cheap and easy “low quality Art”, but the best we have, maybe we’ll have concrete and long-term results in society.
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The Trumpeter Recap
By Artistic Director Susan Galbraith
Despite cutbacks in funding, prevaricating political trends in geo-political support of Ukraine, and a major snowstorm opening weekend, our production of Inna Goncharova’s play about the siege and bombing of Mariupol during the first year of the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a categorical success
- a rave review by editor and senior writer at DCTA John Stoltenberg deeming it “simply extraordinary"
- and sold out, standing room only houses by its second weekend.
I was equally gratified by the response of our partners in United Help Ukraine and Ukraine House, which both spearheaded excellent and moving complementary photo exhibits in Dupont Underground, preparing audiences for their own immersion into the play, by showing glimpses of life in Ukraine before and now four long years of war later, the human suffering, the heroism and resilience of the Ukrainian people.
Along with the Czech Embassy and Center for European Policy Analysis, these organizations have demonstrated in their sustained humanitarian assistance and by engaging audiences in post-show conversations that their support and belief in the sovereignty of Ukraine is undying.
What made the whole such a unique experience? And how were we able to gather artists and audiences alike in a kind of sublime, cathartic experience which has been the goal of the best of western theater since the Greek polis gathered together to witness their great dramas?
Firstly, the space that is the new, still raw cultural center that is Dupont Underground itself made a huge impact. Director Jánoz Szász and I agreed from the start that DU was the ideal setting to tell this story and immerse the audience in, as authentically as possible, an experience of the basement of the underground steelworks of Mariupol in subfreezing temperatures! The echoey labyrinth of our ‘found space’ gave full measure to the excellent sound design by Liam McLain capturing the sirens, missiles, and blasts raining down from overhead.
The artists who joined the project were outstanding and deeply committed to the work. At the center was the extraordinary Michael Kevin Darnall, who along with his ancestral Hungarian-Ukrainian roots, is as sensitively attuned and emotionally-pitched an actor to be found, and we followed how a mind could start to become unraveled, tested to the brink, but who fights ultimately for human dignity and “a slice of peace.”
Szász made a brilliant decision to change what was written into what became a two-person play. Ably performed by Lise Bruneau, one of DC’s strongest and most fierce of DC’s actors, the production transformed the play from a monologue about “the tragedy of war” to a work about the need for human relationship and a call to “take care of each other,” especially in times of great peril.
My thought from the beginning was to include something of a male chorus, and company member Ruslan Bondar helped me round up fellow Ukrainian refugees and collaborating vocal artists from his past. The Ukrainian folk songs by this amazing quartet were integrated throughout the production. Haunting. Beautiful. Heartbreaking. A sign that the arts and culture of Ukraine will survive and is even now experiencing something of a Renaissance.
Ukraine should inspire us all to celebrate and support the power of the arts. This project has certainly revitalized the commitment of New Music-Theatre to continue its mission of cross-cultural work and finding stories that matter to this place and for these times.
Could anything be more urgent than a call to stand in solidarity with our Ukrainian allies? And not just for their right to autonomous freedom and “slice of peace,” but for the security of the free world.
As János said, what a joyous “love fest” the whole process was, including our partnership with Ana Harvey and the Dupont Underground team. I am so deeply grateful to the extraordinary János Szász and everyone involved, I can only echo our director’s daily parting words, “I love you all.”
This production needs to be seen, so who wants to help us take this on the road?
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2026 Composer-Librettist Studio
We are now planning the fourth annual Washington DC Composer-Librettist Studio for June 2026. The sessions will be conducted from June 13 - 28 and hosted by the Music Department of the University of the District of Columbia.
The full On-line application forms for professional Composers, Librettists, and Singers-Actors is available.
More information and link to the application on our webpage HERE.
Josh Cleveland participated as a composer in the Composer-Librettist Studio in the summer of 2023. About the time spent there he writes;
The CL Studio is still one of the most artistically transformative experiences I've had. The studio is a high-octane but low-pressure chance to learn by doing--you don't have time to find excuses not to write! Perhaps most uniquely, it affords the chance to practice the great art of collaboration: how to initiate creatively productive conversations, how to give and take in ways that serve the story/song, and how to make magic...together. I have so many memories of creating and witnessing such magical moments with my studio cohort mates, some of whom became friends and collaborative partners beyond the few weeks we shared that summer. I also deeply appreciated the feedback mechanism to which the CLS faithfully adhered--it allows for the expression of appreciation, curiosity, and creative deliberation in just the right mixture.
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Artists and Partners on View
Due to the recent snow storm, the Distinguished Speakers event has been rescheduled to Wednesday, February 11.
Librettist Mark Campbell will be featured at the Arts Club of Washington as part of their Distinguished Speakers series. Mark's topic is "New American Opera: Factors that Can Contribute to Its Success"
The Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award winning operas of librettist/lyricist Mark Campbell are among the most successful in the contemporary canon. A prolific writer, Mark has created 41 opera librettos, lyrics for 7 musicals, and the text for 9 song cycles and 5 oratorios. He received the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Opera Association.
Hope you will be able to attend. Tickets available HERE.
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Thanks to all our Friends and Supporters of Alliance for New Music-Theatre:
We are looking ahead to 2026 and are celebrating over 30-Years as a Not-for-Profit 501 (c) (3) designated Public Charity serving the greater DMV.
These are precarious times for the arts, but we are determined to continue our important work in our community to fulfill our mission to:
· Develop new works of music-theatre
· Foster the growth of professional and aspiring artists
· Engage the community into the creative process to promote a deeper understanding and critical appreciation of the
transformative power of music-theatre.
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