Love Wounds

Universal stories of love, loss and our sense of self.

The vital and intimate emotional world of composer Christopher Cerrone is at the heart of Love Wounds. This evening of immersive theater will feature Chicago Fringe Opera, Chicago’s premiere “alt-opera” company, in collaboration with the powerhouse mixed-ensemble Latitude 49. Universal stories of love, loss and our sense of self will be explored by all performers in this production of multiple works that span the ancient to the millennial experience. Cerrone shows us the beauty and the gift in the wounds we carry and the music we can make of them. Including the cycles I Will Learn to Love a Person and The Naomi Songs, Cerrone’s one-act opera All Wounds Bleed, and a world premiere commission, Love Wounds seeks to intensify the theatrical communication between the vocalists, instrumentalists, and audience in order to bring us closer to each other and ourselves. Recent winner of the 2015 Rome Prize and Pulitzer Prize finalist for his opera Invisible Cities, Christopher Cerrone will be closely involved with Love Wounds, serving as composer/arranger and co-curator.

A collection of works by Christopher Cerrone
In Collaboration with Latitude 49

A special thanks to our Production Sponsor – John Bierbusse.
This project is funded in part by the following partners:

Cast

Bridget Skaggs

Soloist
Naomi Songs

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

Claire DiVizio

Hera
All Wounds Bleed

Praised by the Ann Arbor News for her “marvelous voice,” soprano Claire DiVizio is quickly gaining a reputation for her vocal and dramatic versatility. 2018/2019 holds two company debuts: with Chicago Fringe Opera as Hera in Christopher Cerrone’s All Wounds Bleed, and with Des Moines Metro Opera as the study-cover for Marie in Berg’s infamous Wozzeck. Her last three seasons have included covering Leonora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore with St. Petersburg Opera (FL), singing Salud in De Falla’s La Vida Breve with Cincinnati Chamber Opera, appearing as Giorgetta in Puccini’s Il tabarro with Mid-Ohio Opera, and performing as the Queen of the Fairies in Gilbert & Sullivan’s Iolanthe with the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company of Chicago. Since 2016, Claire has held a coveted spot with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chorus, which performs under the baton of Riccardo Muti.

One of Claire’s greatest musical passions is working with living composers. Claire has created seven opera roles, and premiered more than twenty concert works for voice, including art song, chamber music, and choral solos. In recent years she has premiered works by Philip White, Ermir Bejo, Lincoln Hanks, Ezra Donner, Yvonne Freckmann, Chris Kincaid, Michael Montgomery, Anna Garman, José Julio Díaz Infante, and Andrey Komanetksy. She is currently collaborating with composers Griffin Candey, Sean Ellis Hussey, and Quinn Dizon on upcoming premieres.

Claire is also an active arts administrator. In 2011, she created Thompson Street Opera Company, which is dedicated to producing new operas by both emerging and established composers. The company resided in Louisville KY for four years, presenting a summer festival which has been featured in multiple news outlets including the Courier Journal, BroadwayWorld, WFPL (NPR affiliate), and Arts-Louisville. In 2016, the company relocated to Chicago IL. They are now in their third season in Chicago, where their achievements so far have included three sold-out performances, a commissioned work, a partnership with Pride Films & Plays, and the critically-acclaimed Chicago premiere of Clint Borzoni’s When Adonis Calls.

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Love Wounds	Hera (All Wounds Bleed)	2019
Sounds of Pride 2020	Soloist	2020

Jonathan Zeng

Narcissus
All Wounds Bleed

Lauded for his versatility as a performer, critically acclaimed tenor, Jonathan Zeng, has performed as a soloist with opera companies, theaters, and symphony orchestras throughout the United States. With a voice described by Chicago publications as “valiant”, “stunning”, “vibrant”, and “rich”, Jonathan is based in Chicago and has soloed with choral ensembles The William Ferris Chorale and Vox Venti. You may also have seen him serving as cantor at the historic St. Michael Church in Old Town, singing with the Grant Park Symphony Chorus, as Richard Dauntless in Ruddigore with The Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company or in multiple productions with Chicago Folks Operetta & Chicago Fringe Opera. Roles elsewhere range from Goro in Madama Butterfly & Beppe in I Pagliacci to Prince Charming in Cinderella, Chip Tolentino in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Frederic in Pirates of Penzance.

