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Celebrating Chicago’s Waterways

Chicago Currents is an “operamentary” – an art song concert that also uses some techniques of documentary storytelling.

The music takes audiences on a chronological journey through Chicago’s history through the lens of the Chicago River. While we experience these songs and stories, including works from Chicago poets and composers, historical information will be presented through projection to further contextualize the music. There’s more to your home than just what’s inside the walls of your space – come learn about its history and the land itself.

The program repertoire includes works by Indigenous composers Kirsten Kunkle, Ian Cusson, and Andrew Balfour; Haitian composer Justin Elie; gems by prominent African-American composers Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Harry T. Burleigh, and H. Leslie Adams; settings of American folk songs by Steven Mark Kohn; as well as works from the catalog of Chicago composers Stacy Garrop, Eric Malmquist, John Alden Carpenter, and Ernst Bacon.

This is a livestream only event.

Cast

Kirsten C. Kunkle

Soprano

Kirsten C. Kunkle

Soprano

A voting citizen of the Muscogee (Mvskoke) Nation, Dr. Kirsten C. Kunkle has been lauded as the leading Native American soprano in today’s classical music world. Kunkle is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Wilmington Concert Opera, a women and minority-run opera company based in Wilmington, Delaware.  Favorite performances include creating the role of Charlotte Corday in “Girondines,” Dido in ‘Dido and Aeneas,” Magda in “The Consul,” Mimì in “La bohème,” and the title role in “Suor Angelica.” Other career highlights include performing at Carnegie Hall, being featured in the role of Arabella in the NAXOS world premiere recording of Johann Strauss II’s operetta “Blindekuh,” writing for OPERA AMERICA magazine, and premiering her opera libretto, “Girondines,” with composer Sarah Van Sciver. Most recently, she was commissioned and premiered her new art song “Reclaim the Land” at Yellowstone National Park’s 150th anniversary, which has been featured on Yellowstone Public Radio (a branch of NPR) and BBC Radio.  She is extremely involved in new music and will be premiering the role of Ipp’osi’ in the first opera written entirely in the Chickasaw language, “Shell Shaker” by Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate. She is delighted be making her debut with Chicago Fringe Opera as a performer, dramaturg, and composer/poet. She is a proud graduate of Bowling Green State University and University of Michigan. Please visit www.kirstenckunkle.com for more information. 

Dana Campbell

Soprano

Dana Campbell

Soprano

Soprano Dana Campbell made her professional debut with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and has since been a guest artist with Virtuosi di Toronto, Toronto Classical Singers and Talisker Players, and a featured artist with the West Suburban Symphony, Southwest Symphony Orchestra, and Kenosha Symphony Orchestra.

With Toronto Operetta Theatre, she sang the title role in the Canadian première of Gonzalo Roig’s zarzuela Cecilia Valdes. For the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Ms. Campbell appeared in their revered productions of Porgy and Bess, and understudied the role of Addie Parker in their production of Charlie Parker’s Yardbird. With Maestro Robert Treviño and his Millennium Chamber Players, she undertook, among others, the roles of Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia, and Mimì in La Bohème. Ms. Campbell appeared in concert in Austria, under the baton of Edoardo Müller, and reprised Mimì in Italy for Maestro Joseph Rescigno. Ms. Campbell is a member of the celebrated Adrian Dunn Singers, and performs frequently with the South Shore Opera Company of Chicago, including turns in two of that company’s acclaimed productions: as Rachel Ross in Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom, and as Claire in Troubled Island. Other operatic favourites include Donna Elvira and Countess Almaviva, both for Summer Opera Lyric Theatre, Micaëla for American Chamber Opera, and Violetta for South Shore. Ms. Campbell is thrilled and honoured to have worked with her friend and colleague Khary “K. F. Jacques” Laurent, singing the role of Maddalena on his exciting OperaTronic project: L’Assassino, for Resonance Works Pittsburgh.

