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For the best experience we recommend viewing this video horizontally and listening with headphones.

The Promontory Point is a lush, man-made peninsula jutting out into the wide blue of Lake Michigan. The “Point” was built from landfill and protected by a seawall made from limestone blocks and recycled concrete blocks of road. During the pandemic, it offered a place of verdant respite for South Side residents. Socially distanced picnics, barbecues, and gatherings scattered the point. The poetry of “Touch the Water” depicts one such gathering, though rather than a scene of social assembly it depicts a moment of romantic ambivalence. The baritone voice and solo cello intersect and crisscross depicting the tension between the woman and “you.” The dual sources of light, from the moon and the surveillance streetlight, are depicted in the cello’s open chords. In the climax of the piece, the woman takes on the mythical presence of the siren calling “you” to the water, whose waves undulate like the cello’s tremolo.

Cast

Matthew Recio

Composer

Matthew Recio

Composer

Recio recently finished his post as the Vanguard emerging composer with Chicago Opera Theater, developing operas with Royce Vavrek and Stephanie Fleischmann. This past year he was asked to return as an aperture resident artist with West Edge Opera to further develop “L’autre Moi”. Current projects include a commission from Chicago Fringe Opera for the Decameron Opera Coalition, a feature on American soprano, Laura Stricking’s CD “40×40”, a commission for LYNX amplify series, and a commission for Ryan Strand’s Letters for Jackie project. Recent past projects include a commission for Stare at the Sun’s Fall concert “Returning”, and a commission for Queer In(n) dedicated to Chicago elder trans icon, Mama Gloria, featuring trans singer, Jalissa Spell, Chicago Fringe Opera’s City of Works series, Fourth Coast Ensemble’s SongSlam and wrote an interactive choral cantata “The Hollow” for Chicago choir, Stare at the Sun. He was a winner of the IU Georgina Joshi Vocal Composition prize, the American Prize in choral writing and the first selected commissioned artist for the Cincinnati Song Initiative. Recio has worked with organizations such as BMP, New Voices Opera Company, Cincinnati Camerata, NOTUS and The Crossing. He was a composer fellow at VIPA, IMANI Festival, Atlantic music festival, The Crossing and Norfolk Chamber Series.

Recio is a G. Schirmer published artist under the Craig Hella Johnson and Dale Warland series.  He is a graduate of the Jacobs School of Music where he was a Jacobs Fellowship recipient for his DM and MM in composition.

Anna B. Gatdula

Librettist

Anna B. Gatdula

Librettist

Anna B. Gatdula is a writer based in Chicago, but she longs for the Philippines tropical winds where she was born. She is a scholar of opera studies, American cultural history, and critical theory. Find her ramblings on music, history, and Marxism @gatsbea_ on twitter.

Keanon Kyles

Bass-Baritone

Keanon Kyles

Bass-Baritone

“Keanon Kyles, praised by CNN for his “incredible bass-baritone voice” and by Scottish Magazine, Opera Scotland for his “beautiful technique”. Kyles was raised in Chicago where his musical journey started and where he received his bachelor’s degree in music from Chicago’s Columbia College. Keanon made his opera debut as Colline in Puccini’s “La Boheme”. Conducted by Metropolitan Opera’s Maestro David Jackson, he made his Italy debut in Trento, Italy as Betto in Gianni Schicchi and Peter in Hansel and Gretel. Keanon was featured as Billy Evans in the world premiere of Floating Opera Company’s production of “War and Peace”. Kyles made his Chicago Opera Theater debut as Daggoo in “Moby Dick”, shortly after he was asked to return to perform the role of Tommie in the opera, “Freedom Ride” with Chicago Opera Theater. He has ranked one of the top 5 singers in the National Association of Negro Musician’s competition. He made his Lyric Opera debut by way of Lyric Unlimited’s production of “Earth to Kenzie” and soon after made his Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut as a featured soloist in their “Purpose Over Pain” concert.

Keanon was invited to Carnegie Hall to make his solo debut where he sung a plethora of genres on Perelman Stage. Kyles’s versatile voice has gained him notoriety and has allowed him to share the stage with some of music’s greatest artist- Samuel Ramey, Andrea Bocelli, Kathleen Battle, Celine Dion and more. Aside from his growing Opera career, he has performed concerts across the globe at popular venues such as Allstate Arena, United Center, Chicago Theater and internationally at the Edinburgh Festival and Japan World Music Festival. He made his South America debut doing the title role in Benjamin Britten’s Opera “Noye’s Fludde” under the baton of Maestro Guerrasim Voronkov in Bogotá, Colombia.