Jonathan’s cabaret, SONGS THAT SPEAK!, has had success throughout the Midwest. Its next iteration will be on Saturday, Aug 3, 2024 at the Venus Cabaret Theater in Chicago.

An avid proponent for arts education and vocal instruction, Jonathan has served as an adjunct faculty member in the Preparatory Department at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and has maintained a private voice studio for more than a decade. He teaches voice at Loyola Academy on the north side of Chicago. Jonathan received a BA in Music Education from the School of Music at Western IL University and an MM in vocal performance from the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music (CCM). For more info, visit www.JonathanZeng.com or follow him on Instagram: @jonathan.zeng

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Sounds of Pride 2020	Soloist	2020
Sounds of Pride	Soloist	2019
Love Wounds	Narcissus	2019
Dynamic Donuts: A Fundraiser for Love Wounds	Soloist	2019
The Long Christmas Dinner	Charles	2018
Fringe at the Taproom	Soloist	2018
The Great God Pan	Clarke and Meyrick Cover	2018
Song from the Uproar	Ensemble	2016
The Turn of the Screw	Miles	2015
Chicago Fringe Opera’s Lakeside Soiree	Soloist	2015
Voices in the Dark, Jazz & Trouble in Tahiti	Tenor, Jazz Trio	2015

Max Geissler

Cellist
(Latitude 49)

Praised for his “superb artistry and beautiful sound”, cellist Max Geissler is currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Rice University under the tutelage of Desmond Hoebig. Before his studies at Rice, he earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan working with Richard Aaron. Previous mentors have also included Catherine Lehr-Ramos of the Saint Louis Symphony and Michel Strauss during a semester of study abroad in Paris. As featured soloist, he has performed with several orchestras in the St. Louis area, including the Saint Louis Symphony. Max is devoted to the chamber music literature and takes any opportunity he can to better acquaint himself with the repertory, working closely with chamber musicians such as James Dunham, Norman Fischer, Joel Krosnick, Ronald Copes, and Laurie Smukler. As former principal cellist and project manager of the conductorless string orchestra KINETIC, Max assisted in building the nonprofit from the beginning and strongly advocated for the ensemble’s communicative chamber music making in the Houston area. Max is also a sought-after new music collaborator, having premiered many pieces for solo cello, string quartet, as well as chamber orchestra as a part of KINETIC. He has performed regularly as a part of the new music organization MUSIQA in Houston, as well as alongside Brian Connelly on his chamber music series, Music in Context. Together with Leah Gastler, he co-founded the Kalmia Garden Chamber Music Festival in Durham, Connecticut. Now in its fourth year, the program helps share their love for chamber music with the community in a bucolic environment through a series of intimate farmhouse concerts.

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Love Wounds

Cello

2019

Andy Hall

Saxophonist
(Latitude 49)

