Points Unknown: Exploring 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.

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Arts Initiative at the University of Michigan

University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance

SMTD OperaLab

Contemporary Directions Ensemble

Butler Houston Grand Opera Studio

Freedom House Detroit

The House On Mango Street opera

University Philharmonia Orchestra

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THE PIGEON KEEPER CREATIVE TEAM:

David Hanlon, Composer

Stephanie Fleischmann, Librettist

Kelly Kuo, Music Director And Conductor

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