Join our mailing list to receive the latest RWO news

About RWO

Share

 

Rhymes With Opera is a chamber opera company dedicated to creating and presenting excellent productions of contemporary experimental vocal music. Rhymes With Opera expands the repertoire of new vocal music by commissioning and promoting new works, collaborating with a variety of artists, and creating works that forge new connections between music and other disciplines. RWO seeks new audiences for contemporary opera by bringing smaller, more flexible productions to a wide variety of venues, creating meaningful connections between the work, the place where it is performed, and the audience.

The Company

Board of Directors


ruby_mc_thumb

Baltimore-based composer Ruby Fulton (b. 1981) grew up in Northwest Iowa. Her music has been played recently by the Holland Symfonia, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, Volti, and musicians from the Tanglewood Music Center, the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA and the A*Devantgarde Festival in Munich. She has received recognition from the Musik Centrum Nederland, ASCAP, Meet the Composer and the League of American Orchestras, and the American Composers Forum and has been in residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (with composer David Lang) and Yaddo. She has studied with composers Julia Wolfe, Christopher Theofanidis, Moritz Eggert, Elinor Armer, Dan Becker, Charles Fussell, Tison Street and Martin Amlin. She holds degrees from the Peabody Institute (DMA, 2009), the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (MM, 2005), and Boston University (BMus, 2003).


elisabeth_mc_thumb

Elisabeth Halliday completed her undergraduate work at the Johns Hopkins University and at the Peabody Conservatory, where she performed such roles as “Susanna” in Le Nozze di Figaro and “Anne” in A Little Night Music. While at Peabody, Elisabeth became heavily involved in contemporary classical music, and collaborated with many Peabody composers to perform new works. Among other projects, she premiered three chamber operas, participated in Peabody’s “24-Hour Composition Marathon,” gave a recital of Modern and Contemporary vocal music in English, and was one of the founding members of No Signal, a chamber group dedicated to performing contemporary classical music in unique and engaging ways. In 2007, Elisabeth moved to New York to study with Manhattan School of Music’s Ashley Putnam. Elisabeth is also currently singing with the Village Light Opera and Chelsea Opera.


george_mc_thumb

George Lam is a composer living in Brooklyn, New York.  George’s music has been performed by Contemporary Musiking (Hong Kong), Volti (San Francisco, CA), Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, American Opera Projects (Brooklyn, NY), Red Clay Saxophone Quartet (Greensboro, NC), the Charles River Wind Ensemble (Boston, MA), Hong Kong Voices, and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta.  George is the recipient of a 2009 American Music Center Composer Assistance Program grant for his orchestral work The Queen’s Gramophone, as well as the 2010-11 Evan V. Frankel Fellowship in Humanities at Duke University.  George holds degrees from Duke University, the Peabody Conservatory and Boston University.




bonnie_mc_thumb

Bonnie Lander is a coloratura soprano based out of Philadelphia, PA. Classically trained, Bonnie performs a wide range of contemporary music in a wide variety of spaces. Most recently, she performed with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society under the baton of Leon Fleisher and as a participant in the Yellow Barn Kurtág Residency studying with soprano Susan Narucki, who affectionately termed her “the Janis Joplin of modern music”.  Bonnie is currently an Artist In Resident at the <fidget> space and a featured artist with the “Embody” vocal arts series in Baltimore. She has performed experimental improvisation with amazing musicians Mike Formanek, David Smooke, Shodekeh, Kate Porter, and Peter Price. Bonnie holds degrees from the University of Miami and the Peabody Institute.




robert_mc_thumb

Originally from Ponca City, Oklahoma, Robert Maril holds a B.M. in Voice Performance from DePauw University in Greencastle, IN and a M.M. in Voice Performance from Peabody Conservatory, where he studied with baritones John Shirley-Quirk and Steve Rainbolt. While at Peabody, Robert sang the roles of Hans Scholl in Weisse Rose, Gherardo in Gianni Schicchi, and Macheath in The Threepenny Opera. Robert has worked extensively with composer George Lam, premiering the song sets Fog Argument and We Two Boys and the dramatic pieces Heartbreak Express and Skeleton. With New York City’s Harbor Opera, he sang the roles of Claudio in Berlioz’s Beatrice et Benedict and Pandolfe in Massenet’s Cendrillon. Most recently, Robert sang the roles of Tarquinius in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia with The Opera Project and Schaunard in La Bohème with Opera Manhattan Repertory Theater. Robert lives in New York City.

 

In The Press

“Elisabeth Halliday, Bonnie Lander, and Robert Maril were strong and fearless, and they had enough power to soar above the background of clanging dishes, scraping furniture, and general din of the busy café.”

- Classical Voice of North Carolina

“Rhymes With Opera unveiled the world premier of Book of Gazes, a composition by Jenny Olivia Johnson, at the Annex Theatre this weekend. The production, featuring the hip hop band Soul Cannon, was said by Johnson to be rooted in the recollection of a dream that she once had. While dreams are often the impetus for creativity, they can often be the most difficult subject to render. Book of Gazes frames its theme elegantly.”

-What Weekly review, 5/19/10

“So swap your pearls for a pair of earplugs – you might just find that opera can rock afterall.”

-Emily Currier, Philadelphia Citypaper, 5/13/10

“Their project, Criminal Intent: a crime opera double bill, has been using the innovative fundraising platform Kickstarter to garner awareness from a wider group of music supporters across the world (literally, they have supporters in Amsterdam. How cool is that?)”

-The Sybaritic Singer blog, 1/31/10

“RWO cranked up the energy beginning the second half with Juan Maria Solare’s work for four mimes, “Gestenstücke” (2008). Orff-trained public school music teachers would have applauded this delightful means of silencing a noisy audience. Looking us straight in the eye, there was no hint of performance anxiety — a great hook.”

-Karen Moorman, Classical Voice of North Carolina, 3/7/09

“George Lam refers to RWO’s collaborative work “Missed Connections” (2009) as a “public service announcement.” With text extracted from the local Craigslist, singers are outfitted with laptops and seated among café patrons. I was reminded of Christian Wolff and Pauline Oliveros, composers who have historically embraced audience participation.”

-Karen Moorman, Classical Voice of North Carolina, 3/7/09

“They’ve now formed the Durham, N.C./Baltimore project Rhymes With Opera, which is dedicated to bringing original contemporary opera works out of the concert hall and into unconventional performance spaces. Rhymes With’s first local production is “One-Track Mind”–which features two chamber operas, “Closer to Mona” (libretto by Amy Kirsten, music by Fulton) and “Heartbreak Express” (libretto by John Clum, music by Lam), and includes local performers, vocalists, and musicians–and it launches the company’s summer minitour, which takes it down to Durham and up to New York. DIY touring opera: That’s the punkest thing we’ve heard about this week.”

-Bret McCabe, Baltimore City Paper Critic’s Pick, 5/28/08

Guest Artists

RWO has had the wonderful opportunity to collaborate with the following performers and artists since 2007:

Bringing new opera to Baltimore and New York since 2007!
Rhymes With Opera is affiliated with American Opera Projects | www.rhymeswithopera.org is powered by WordPress