Andy Hall is a passionate saxophone soloist, chamber musician, and private instructor based in Ann Arbor, MI. He has performed as a soloist with the Michigan Symphony Band, World Youth Orchestra, Triangle Wind Ensemble, and was a featured artist on NPR’s “From the Top”. Chamber accomplishments include membership with various prize-winning saxophone quartets over the past twelve years, and one of the founding members of the contemporary music ensemble Latitude 49. He is also the baritone saxophonist with The Moanin’ Frogs, a modern vaudeville saxophone sextet performing throughout the country and internationally. He has competed and placed in numerous state, national, and international competitions, winning first place at the national level of the 2009 NFMC Biennial Competition, 2nd Place in the North Carolina Symphony Concerto Competition, and being named a 2009 Presser Scholar for excellence in saxophone performance. Holding a MM from the University of Michigan and a BM from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in saxophone performance, Andy now takes great joy in spreading his knowledge and experience to his private studio. Andy has taught the saxophone in group and private settings for twelve years. He has held the position as saxophone instructor at North Carolina School of the Arts Community Music School, and is currently the saxophone instructor Dexter Community Schools, with a private, award-winning studio based from his home in Ann Arbor. Andy’s principal teachers and mentors include world renowned saxophonists Donald Sinta, Dr. Steven Stusek, Dr. Timothy McAllister, Chad Eby, and Dr. Susan Fancher. He is a proud member of the North American Saxophone Alliance and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Love Wounds

Saxophone

2019

Andy Hudson

Clarinetist
(Latitude 49)

Performances by clarinetist Andy Hudson have been hailed as “a treat for the listener” and praised for “an uncommon singularity of purpose, technical virtuosity, youthful vigor and a mature sensitivity.” Based in the Chicago area and active nationally, Andy has performed at the International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest, the World Congress of the International Alliance for Women in Music, and the Bang on a Can Summer Marathon. He has won top honors at the MTNA National Senior Woodwind Competition, the Sewanee Summer Music Festival Concerto Competition, the MTNA Southern Chamber Music Competition, and both the Columbus State University and Northwestern University Concerto Competitions. A frequent soloist, Andy has recently performed the concerti of Weber, Gandolfi, James M. David, Michael Daugherty, and Mozart among others. Several of his performances have been broadcast on WFMT Chicago, including his 2011 performance of Scott McAllister’s “Black Dog” as soloist with the Northwestern University Symphonic Wind Ensemble. A noted interpreter of contemporary music, Andy has premiered and commissioned dozens of works to date and was a presenter at the 2017 New Music Gathering. He has recently performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on their MusicNOW series, as well as at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Eastman School of Music, and Constellation Chicago. Andy makes his Carnegie Hall debut in 2017 as a member of the trio F-PLUS, and also performs regularly with The Zafa Collective, earspace, and 10th & Broadway. In 2017, Andy performed across Switzerland and Germany as a member of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra under the baton of Matthias Pintscher. Andy holds teaching positions at Lake Forest College and Northwestern University, and each summer joins the Artist-Faculty of the Tennessee Valley Music Festival. He holds degrees from Columbus State University and Northwestern University.

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Love Wounds

Clarinet

2019

Timothy Steeves

Violinist
(Latitude 49)

Canadian violinist Timothy Steeves has performed throughout North America and Europe as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician, and advocate of contemporary music. He has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and the Salzburger Festspiele and his performances have also been heard on BBC Radio, NPR, and Radio Canada among others.Timothy made his solo debut in 2004 with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and has since performed with orchestras in both Canada and the United States in repertoire ranging from Vivaldi to Corigliano. Timothy was recently named Acting Associate Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Previously, he served as Concertmaster for the world-premiere recording of Darius Milhaud’s Oresteia of Aeschylus, which was nominated for a GRAMMY® Award for Best Opera Recording. Timothy’s chamber music collaborators have included Pierre Amoyal, Andrés Cárdenes, Nancy Ambrose King, Steven Mackey, and Paul Schoenfeld. He has also performed throughout the United States as the founding violinist of the new music ensemble Latitude 49, whose debut album Curious Minds was released in January of 2017. Timothy has also toured both Canada and the United States as a duo with pianist Jani Parsons and with soprano Alexandra Smither. Timothy completed a Bachelors and Masters of Music in Violin Performance at the University of Michigan, studying with David Halen and Stephen Shipps and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts at Rice University under the tutelage of Cho-Liang Lin. Timothy performs on a 1871 Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, on loan by the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank.

