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A DC-BASED COMPANY, and at our core:
DEVELOPING AND PRODUCING ORIGINAL WORKS OF MUSIC-THEATRE,
FOSTERING ARTISTS IN THEIR DEVELOPMENT,
AND ENGAGING WITH THE COMMUNITY IN PARTNERSHIP
Changing the Conversation Through the Arts
Our Monthly Newsletter - October 2023
What’s Ahead for Alliance for New Music-Theatre in our 2023-24 Season?
We are stepping up our activities this season in anticipation of celebrating in 2024 our 30-Year Anniversary of our humble beginnings as a workshop for local artists to advance their collaborative capacities to experiment in the many art forms of music-theatre.
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DC Emancipation & The Vote Begins for Spring Workshop
This month, the team for the Black Georgetown Cemeteries Project Part II gathers together around composer Ronald “Trey” Walton in conversation about building a new work - DC Emancipation & The Vote.
Several of the artists from the 2022 production have already agreed to be part of the new work, including Music-Director Evelyn Simpson-Curenton and talented singer-actors Sheri Jackson, Ayana Ogunsunlade, Daryl Spiers, and Cara Schaefer plus new company member Daniel Smith.
Development work will continue into 2024 in preparation for our initial presentation in April to celebrate DC Emancipation Day on April 16, with the fully composed and orchestrated work to premiere in April 2025.
We are also very excited to welcome Dr. Anita Gonzalez into the collaboration. Dr. Gonzalez is the Director of the Performing Arts Program at Georgetown University, a serious scholar of African American History, and with major credits as a director and choreographer. For Phase 1 of this project, Gonzalez will serve as advisor, specifically guiding the creative team in the context of Georgetown’s place setting on waters that transported and connected people and ideas.
She joins us and our colleague Lisa Fager, Executive Director of the newly renamed Black Georgetown Foundation, who has led the company in its “artistic excavation” of the Black Georgetown Cemeteries’ stories since 2021. Fager herself has just been featured in the New York Times as a woman who has tirelessly worked to save the long forgotten adjacent cemeteries of Mount Zion and Female Union Band Society.
Read more about the cemeteries and the NYT article HERE.
Stay tuned for more developments of this important unearthing of the vital history of African Americans in DC. We hope you will join us and support this project about the complex and beautiful history of Black Georgetown. Donate HERE.
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Afghan Women's Project
Last month, Airokhsh Faiz Qasary, an accomplished film maker from Afghanistan, and Artistic Director Susan Galbraith were invited to present to a film class at Montgomery College about the process of preparing cultural documentary interviews. Airokhsh and Susan showed three of the short video interviews with Afghan women artists they have created with New Music-Theatre’s Director of Video and Digital Initiatives Patrick Hale.
It was exciting to share in conversation with so many bright young filmmakers.
Read more about our Afghan Women's Project HERE.
The videos feature artists Sughra Husseini on calligraphy, Samia Karimi on Female Afghan Dance, Sima Azimi on Fashion Design and Tribal Fiber Arts, and Jahan Ara on Painting. The videos not only celebrate these beautiful creative artists but help preserve traditional art forms of Afghanistan at a time when the political structures imposed on the population of women in their country are threatening to erase their history and silence their gifts permanently.
The class was part of a larger festival about Afghan art and artists organized by company member Dawn Avery at Montgomery College, which also included a concert by Afghan singer Humayun Khan in a Rumi Fest Concert that featured his ensemble of Afghan and Jazz musicians, as well as 12 Whirling Dervishes from around the world and an Afghan choir from the DMV area.
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Our Coro sings for the Mayor's Office on Latino Affairs
Our Youth Chorus (coro de la comunidad) has been invited Mayor's Office on Latino Affairs to participate in a celebration of Hispanic Heritage month by performing on Thursday, Oct 12 at their invitation-only Noche Cultural at Hamilton Live at 600 14th Street, NW.
This is the first in a year-long series of opportunities for our coro members to perform at local events as way for them to gain experience in choral singing and working together as a group to improve their abilities and self-esteem.
For all our coro students, we are launching a program to underwrite a fellowship opportunity so that our students can join our special subscription series of Live & About, where our subscription members go together to take in monthly performances around the DMV, savoring opera, musicals, cabarets, dramas with music, and mixed-media productions from the rich wealth of companies offered in our community. For our most recent Outing to Evita, we were joined by six coro members.
For more information on how you can underwrite a student in our Live & About program, please contact us at info@newmusictheatre.org
If you know of a student who would benefit from joining our coro, please go to our web page HERE. Registration materials are in Spanish and English.
If you need more information in Spanish, contact us at PR@newmusictheatre.org and we will get back to you.
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Artists on View
October 22, 2023 - 5:00 p.m. - Church of the Epiphany
I, Too, Sing Ameria
The Washington Master Chorale presents works by renowned Washington, D.C. composers,
including company member Ronald "Trey" Walton. Tix and Info HERE
October 28, 2023 - 5:00 p.m. - Bethesda Presbyterian Church
Revelations in Concert
Cantate presents a recital of works by its resident Young Artist of Color, Ronald Walton,
featuring company regulars Daniel Smith, Brian Thorne, and Cara Schaefer. Tix and Info HERE
October 18 and 20 - Chengdu, Sichuan, China
iSing! Music Festival.
Fresh from a 6-performance run as Stephano in Opera San Jose's Romeo and Juliet,
Melisa Bonetti performs a staged concert opera gala as part of the Festival.
More information on the festival HERE.
Melisa is a company member and stars as Consuela in On the Road to Arivaca, our work in development.
Sunday Oct 29 2pm - Eaton Cinema 1203 K St NW
Nosferatu
Strange Woman Records presents UnSound Sundays: New live scores to classic films
Amy Bormet, a featured composer from our Composer-Librettist Studio presents a new score with a screening of "Nosferatu," co-composed with husband Matt Dievendorf, and performed by a small ensemble. Tix and info HERE.
Oct 27 - Nov 19 - 1020 Connecticut Ave NW
Night of the Living Dead
Rorschach Theater presents an adaptation of the cult classic film featuring Karina Hilleard (Ukrainian Play Readings).
Six strangers are trapped in a farmhouse surrounded by the undead. What could go wrong?
Tix and info HERE