This is my first post since the pandemic. Like many of us, I did not quite know what to do when it all came down. Over a hundred of my scheduled performances were canceled and I was left home wondering where it was all heading.
Thankfully, it was not long before colleagues started reaching out for some composing projects. I did a short film, an online theater experiment, a composition for four basses to be performed outside, and had an outside, socially-distanced visit with pianist friend Lars Potteiger, and Tammy Black, artistic director of Berks Opera Company. This meeting led to a commission which has kept me busy throughout the pandemic. The new opera “These Valleys and Mountains: Berks Legends” will be performed on Friday, June 17, 2022 at the Miller Center for the Arts in Reading, Pennsylvania.
These Valleys and Mountains
Mountain Mary left a legacy of loving spirituality and profound healing. Matthias Schaumbacher left the opposite: a legend of greed and violence. How have the seeds planted in the stories of these two people, who lived such different lives, grown in this place we call home?
