Lyric Opera 2022-2023 Issue 6 - Hansel and Gretel

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 72 WHAT IS YOUR ROLE HERE AT LYRIC,AND HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN THIS POSITION? I started in 2019 as the Music Administration Associate, Chorus, and then in the summer of 2021 I became the Manager, Chorus & Dancers. I oversee our Chorus, which consists of our Regular Chorus (Lyric’s full-time, tenured Chorus); the Core Supplementary Chorus (the singers we first reach out to when we need a bigger group for a particular production); and the Supplementary Chorus (for our biggest shows, like this season’s Ernani , Don Carlos , and Carmen ). I also oversee our dancers each season. As a result, I plan auditions for both sets of artists, working regularly with our Chorus Master Michael Black, our Ballet Mistress August Tye, and with various guest choreographers on hiring and rosters. I also deal with nuts-and- bolts personnel and payroll matters. A large component of my job is to work very closely with our AGMA union colleagues in dealing with everything from small day-to-day issues all the way up to contract negotiations. WHAT KEEPS YOU COMMITTED TO THE WORKYOU DO? The people. I love the members of our Chorus and I love our dancers, and I enjoy working with our Chorus Master and the different choreographers who come to work here. I try to be an advocate for them. I also think that there’s a larger reason why I chose to work in opera instead of other art forms: Once you get past the grandness of it, opera is very intimate and personal. In this technology-fueled world, I love that there are no microphones, just the human voice and the human body. That makes for a thrilling kind of storytelling. WHAT LED YOU TO LYRIC? I am a violist by training, but I came to realize in high school that I was not going to pursue music professionally. The summer before I went to college, I interned at my small hometown opera company, even though at that point I had never seen an opera. But I loved theater and I loved music and I loved language, and I soon fell in love with opera since it’s a combination of all three. Then I discovered administration as a way that I could stay involved in the arts in a role that was much better suited to my personality and temperament. I graduated from Columbia University and started working in the Vocal Arts Department of The Juilliard School. After about a decade of living in New York I started thinking about a life beyond the city, and Lyric was high on my radar as a great company to work for. When I saw a job open up here and was lucky enough to get it, I moved to Chicago. WHAT IS THE MOST CHALLENGING ASPECT OF YOUR JOB? A big challenge I face and embrace is working with so many different types of artists, from chorus members to dancers, who all have specific skills and needs, and aligning those with the goals and vision of our creative teams and artistic leadership. It can be quite a balancing act, but we all have such a deep love for opera that we make it work. BEYOND OPERA,WHAT ARE YOUR OTHER PASSIONS? I am a distance runner—I ran my fifth Chicago Marathon in October 2021 and am always on the lookout for my next big race. There are many parallels between opera and marathons. You train and train, and then put everything on the starting line or on the stage. You show up for the important moments. And both take quite the endurance! A FAVORITE LYRIC MOMENT? I think the one that comes to mind was during our season- opening performances of Macbeth last season. There is a big choral number, “Patria oppressa,” towards the end of the opera. I would always sneak into the back of the house to listen in person. After working on so many film projects when we couldn’t do mainstage performances during COVID, to finally come back into the theater and hear this huge chorus all singing together in person was a great reminder of why we do what we do. This moment said so much about why we persevered through all the stresses of the pandemic. This is why we do it, and it’s worth it. People of Lyric Sarah Cohn Manager, Chorus and Dancers Kyle Flubacker