Points Unknown: Examining Our Relationship To Otherness Through The Pigeon Keeper

Emily Doyle Moore | media@santafeopera.org | 505-986-5908

Points Unknown: Examining Our Relationship To Otherness Through The Pigeon Keeper

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 responsible for bringing The Pigeon Keeper to the campus. Together they go behind the scenes of OperaLab, their new initiative to connect SMTD students with opportunities to workshop and perform contemporary music from living composers.

They also explore how the themes of the opera connect to modern realities with student musicians; learn about community support for refugees, asylum seekers, and others seeking humanitarian protection with Freedom House Detroit; and find out what advice principal artists would give to future cast members.

The episode ends with audience reflections on loss, exclusion, and opera as a catalyst for hard conversation. “The arts,” said one workshop goer, “can facilitate tangible action, dialogue, and change that can come from this emotionally resonating work.” It’s insights like this that keep OFAV commissioning new works and collaborating in inventive ways.

Learn more about Freedom House Detroit at freedomhousedetroit.org.

FEATURING

Rebecca Clark – Cover for Orsia
Ava Hawkins – Ensemble
Jamiyah Hudson – Ensemble
Tyrese Byrd – Cover for The Pigeon Keeper
Caitlin Lynch – Assistant Professor of Music at U-M
Jayce Ogren – Director of Contemporary Directions Ensemble at U-M
David Hanlon – Composer, The Pigeon Keeper
Daniel Millan – Clarinet
Lulu Nester, Engagement Coordinator, Freedom House Detroit;
David Siebert, volunteer, Freedom House Detroit;
Nathan Harah – Kosmo
Bernard Holcomb – The Pigeon Keeper, The Widow Grocer, The Schoolteacher
And numerous students and audience members.

QUOTES

“It has been a journey to learn the music and learn the story, and every time I hear a rehearsal or come back to the music, there’s something new to be found.” – Rebecca Clark

“There is so much more out there and so many more new ways that opera is evolving, and it’s become more, I think, accessible to people, for people to understand.” – Ava Hawkins

“The message of accepting people who aren’t like you, we kind of need that in a way. We need that, we definitely need that message to come across in this climate.” – Tyrese Byrd

“The works that we bring to campus and have our students engage with the need to have some sense of relevance and resonance with them and with their communities and with their lifetime experience.” – Caitlin Lynch

“I was just so excited about the project when I got the libretto and saw the piano vocal. The story alone it’s just so compelling to me, and what Opera For All Voices is doing the mission. I’m just behind all of that.” – Caitlin Lynch

“I think any good composer, conductor, any good leader in a musical situation should have a strong vision for the piece. But if you reject something that’s more beautiful than what you’d imagined, you’re making a huge mistake, and you should always be open to that individual artistry. – Jayce Ogren

“I’m not gonna get into politics, but obviously, in the world right now, there’s quite a bit of fear and angst, especially when it comes to people of different cultures, and this opera is exactly what 2024 needs.” – Daniel Millan

“Here in America, we take for granted the ability to talk about and talk with your voice and have that freedom to express yourself without being persecuted by the government or groups that the government can’t control.” – Lulu Nester

“I’ve been so moved and fulfilled and inspired by my work with the students here, that they’re taking it over, that they’re doing it, they’re telling their stories, they’re reaching new audiences so that it doesn’t feel elitist and it doesn’t feel stuffy. It feels really fresh and important and poignant.” – Caitlin Lynch

CREDITS

Key Change is a production of The Santa Fe Opera in collaboration with Opera for All Voices.

Produced & Edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios

Hosted by Andrea Fellows Fineberg & Anna Garcia

Audio Engineer Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe

Technical Director Edwin R. Ruiz

Production Support from Alex Riegler

Show Notes by 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 Hankins Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and an OPERA America Innovation Grant, supported by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.

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Points Unknown: Examining Our Relationship To Otherness Through The Pigeon Keeper