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Love Wounds

Violin

2019

Covers

Narcissus

Echo

Laura Smalley

Echo

Laura Smalley is a producer, actor, and singer in the Chicago area. She has worked in arts administration with many prominent arts organizations, including Des Moines Metro Opera, Stage 773, The Lyric Opera Chicago, and Chicago Opera Theater. She is also an alumna of the 2018 Hart Institute for Women Opera Administrators, a professional development program at The Dallas Opera.

Laura’s recent performing credits include A Christmas Carol (Metropolis Performing Arts Centre), How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, Hunchback of Notre Dame (Music Theater Works), Big Entrance (Forte Chicago), Love Wounds (Chicago Fringe Opera), Grant Park Music Festival, Merrie England (Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company), Pirates of Penzance (The Savoyaires), Pascagoula: A Folk Opera (Singing River Productions), Old Maid and the Thief (MOE), and Sorry/Grateful (Slotted Spoon Initiative).

Her cabaret performances include Sleep/Creep/Leap and Reunion: A Night of Sondheim. She is a founding member of the vintage vocal trio The Peppermint Patties, with recent shows including Won’t You Be My Galentine? (2020), Home for the Holidays (2020), and Holiday Cabaret (2021).

She holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from DePaul School of Music.

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Two Remain	Executive Producer	2022
The Heroes Project – The Widow’s Will	Executive Producer	2021
A City of Works	Executive Producer	2021
Corsair	Executive Producer	2020
Love Wounds	Echo Cover; "I WIll Learn to Love a Person" Soloist Cover	2019
Dynamic Donuts: A Fundraiser for Love Wounds	Soloist	2019
Fringe at the Taproom	Soloist	2018

Artistic Team

Director

Music Director

Catherine O'Shaughnessy

Music Director

Catherine O’Shaughnessy is a rising orchestral and opera conductor in the United States and abroad. Her performances have earned rave reviews from the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Classical Review (“great skill, alertness and sensitivity”), and Vocal Arts Chicago (“resourcefulness…scrappiness and…fierce concentration”). Avidly committed to Chicago’s dynamic musical scene, she is currently the music director of Chicago Fringe Opera, and Principal Conductor of the 5^th Wave Collective. In 2020, she proudly 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—which makes innovative use of technology to reimagine this art for challenging new circumstances.

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, and in 2017 she guest-conducted the Piccadilly Symphony Orchestra (Manchester, UK). Catherine holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in orchestral and opera conducting from Arizona State University, where she was a student of William Reber and Timothy Russell.

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Two Remain	Music Director	2022
Woyzeck	Music Director	2019
Love Wounds	Music Director	2019
The Long Christmas Dinner	Music Director	2019
The Great God Pan	Music Director	2018
Lucrezia	Music Director	2017
Song from the Uproar	Conductor	2016
In the Penal Colony	Conductor	2016

Composer

Christopher Cerrone

Composer

Christopher Cerrone is internationally acclaimed for compositions characterized by a subtle handling of timbre and resonance, a deep literary fluency, and a flair for multimedia collaborations.

In the 2018–19 season, Cerrone writes a major new orchestral work with electronics for the LA Phil, led by Roderick Cox. Other commissions include a new sextet co-commissioned by Latitude 49, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and Sentieri Selvaggi; and a new concerto for Third Coast Percussion, co-commissioned by the Civic Orchestra of the Chicago Symphony and the Britt Festival. Cerrone also orchestrates his opera All Wounds Bleed for Chicago Fringe Opera, curates a series, “Reiterations,” for the Metropolis Ensemble, holds residencies at Chatterbird and Baylor University, and was the 2018 Conducting/Composition Fellow at the Britt Festival. An all-Cerrone disc recorded by Christopher Rountree and wildUp will be released on New Amsterdam Records in August 2019, and excerpts from his new opera, In a Grove (libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann), will be heard at the Morgan Library in New York in March 2019.

