Sotto Voce is excited to announce that 4 weeks from today – on Tuesday June 4th at 4:30pm in Lippes Concert Hall (on the University at Buffalo North Campus) – we will be performing Act I, Scene 2 from the opera-in-progress The Second Sight by Jessie Downs at the 2019 June in Buffalo Festival.
Act I, Scene 2 – otherwise known as “The Rain Scene” – prominently features the Sotto Voce Vocal Collective as rain spirits that call the rain and set the wheels of fate in motion. For this performance, Sotto Voce is the composer and our Artistic Director Jessie Downs (soprano), Mariami Bekauri (alto), and Blake Hurlburt (baritone) as the ‘Color Trio’ and Julia Anne Cordani (soprano), Suzanne Fatta (alto), and William Zino (baritone) as the ‘Base Trio.’ We are also lucky to have conductor Daniel Bassin helping to rehearse the group in preparation for the performance.
The scene also includes the entrance of the character Freyaria – a mother, an optimist – played by Claudia Brown, and the first meeting of Freyaria and Diskana – a young woman with the gift of the second sight, who was introduced in Scene 1 (watch last year’s BMP performance HERE) – played by Tiffany DuMouchelle.
Additionally, this will be the first time that an excerpt from the opera will be performed with its full accompaniment: a small 10-instrument sinfonietta. The ensemble will consist of piccolo (Michael Matsuno), English horn (Megan Kyle), clarinet (Michael Tumiel), French horn (Sara Petokas), percussion (Tomek Arnold), harp (Rosanna Moore), piano (Jade Conlee), violin (Hanna Hurwitz), violoncello (Katie Weissman), and contrabass (Megan McDevitt). Maestro Matthew Chamberlain will conduct and help with final stages of preperation.
We are excited to be involved in this wonderful festival and performing alongside many other wonderful musicians. We hope you can make it out to hear us if you’re in the area!
Sotto Voce 