After making his U.K. debut as Colline, Keanon returned to Scotland in the role of Rigoletto in Clyde Opera Group’s production. He currently is the Bass-Baritone Resident Artist at Chicago Opera Theater (20/22). His career has been highlighted by CNN, Good Morning America and the headline of The Chicago Sun-Times. In addition to his performance career, Keanon teaches voice performance in jazz, gospel and musical theatre out of his studio in downtown Chicago, as well as,Lyriq Music School in Northcenter. Kyles is a 2 time award recipient of the Reva and David Logan Foundation award and Resident Music Artist of the private club -The Cliff Dwellers.”

David Sands

Cello

David Sands

Cello

A native of Aurora, IL, David Sands began his cello studies at age 10. After graduating from DePaul University in 2014 he became a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, where he sat as assistant principal and was a teaching artist for CSO Connect and the Chicago Youth and Music Festival. David completed his master’s in cello performance from DePaul University, where he studied with CSO cellist Brant Taylor. There he sat as principal of the symphony orchestra and continues to serve as an adjunct faculty member for the Music Education Department.

As a recording artist, David has participated in select studio work for the film Chi-raq and can be heard on the track “Mama” from the hit TV show Empire. He has appeared on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s contemporary chamber music series MusicNOW and was a featured soloist and chamber musician for “The Line-Up” at Wrigley Field. As a pedagogue, David has served as a guest clinician for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as well as given masterclasses at DePaul and North Park University. Most recently David became a teaching artist for the inaugural cohort of The Chicago Music Pathways Initiative.

David serves as both a teaching artist and Senior Manager at The People’s Music School of Chicago, a non-profit that brings free music education to over 800 children in Chicago. Through TPMS he has performed chamber music alongside acclaimed pianist Emanuel Ax and curates an annual recital called “PlayOut!” in collaboration with The Center on Halsted.

Artistic Team

Concept/Director
George Cederquist

George Cederquist

Concept/Director

George is the Producing Artistic Director of Chicago Fringe Opera, called “the city’s alt-opera company” by the Chicago Tribune. Recent directing credits for the company include LA JETEÉ and CORSAIR, as well as the company’s long-running hit show THE ROSINA PROJECT, a Hip-Hop adaptation of THE BARBER OF SEVILLE.
In addition, George has directed new productions and workshops of operas, musicals, and plays with Opera Festival of Chicago, Chicago Dramatists, the Chicago Sinfonietta, Pittsburgh Opera, the Bay View Music Festival and Chicago Folks Operetta.
An inspiring mentor, George is the Producing Artistic Director of Opera and Theatre at North Park University.

Now in its ninth season, George hosts OPERA BOX SCORE [America’s Talk Radio Show About Opera] on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and WNUR 89.3 FM Chicago.

To learn more about George, visit gjcederquist.com. He proudly uses zero social media platforms.

Concept/Commissioning/Music Direction
Catherine O'Shaughnessy

Catherine O'Shaughnessy

Concept/Commissioning/Music Direction

Catherine O’Shaughnessy is a rising orchestral and opera conductor in the United States and abroad. Avidly committed to Chicago’s dynamic musical scene, she is currently the music director of Chicago Fringe Opera, the assistant conductor of Opera Festival of Chicago, and has appeared conducting productions at Chicago Opera Theater and DePaul University. In 2020, she helped produce Fringe’s contribution to the Decameron Opera Coalition’s Tales From a Safe Distance—winner of the “Best Collaboration” award from 360° of Opera. A semi-finalist in the 2016 Spazio Musica International Conducting Competition, Catherine made her New York debut conducting Antonio Salieri’s La Cifra with the dell’Arte Opera Ensemble. She has also music directed Pyramus and Thisbe in Freiberg (Mittelsächsisches Theater) and conducted Don Giovanni and La Traviata in Orvieto (Teatro Mancinelli). In 2013 she conducted the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra at a sold-out performance in Tchaikovsky Hall.

Concept/Editor
Brad Caleb Lee

Brad Caleb Lee

Concept/Editor

Brad Caleb Lee is a UK based visual dramaturge. With CFO he designed Lucrezia, The Long Christmas Dinner, Woyzeck, Corsair and co-conceived A City of Works. Other collaborators include East Riding Theatre, Opera’r Ddraig, Summer Theatre of New Cannon, Richard Burton Theatre Company, Elan Frontoio, Welsh National Opera, Opera Sonic, Music Theatre Wales, Prague Shakespeare Company, Theatre Tuscaloosa, Hell in a Handbag, and Filament Theatre.

Brad curated and designed YOUR VOICE!, an immersive community-driven exhibition reopening the Wales Millennium Centre, was the Curatorial Producer of Prague Quadrennial 2019, was featured in World Stage Design 2017, and co-designed the award-winning British pavilion, MAKE/BELIEVE for PQ2015 / Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Brad is the founding editor of Ascending and has previously edited other publications on theatre design. He holds an MA from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and both a BA and a BS of Commerce from The University of Alabama.

Supported by The CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture, the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Chicago Fringe Opera is an Opera America Partner.

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