Fizz & Ginger marks Ms. Campbell’s third engagement with Chicago Fringe Opera, previously appearing on the company’s staged recital program Chicago Currents, and as understudy in Jake Heggie’s Two Remain: Out of Darkness, taking the stage on opening night as Krystyna Zywulska.

Jade Dashá

Soprano

Jade Dashá

Soprano

This year, soprano Jade Dashá has been seen in production with Thompson Street Opera (Pemphredo: We’ve Got Our Eye On You-Okoye) and Wilmington Concert Opera (Sounds Like Pearls– virtual recital). In 2023, Jade was a Smith Young Artist with Cedar Rapids Opera singing Miss Jones in the world-premier of Charlie and the Wolf, which toured local schools. She has also had the pleasure of working with Opera Steamboat and Chicago Fringe Opera, and was a 2023 Studio Artist with Central City Opera. In Summer 2022, Jade was a studio artist with Opera Neo covering Arminda in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera and Dalinda in Handel’s Ariodante.  Previously, Jade covered Grace Alumond in Chicago Opera Theater’s world-premier production of Quamino’s Map, and sang Dew Fairy in Evanston Chamber Opera’s production of Hansel and Gretel.

Jade has been recognized with several awards, including being named an Encouragement Winner at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Illinois District in 2020. She additionally received the Casa Italia Josephine L. LiPuma Vocal Scholarship and the Musicians Club of Women Farwell Trust Award in the same year. During her undergraduate years, Jade was selected as the 2018-2019 Mason Young Artist with the Imperial Symphony Orchestra.

When Jade is not singing she might be; researching various esoteric topics, looking at pictures of cats, doing yoga, thrifting, cooking, barista-ing or chatting with her loved ones.

Bridget Skaggs

Mezzo-Soprano

Bridget Skaggs

Mezzo-Soprano

Mezzo-soprano Bridget Skaggs has swiftly gained the attention of Chicago audiences as “a compelling force” with an “agile, expressive voice” (Chicago Classical Review) equally at home in opera, art song, and oratorio.  Critics have noted the way she “lights up the scene” (Chicago Reader) in performances with Chicago Fringe Opera, where she debuted the role of Austin in the world-premiere production of Rossa Crean’s The Great God Pan in 2018, and sang Christopher Cerrone’s Naomi Songs with “warm and plaintive mezzo” (Chicago Classical Review) as part of Love Wounds, a multi-disciplinary exploration of the composer’s works, in 2019.

Bridget is increasingly recognized for her excellence in the musical and movement styles of Baroque repertoire, having performed Giunone in Cavalli’s La Didone with Haymarket Summer Opera Program in 2018, Bradamante in Handel’s Alcina with Chicago Vocal Arts Consortium in 2019, and performed numerous Bach cantatas as a Festival Artist at the Baroque on Beaver Island Festival (MI) in summers 2014 and 2015.

Nationally, Bridget has appeared as the Fox in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen with Opera Steamboat, and Charlotte in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music with Pittsburgh Festival Opera, where she served as Young Artist.  Internationally, she has toured Bruckner’s Te Deum as alto soloist with Blue Lake International Symphony.  Her vast concert and oratorio repertoire includes the Ravel Shéhérezade, Duruflé Requiem, Vivaldi Gloria, Handel Messiah, and Bach Magnificat.

A passionate advocate for art song, Skaggs is a founding member of vocal chamber quartet Fourth Coast Ensemble, and was recently named Vocal Arts Associate for Chicago Fringe Opera. She has twice been awarded the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago’s vocal chamber fellowship.  This season she records music by composer Lori Laitman, and has recorded the American premiere of Paul Abraham’s 1932 jazz operetta Ball at the Savoy for future release.  A native of Southlake, Texas, Bridget received her education at Oklahoma City University’s Wanda L. Bass School of Music, and resides in Chicago.