Recent highlights include Breaks and Breaks, an acclaimed violin concerto for Jennifer Koh, and the Detroit Symphony, led by Peter Oundjian; a Miller Theatre Composer Portrait performed by Third Coast Percussion; Will There Be Singing, for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for Jeffrey Kahane’s final concert as LACO Music Director; Can’t and Won’t, commissioned by the Calder Quartet by the LA Phil, and new works for artists including Tim Munro, Eighth Blackbird, Vicky Chow, and Rachel Lee Priday.

Cerrone’s opera, Invisible Cities, based on Italo Calvino’s landmark novel, was praised by The Los Angeles Times as “A delicate and beautiful opera…[which] could be, and should be, done anywhere.” Invisible Cities received its fully-staged world premiere in a wildly popular production by The Industry, directed by Yuval Sharon in Los Angeles’ Union Station.

Christopher Cerrone holds degrees from the Yale School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. He is published by Schott NY and Project Schott New York.

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Love Wounds

Composer

2019

Designer

Lighting Designer

Sound Designer

Grayson Elliott Taylor

Stage Manager

Shelby Krarup

Technical Director

Ensemble

Acclaim

[Cerrone’s writing is] fluent and melodic with a visceral, yearning quality that is very compelling.

Chicago Classical Review

Media

Photography by Wendy Alas Photography

Love Wounds	Soloist (I Will Learn To Love a Person)	2019
Two Remain	Mariola	2022

Love Wounds	Echo (All Wounds Bleed)	2019
Song from the Uproar	Ensemble	2016
2016 Holiday House Party	Soloist	2016

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Fringe xChange

Love Wounds

May 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25, 2019

Love Wounds

May 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25, 2019

Universal stories of love, loss and our sense of self.

Cast

SoloistI Will Learn To Love a Person

Alex Salas

Alex Salas

SoloistI Will Learn To Love a Person

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

SoloistNaomi Songs

Bridget Skaggs

Bridget Skaggs

SoloistNaomi Songs

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

HeraAll Wounds Bleed

Claire DiVizio

Claire DiVizio

HeraAll Wounds Bleed

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

EchoAll Wounds Bleed

Leigh Folta

Leigh Folta

EchoAll Wounds Bleed

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

NarcissusAll Wounds Bleed

Jonathan Zeng

Jonathan Zeng

NarcissusAll Wounds Bleed

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Dancer

Enid Smith

Enid Smith

Dancer

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Cellist(Latitude 49)

Max Geissler

Max Geissler

Cellist(Latitude 49)

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Saxophonist(Latitude 49)

Andy Hall

Andy Hall

Saxophonist(Latitude 49)

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Clarinetist(Latitude 49)

Andy Hudson

Andy Hudson

Clarinetist(Latitude 49)

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Pianist(Latitude 49)

Jani Parsons

Jani Parsons

Pianist(Latitude 49)

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Percussionist(Latitude 49)

Chris Sies

Chris Sies

Percussionist(Latitude 49)

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Violinist(Latitude 49)

Timothy Steeves

Timothy Steeves

Violinist(Latitude 49)

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Covers

Soloist
I Will Learn To Love a Person

Soloist
I Will Learn To Love a Person

Soloist
Naomi Songs

Soloist
Naomi Songs

Hera
All Wounds Bleed

Hera
All Wounds Bleed

Echo
All Wounds Bleed

Echo
All Wounds Bleed

Narcissus
All Wounds Bleed

Narcissus
All Wounds Bleed

Cellist
(Latitude 49)

Cellist
(Latitude 49)

Saxophonist
(Latitude 49)

Saxophonist
(Latitude 49)

Clarinetist
(Latitude 49)

Clarinetist
(Latitude 49)

Pianist
(Latitude 49)

Pianist
(Latitude 49)

Percussionist
(Latitude 49)

Percussionist
(Latitude 49)

Violinist
(Latitude 49)

Violinist
(Latitude 49)