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Mar 19, 21, 24, 25, 2023

Chicago Currents

Celebrating Chicago’s Waterways

Join us for a song cycle exploring the ecology and history of Chicago’s waterways. Our program will guide you through the pre-colonial era, Chicago’s non-indigenous settlement by Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, to its development into a major industrial center. We invite you to connect with Chicago’s vibrant landscape and the rewilding movement hoping to nurture our home for generations to come.

Performances will be held at
The Edge Theater 
5451 N Broadway, Chicago

Cast

Pianist/Music Director

Mark Bilyeu

Mark Bilyeu

Pianist/Music Director

Described as “superb partner,”(schubert.org) pianist Mark Bilyeu passionately engages in music as a committed performer, inspiring teacher and enterprising curator.

He was the only American finalist in the 2015 Das Lied Song Competition, and maintains an active performing schedule. He has served as faculty at Viterbo University and was the Visiting Artist in Vocal Coaching and Collaborative Piano at the University of Northern Iowa. He is also the Co-Founding Artistic Director of the Source Song Festival. Held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Source is a week-long celebration of words and music which includes public concerts and masterclasses by international artists for pianists and singers, as well as a composer institute led by Libby Larsen.

Bilyeu has performed at such venues as the Grand Théâtre de Tours (France), the Schubert Club of St. Paul, the Everson Museum (New York), PianoForte Foundation, and the Belle Sylvester Recital Series of New York. He has been heard via live radio broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio with soprano Lori Phillips, and on WFMT via the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series.

He holds degrees from the Chicago College of Performing Arts and the University of Minnesota, studying with Timothy Lovelace and Chicago Symphony Orchestra pianist Mary Sauer. He has studied at the Aspen Summer Music Festival, Britten-Pears Institute, Vancouver International Song Institute, l’Academie Françis Poulenc and was named a 2018 Crear Scholar, which took him to Scotland to study with Malcolm Martineau,. Additional studies with Roger Vignoles and Susan Manoff.  Please see www.markbilyeu.com & www.sourcesongfestival.org for more.

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

DOC the Halls Piano 2022
Ear Taxi Festival – Spotlight Series Concert: Songs From Letters Piano 2020

Soprano

Dana Campbell

Dana Campbell

Soprano

Soprano Dana Campbell has been a guest of Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Virtuosi di Toronto,  Toronto Classical Singers and Talisker Players, and Kenosha Symphony Orchestra. With Toronto  Operetta Theatre, she sang the title role in the Canadian première of the zarzuela Cecilia  Valdes. For Lyric Opera of Chicago, Ms. Campbell appeared in their celebrated productions  of Porgy and Bess and understudied the role of Addie Parker in Charlie Parker’s Yardbird. With  Millennium Chamber Players, she undertook Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia, and Mimì in La Bohème. Appearing frequently with South Shore Opera Company of Chicago, highlights  include Rachel Ross in Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom, and Claire in the  critically-acclaimed Troubled Island. Ms. Campbell is pleased to be part of Chicago Fringe Opera’s  Two Remain and looks forward to spring 2022 performances with Southwest Suburban  Symphony Orchestra and Florentine Opera. 

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Two Remain Krystyna Cover 2022

Soprano

Kirsten C. Kunkle

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. 

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Chicago Currents Soprano 2023

Baritone

Keanon Kyles

Keanon Kyles

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.”

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Chicago Currents Baritone 2023
A City of Works Bass-Baritone 2021

Tenor

Aaron Short

Aaron Short

Tenor

Tenor Aaron Short is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Musical Arts at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music with an anticipated completion date in the spring of 2023. During his time at Northwestern, he performed the role of Fabian in the Chicago premiere of Jake Heggie’s If I Were You and Rodolfo in La bohème.

Mr. Short will make his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Spring 2022 as the Servant to Amelia in Un ballo in maschera under the baton of Maestro Riccardo Muti. In the summer of 2021, Mr. Short joined Knoxville Opera for a series of summer concerts featuring selections from opera, oratorio, and musical theater. In early 2019, he performed the role of Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Knoxville Opera, later reprising the role with the Festival Lyrique-en-Mer for his European debut followed by his Dallas Opera debut as First Armored Man in Die Zauberflöte in the fall of 2019. In the fall of 2018, Mr. Short joined the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Lyric Unlimited to sing the role of Dr. Osborn in the Chicago premiere of Rhoda and the Fossil Hunt and later joined Chicago Opera Theater as Alméric in the Chicago premiere of Iolanta and Flask in Moby Dick.

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Chicago Currents Tenor 2022

Mezzo-Soprano

Bridget Skaggs

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.

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Two Remain Zosia 2022
Ear Taxi Festival – Spotlight Series Concert: Songs From Letters Soloist 2020
Love Wounds Soloist (Naomi Songs) 2019
The Great God Pan Austin 2018

Artistic Team

Stage Director
Ross Matsuda
Dramaturg, Composer
Kirsten C. Kunkle
Creative Consultant
Bridget Skaggs
Creative Consultant
Catherine O'Shaughnessy

Tickets

Sun
Mar 19, 2023
Date
Sun, Mar 19, 2023
Time
3:00pm
Tickets
TBA
Tue
Mar 21, 2023
Date
Tue, Mar 21, 2023
Time
7:30pm
Tickets
TBA
Fri
Mar 24, 2023
Date
Fri, Mar 24, 2023
Time
7:30pm
Tickets
TBA
Sat
Mar 25, 2023
Date
Sat, Mar 25, 2023
Time
3:00pm
Tickets
TBA
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, & National Endowment for the Arts.

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