Aaron Short

Tenor

Aaron Short

Tenor

Tenor Aaron Short has sung leading and featured roles with numerous national and international opera companies, including Dallas Opera, Nashville Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Lyric Unlimited, Knoxville Opera, Nashville Opera, and the Festival Lyrique-en-Mer in France. He fulfilled young artist residencies with Portland Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Lyric Opera Studio Weimar, and Florentine Opera in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Some of his favorite roles he has performed include Sam in Susannah, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Bégearss in Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, and Jimmy Mahoney in Kurt Weill’s Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, where his performance was hailed by the New York Times as “simultaneously subtle and shattering.” Mr. Short is an alumnus of Wichita State University and Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Short is currently a Doctorate of Musical Arts candidate at Northwestern University.

Ian Murrell

Baritone

Ian Murrell

Baritone

Making his Chicago Fringe Opera debut, Ian Murrell has been praised by Indiana Public Media for his “Powerful, resonant, and clear baritone.” He is a native of Vandalia, Illinois and currently resides in Chicago. Mr. Murrell has been seen in performance with Thompson Street Opera Company, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New Moon Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Opera for the Young, The Chautauqua Opera Company, Florentine Opera Company, Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, Asheville Lyric Opera, and The Aspen Music Festival. Ian has portrayed leading and supporting roles in operas and musicals such as Turandot, Madama Butterfly, L’Elisir d’amore, Lucia di Lammermoor, It’s A Wonderful Life, Peter Grimes, Cinderella, Die Zauberflöte, Dialogues des Carmelites, Il segreto di Susanna, and The Old Maid and the Thief. In addition to his stage work, Ian is a passionate interpreter of American art song and has given recitals that featured the works of Charles Ives, H.T. Burleigh, Florence Price, Lena McLin, Leonard Bernstein, Mark Blitzstein, and Amy Beach. He is a graduate of Indiana University and the University of Evansville.

Mark Bilyeu

Pianist

Mark Bilyeu

Pianist

Pianist, coach, and conductor Mark Bilyeu holds degrees from the University of Minnesota and the Chicago College of Performing Arts. He is the founder of Source Song Festival in Minneapolis, MN where he facilitated the premieres of over a hundred works, and himself has premiered works by Libby Larsen, David Evan Thomas, Matthew Recio, Rachel Fogarty, and many others. Mark was the only American finalist in the 2015 Das Lied Song Competition held in Berlin, and was named a 2018 Crear Scholar, which took him to Scotland to study with Malcolm Martineau. In addition to his performing schedule, Bilyeu is the Program Annotator for the Butler School of Music at The University of Texas at Austin, he hosts The Schubert Club of Minnesota’s “Concert Insights” program and serves as the Director of Music at St. Paul & the Redeemer Episcopal Church in Hyde Park.

Ash Fitzwater

Violin

Ash Fitzwater

Violin

Ash Fitzwater, violinist, is an active substitute with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra, the Rockford Symphony, and performs regularly in the Chicago area. Ash served as concertmaster for the Illinois Valley Symphony from 2011-2017. Before moving to Illinois in 2009, they were a member of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra for 2 years and performed with the Wichita Grand Opera.

Ash teaches violin and viola, as an adjunct professor, at Aurora University, and also maintains a private teaching studio of violin, viola, and piano. They were a center director and teacher for their Music Together® center, in Aurora and Sycamore, Mighty Acorn Music Makers, for eight years, ending in 2020. Ash taught at Viva Performing Arts in Dixon, in various capacities, 2014-2020. At Viva, they taught a 3- year in-school group violin program, as well as lessons, and Music Together. Ash taught for an El Sistema program, in Aurora from 2014-2015. They hold a Master’s Degree in Violin Performance from Northern Illinois University, where they studied with Mathias Tacke, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Violin Performance from Wichita State University, where they studied with Richard Young, John Harrison, and Nancy Luttrell.

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

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