PROJECT 2020 | Program One: From Isolation to Inspiration launches this week in New York and Boston with Jennifer Sgroe, Soprano & Eric Sedgwick, Pianist
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Boston, MA & New York, NY, March 22, 2022 -- PROJECT 2020: A View of 21st C. Women Composers launches Program One: From Isolation to Inspiration this week in New York on Sunday, March 27th and Boston on Wednesday, March 30th with Jennifer Sgroe, Soprano and Eric Sedgwick, Pianist and featuring a Joint-World Premiere of two songs by composer Nailah Nombeko. A Virtual Encore performance will be hosted by Sparrow Live from April 18th through May 2nd
A song recital series highlighting the exceptional work of 21st Century women composers, PROJECT 2020 features twenty women composers over two unique recital programs of contemporary art song composed within the past twenty years. Program One and Program Two will be performed over the 2022-2023 Seasons. Each curated program expresses contemporary viewpoints expertly crafted by today’s leading women composers, including newly commissioned songs through the PROJECT 2020 Commission Initiative.
Program One: From Isolation to Inspiration will feature two World Premiere songs by New York-based composer, Nailah Nombeko, commissioned by the PROJECT 2020 Commission Initiative, “A Time in Isolation” and “They Say This Isn’t America”. Based on a 2019 talk by Laurel Whitehouse, “A Time in Isolation” expresses the importance of community and reminds the listener of the deep connection and emotional support that can be found in coming together with each other, to bolster us through the challenges of life, hold space to share our joys and inspire us to action.
“Alone we become lonely and discouraged…Alone we despair, but together we find courage and inspiration and possibility…”
from “A Time in Isolation” Nailah Nombeko, Composer and Laurel Whitehouse, Poet.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Whitehouse’s prescient words have grown to mean so much more, as the world has struggled with isolation, distance and a breakdown in communities. Nombeko has crafted a moving and timeless song which captures the struggles of the last two years supported by a spirit of hope in the power of connection and community to bring healing and change into the world.
Nombeko’s second song, “They Say This Isn’t America” with commissioned poetry by Alicia Haymer, turns to themes of social justice, race and inequity in America. Written from the voice of an ally, “They Say This Isn’t America” asks the difficult questions of Americans on privilege, historic racism, the “appropriate” steps to allyship and closes with a call to unified action for a more just America.
Developed by soprano, Jennifer Sgroe and pianist, Eric Sedgwick, PROJECT 2020 sets out to support the work of underrepresented women composers through performance of existing contemporary art song and the commissioning of new works, to secure a place for women art song composers in the repertoire. Composers featured on Program One include B.E. Boykin, Jodi Goble, Lori Laitman, Cecelia Livingston, Julia Meinwald, Nailah Nombeko, Luna Pearl Wolf, Paola Prestini, Shruthi Rajasekar, Jessica Rudman, Kamala Sankaram, Lauren Spavelko and Gwyneth Walker.
“Originally planned for May 2020 but put on hold because of challenges due to COVID-19, we are thrilled to be able to return to in-person music-making after having recorded many of the pieces on this program socially distanced between Boston and New York. The recording project served as tool for preparation but not a substitute for real-time, organic collaboration. We are also very excited to premiere Nailah’s newly commissioned songs on this first program. For that reason, and because 2020 has come to mean much more than an expression of our musical project, we will keep with the original project title, PROJECT 2020, and honor this unusual time we live in with the title the first program “From Isolation to Inspiration”.
