Lyric Opera 2022-2023 Issue 9 - Proximity

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 36 MICHAEL BLACK | CHORUS MASTER The Australian chorus master is in his 11th season at Lyric, having held this position at Opera Australia in Sydney from 2001 to 2013. Black has served in this capacity for such distinguished organizations as the Edinburgh International Festival, Opera Holland Park (London), the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and, in Australia, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Choir, Motet Choir, the Cantillation chamber choir, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Other activities include preparing The Damnation of Faust chorus and Haydn’s Creation at the Grant Park Music Festival, where he has worked for two seasons. He has served as chorus master for close to 140 different operas on four continents, and his work has been recorded and/ or aired on ABC, BBC, PBS, for many HD productions in movie theaters and on television. Michael Black is supported by the Howard A. Stotler Chorus Master Endowed Chair. JOSEPHINE LEE | CHILDREN’S CHORUS MASTER Previously at Lyric: 16 productions since 2000/01, most recently Carmen and Hansel and Gretel (both 2022/23). As the president and artistic director of Uniting Voices Chicago (UVC, formerly the Chicago Children’s Choir), Josephine Lee has revolutionized youth music education, infusing their experience with cutting-edge performances of diverse repertoire, ongoing partnerships with leading cultural institutions such as Lyric, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Ravinia Festival, and extensive national and international tours. For her work on the documentary Songs on the Road to Freedom (2008), Lee was honored with an Emmy Award. Among Lee’s recent projects are two world premiere theatrical pieces ( Long Way Home with the Q Brothers Collective and Sita Ram with David Kersnar of Lookingglass Theatre), several collaborations with Chance the Rapper (including 2016’s Grammy Award-winning project, Coloring Book ), and an original piano and cello composition, Ascension , with choreographer Frank Chaves for Ballet Chicago in 2017. Lee earned a Grammy Award nomination as a soloist in the world premiere of Ted Hearne’s Place at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival (2018). In 2019, she conducted Lisa Fischer and members of the National Philharmonic at Strathmore. Lee founded Vocality in 2015, a festival chorus comprising young vocal artists from a wide array of communities in the city of Chicago. Among her current projects is a new theatrical work by David Kersnar, J. Nicole Brooks, and UVC composer-in-residence Mitchell Owens III. RENA BUTLER | CHOREOGRAPHER Lyric debut The Chicago native began her studies at The Chicago Academy for the Arts, studied overseas at Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan, and received her BFA from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. This season, in addition to creating an evening length work for Norrdans in Sweden and choreographing Orpheus and Eurydice for San Francisco Opera, Butler will create her rst work for The National Ballet of Canada, celebrating the music of composer John Adams for his 75th birthday. Butler has danced with companies including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (where she was a choreographic fellow), AIM by Kyle Abraham, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, David Dorfman Dance, Manuel Vignoulle/M- Motions, The Kevin Wynn Collection, and Pasos Con Sabor Salsa Dance Company, among many others. She recently danced with Gibney Company and was their inaugural Choreographic Associate. Butler is a recipient of the prestigious 2019 Princess Grace Foundation Award for Choreography and created works for BalletX, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, GroundWorks DanceTheater, Jacob’s Pillow Contemporary Summer Program, Parsons, Charlotte Ballet, the Juilliard School, Boston Dance Theater, The New Orleans Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with composer Terrence Blanchard, and a lm short in collaboration with Third Coast Percussion x Devonté Hynes/Blood Orange. Butler has taught dance and choreographic workshops at L’Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Danse de Marseille in France, The Macau Cultural Center in China, Ailey Camp Chicago, and SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. ADAM M C GAW | ASSOCIATE CHOREOGRAPHER Lyric debut The Detroit native received his Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree in Dance at Wayne State University. He joined Hubbard Street Dance Chicago full time in 2019 and spent three seasons dancing with the company. He has performed work by in uential choreographers including Crystal Pite, Ohad Naharin, William Forsythe, Kyle Abraham, Aszure Barton, Johannes Weiland, Fernando Melo, Maxine Doyle, Nacho Duato, Lar Lubovitch, Jermaine Spivey, Spenser Theberge, Rena Butler, and Jonathan Fredrickson, among others. Additional training includes Springboard Danse Montreal, b12 Festival (Berlin) and Gaga Winter Intensive (Tel Aviv, Israel). Adam currently works as a freelance artist/choreographer.