Lyric Opera 2022-2023 Issue 9 - Proximity

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 28 DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN | COMPOSER | THE WALKERS Lyric debut Known for his signature violin sounds infused with myriad electronic, urban, and African-American music in uences, the acclaimed composer, performer, educator, and activist has written numerous solo, chamber, orchestral, and operatic works, and has composed an array of lm, theater, and dance scores. He composed music for the lm Ailey (Sundance of cial selection); was the rst Music Director and Principal Composer with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company; released and appeared on 30 album recordings; and has published over 300 works. He has made numerous television appearances and collaborated with the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Kennedy Center, and Sydney Opera House. He was Artist-in-Residence and Creative Chair at the Flynn in Burlington, Vermont. Currently, he is the rst Artistic Ambassador with Firstworks; the rst Artist Activist-in-Residence at Longy School of Music; and the rst Resident Artistic Catalyst with the New Jersey Symphony. Roumain is an Atlantic Center Master Artist, a Creative Capital Grantee, and a Hermitage Artist Retreat Fellow. He has won the American Academy in Rome Goddard Lieberson Fellowship; a Civitella Ranieri Music Fellowship Award; an Emmy Award for The New Look of Classical Music ; National Sawdust Disruptor Award; and the Sphinx Organization Arthur L. Johnson Award. Roumain graduated from Vanderbilt University and earned his doctorate in music composition from the University of Michigan. He is currently a tenured Associate and Institute Professor at Arizona State University Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. ANNA DEAVERE SMITH | LIBRETTIST | THE WALKERS Lyric debut The actress, playwright, teacher, and author’s numerous works for theater and lm include Fires in the Mirror (runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize) and Twilight: Los Angeles (nominated for two Tony Awards), both of which dealt with volatile race events in the 1990s; Let Me Down Eas y, about the US health care system; and Notes From The Field , which focused on the school-to-prison pipeline and was nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award. HBO premiered the lm version in February 2018. Smith is also a television and lm actress. Credits include such shows as Inventing Anna , ABC’s series For the People , and Black-ish . She co-starred on Showtime’s Nurse Jackie and was featured on the long-running series, The West Wing . Films include Philadelphia , The American President , Rachel Getting Married , and Here Today . In 2012, President Obama awarded Smith the National Endowment for the Humanities Medal. She is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, several Obie awards, and two Drama Desk awards. Other awards include the prestigious 2013 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for achievement in the arts, the George Polk Career Award in Journalism, and the Ridenhour Courage Award. CAROLINE SHAW | COMPOSER & CO-LIBRETTIST | FOUR PORTRAITS Lyric debut Shaw is the recipient of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music, several Grammy awards, an honorary doctorate from Yale, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. This year’s projects include the score to the lm Fleishman is in Trouble (FX/Hulu), vocal work with Rosalía (MOTOMAMI), the score to Josephine Decker’s lm The Sky Is Everywhere (A24/Apple), music for the National Theatre’s production of The Crucible , Justin Peck’s Partita with New York City Ballet, a new stage work LIFE (Gandini Juggling/Merce Cunningham Trust), the premiere of Micro ctions Vol. 3 for New York Philharmonic and Roomful of Teeth, a live orchestral score for Wu Tsang’s silent lm Moby Dick , co-composed with Andrew Yee, two albums on Nonesuch ( Evergreen and The Blue Hour ), the score for Helen Simoneau’s dance work Delicate Power , tours of Graveyards & Gardens (co-created immersive theatrical work with Vanessa Goodman), and tours with So Percussion featuring songs from Let The Soil Play Its Simple Part (Nonesuch), amid occasional chamber music appearances as violist (Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, La Jolla Music Society). Shaw has written more than 100 works in the last decade, for Anne So e von Otter, Davóne Tines, Yo-Yo Ma, Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, LA Phil, Philharmonia Baroque, Seattle Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Aizuri Quartet, The Crossing, Dover Quartet, Calidore Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, Miro Quartet, I Giardini, Ars Nova Copenhagen, Ariadne Greif, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Britt Festival, and the Vail Dance Festival. Caroline Shaw is sponsored by the Julian Family Foundation in support of female leadership in the arts. JOCELYN CLARKE | CO-LIBRETTIST | FOUR PORTRAITS Lyric debut Clarke is a dramaturg and writer for stage and screen. He is Senior Dramaturg at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. He was Theatre Advisor to the Arts Council of Ireland for ten years, and Literary Manager of the Abbey, Ireland’s national theatre. As a dramaturg, Clarke has worked with Artist pro les CREATORS