For more info visit: www.jennifersgroe.com/project-2020
Ticketing
PROJECT 2020
Program One: From Isolation to Inspiration
Jennifer Sgroe, Soprano & Eric Sedgwick, Piano
Sunday, March 27 at 6:30pm EDT
The Blue Building
222 E 46th St
New York, NY 10017
Wednesday, March 30 at 7:00pm EDT
Chase Young Gallery
450 Harrison Avenue
Boston, MA 02118
Apr 18, 6:30 PM EDT – May 02, 11:00 PM EDT
Virtual Encore
Sparrow Live
About the Artists
JENNIFER SGROE, SOPRANO
Jennifer Sgroe has performed across the US and at festivals in Finland, England and Austria in opera, recitals and on the concert stage at venues such as Jordan Hall, Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall, The Society for Ethical Culture and the United Nations. She specializes in contemporary American opera and repertoire of the Baroque and Classical eras and is a proponent of new works by women composers. Representative concert performances include Soprano Soloist for Barber Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (Boston Chamber Symphony), Mozart Requiem (University of Massachusetts Lowell), Poulenc Gloria (NEC – Jordan Hall), Handel Messiah (various), Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem (Dartington Festival - UK). She recently made her Jordan Hall solo recital debut with Timothy Steele at the piano, sang the premiere of Susanna in Laura Schwendinger’s Artemisia with Center for Contemporary Opera (New York), was Soprano Soloist with Back Bay Chorale, Cambridge Symphony and made her Jordan Hall artist debut and recording on Navona records with The Shakespeare Concerts which included World Premieres of works by Summer and Pesetsky. Additionally, in the past few years, she has performed the US premiere and multiple performances of Jessica Rudman’s Trigger, a one woman opera about domestic assault, with Hartford Opera Theater, Women Composers Forum and other venues. At the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic, she turned to practice as a tool to remain focused, bolster courage and wellbeing and remain connected to music. You can view all 100 days of her #100daysofpractice challenge on Instagram @jennifersgroe. As a result of the challenge, she developed the “A Passion for Practice” Masterclass Series which defines and re-defines the purpose and intention of practice. It also offers tools and inspiration to empower other singers in their own practice. The first masterclass was offered in February 2021 for New England Conservatory’s School of Continuing Education and future offerings are being planned. She also works regularly as a professional actress in film and commercials, and teaches voice privately and for New England Conservatory Preparatory School and School of Continuing Education. Jennifer holds the Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Kentucky, the Master of Music in Opera from The Boston Conservatory and the Doctorate of Musical Arts, also from the University of Kentucky. For more info visit www.jennifersgroe.com
ERIC SEDGWICK, PIANO
Eric Sedgwick has performed with many of music’s top talents including Leona Mitchell, Sanford Sylvan, Marni Nixon, Nicholas Phan, Laquita Mitchell, Broadway leading ladies Sarah Rice, Carole Demas and Debra Monk, and English hornist Thomas Stacy of the New York Philharmonic. A frequent performer and collaborator in the NYC area, he is also a vocal coach at the Manhattan School of Music and the faculty collaborative pianist for the Tanglewood Music Center. He has served as rehearsal pianist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, under the batons of Michael Tilson Thomas, Bramwell Tovey, John Williams and Andris Nelsons. He is a regular pianist for events with the Metropolitan Opera Guild, and has worked for Carnegie Hall’s Music Education Workshops with Joyce DiDonato, as well as for the International Vocal Arts Institutes in New York and Montreal, and for Beth Morrison Projects. For ten years he was the music director for the Junior Opera Theater scenes program at Manhattan School of Music, directed by Catherine Malfitano. On the west coast, he was a longtime coach and music director for the OperaWorks training program in Los Angeles. Mr. Sedgwick is the official pianist for the Art Song Preservation Society in New York, a group whose regular masterclass series has included Dalton Baldwin, Thomas Grubb, Margaret Lattimore and Joan Dornemann. He performs regularly with local groups in New York including Opera Singers Initiatives, the Stonewall Chorale, La Forza dell’Opera, and the Halcyon chamber music series, and has been featured in the Center for Contemporary Opera’s concert series, the 2019 Ukranian Contemporary Music Festival and OmniARTS productions. He has appeared often with the Broadway Concerts Direct performances in upstate New York, in cabaret shows at 54 Below and the Metropolitan Room, and as music director/pianist for “The World According to Kurt Weill” and “Jarmila Novotná: Her Life in Song” at UrbanStages. He can be heard in the PBS series “The Heart of Art” as well as on the soundtracks for the prize-winning short films “Connection Lost (The Tinder Opera),” “Something Blue (The Bachelor Opera)” and “Someone Like Me (The Facebook Opera).” He has recorded for WQXR’s Greene Space and for Opera Omaha and LA Opera’s coproduction of David Hertzenberg’s “The Rose Elf.” He was a winner of the Boston Steinway piano competition, and has premiered new works by composers Seymour Barab, J. Mark Stambaugh, Joelle Wallach, and Louis Hardin. Mr. Sedgwick is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music and Brown University. For more info visit https://www.ericsedgwickpiano.com/
Press Contact:
Jennifer Sgroe, Producer
contact@jennifersgroe.com