Cast of Kinyamaswa L-R: Ezinne Elele, Nina St. Preux, Marty Austin Lamar, Jay Vosk (composer),
Javon Charles, Dr. Liana Valente (director), AcNeal Williams, Kayla Lennon and Kristen Patrick.
Opera Ensemble Workshop
Angela Powell-Walker, Director
Opera Ensemble Workshop is committed to teaching aspiring performers the musical and theatrical skills needed to be successful performers in the ever-evolving operatic world. Students learn by doing; they audition, rehearse and perform scenes and full operas each fall, sharing their love of music theater with their peers and members of the campus and DC community.
In the fall of 2017 HU students and faculty presented the premiere performance of scenes from the new opera Kinyamaswa. Based on the epic poem of the same title by Andreas Morgner and with a relentless and powerful score by composer Jay Vosk, the opera chronicles a group of refugees fleeing certain death in 1996 following the Rwandan civil war and genocide.
The Opera Workshop will perform Seymour Barab’s A Game of Chance* in November 2018 in the Blackburn Art Gallery Lounge. Set in our current time, our production will follow three students as they navigate through life, wishing for ultimate happiness in the forms of money, fame, and love. What happens when their dreams come true? Come to performances on November 2 and 16 to find out!
*By arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., publisher and copyright owner.