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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

Soloist
I Will Learn To Love a Person

Alex Salas

Alex Salas

Soloist
I Will Learn To Love a Person

Alex Salas is a Chicago based soprano with a focus on new works. Alex was most recently seen in Chicago Fringe Opera’s “City of Works,” featured in Lincoln Square with music composed by Elizabeth Rudolph and text by Laura Stratford. Previous engagements with Chicago Fringe Opera include “Love Wounds” showcasing music composed by Christopher Cerrone in 2019, where Chicago Classical Review described Alex’s voice as “pure and lovely in tone.” Alex is a founding member of Forte Chicago, an operatic improv ensemble, last seen at the 2019 Chicago International Puppet Festival, performing “Distant Flight of Birds”, cabarets, and fully devised shows. Since Forte’s inception in 2015, Alex has been seen devising, directing, and performing in every show.  Alex holds a BA in Music Education from Florida Atlantic University, and an MM in Voice Performance from Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where operatic credits include Contessa di Folleville in  Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims, Novice in Puccini’s Suor Angelica, and Daughter in Torke’s Strawberry Fields.  Alex is a soprano section leader at Church of the Holy Comforter in Kenilworth, IL.

Soloist
Naomi Songs

Bridget Skaggs

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.

Hera
All Wounds Bleed

Claire DiVizio

Claire DiVizio

Hera
All Wounds Bleed

CLAIRE DIVIZIO (they/them) is a multi-disciplinary artist, administrator, and educator whose body of work includes stage direction, theatrical design, performance, poetry and prose, visual art, and music composition, along with administrative leadership and arts education. Claire founded Thompson Street Opera Company with the desire to create a space where singers, composers, and production personnel could take risks on truly new operas in a safe, supportive, joyful environment. TSOC boasts sold-out performances, an Honorable Mention in Chicago Classical Review’s “Best of 2019”, grant support from the Illinois Arts Council and City of Chicago, and an ever-expanding roster of exceptional and diverse artists. Since 2022, Claire has been a member of the faculty at Northeastern Illinois University’s School of Music, where they empower students to take ownership of their performing and make the kind of art that fulfills them as individuals. In the fall of 2024, Claire will lead Opera Workshop, Class Voice, and a full studio of private voice students, as well as teaching a course of their own design about the political history of censorship of music.

Claire is also a performer, writer, and baker! Over the last ten years, they’ve been seen onstage across the US in opera, concert, recital, musical theatre, and drag, and have been a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chorus since 2016 (tenured since 2018). Claire’s return to the CSO chorus this year makes them the first trans singer in the US to successfully return to a union classical ensemble in a different voice part following HRT. Claire’s writing has been set to music in both art song and opera, and their long history with contemporary vocal music has expanded in the last few years to include music composition. Their first complete opera (Requiem for Five: a comedy), co-written with composer Jaz Thomasian, was premiered at Chicago Opera On Tap’s Halloween Spooktacular in 2021. Outside of music, Claire can usually be found in the kitchen covered in flour.

Echo
All Wounds Bleed

Leigh Folta

Leigh Folta

Echo
All Wounds Bleed

Lyric soprano and native New Yorker Leigh Folta was recently named first place winner at the 2016 Chicago Chapter NATS competition. In 2015, she placed first in the Casa Italia Competition and was named a finalist in Chicago Opera Idol, where she sang for famed baritone Sherrill Milnes. Her roles to date include Poppea/L’incoronazione di Poppea, LPN/Bluebeard’s Waiting Room, Pamina, Papagena, and 2nd Spirit/Die Zauberflöte, Anne of the Cross/Dialogues of the Carmelites, and Suor Osmina/Suor Angelica. While at the Astoria Music Festival in June 2015, the Oregon Music News reported; “…with her gorgeous expressive face and gorgeous voice, [Leigh] glowed as Pamina” (goo.gl/IiXsP4). During a 2016 Masterclass, distinguished collaborative pianist and coach Martin Katz said of Leigh’s performance, “That was the best Caro Nome I’ve ever heard.” Leigh holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Southern California and a Master of Music degree from the Chicago College of Performing Arts.

Narcissus
All Wounds Bleed

Jonathan Zeng

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 8, 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

Dancer

Enid Smith

Enid Smith

Dancer

Enid Smith earned her BFA in contemporary dance from the North Carolina School of the Arts. In New York City she performed with Ivy Baldwin Dance, The Merce Cunningham Repertory Understudy Group, Anita Cheng Dance, and MAC Cosmetics, among others.  Since moving to Chicago she has presented her own work under the name enidsmithdance, performed in the durational work The Retreat and The Retreat: One Week with Khecari appeared as a guest artist with Lucky Plush Productions and worked extensively with the Evanston Dance Ensemble.  Her previous opera experience includes I, Norton/Dissecting Adam, an improvised opera with Gino Robair and Julia Miller presented at High Concept Labs and Music Institute of Chicago.  Enid is currently dancing with Same Planet Performance Project.  She teaches at Dovetail Studios and Dance Center Evanston.

Cellist
(Latitude 49)

Max Geissler

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.

Saxophonist
(Latitude 49)

Andy Hall

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.

Clarinetist
(Latitude 49)

Andy Hudson

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.

Pianist
(Latitude 49)

Jani Parsons

Jani Parsons

Pianist
(Latitude 49)

Jani Parsons is an award-winning Canadian pianist and teacher, exploring diverse interests in performance, pedagogy, theory, and new music performance. Previous concerts include appearances at the Chan Centre for the Arts, Banff Centre for the Arts, the Ravinia Festival, MASS MoCA, Constellation, the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago) and the Detroit Institute for the Arts. In addition to her work as pianist and artistic director with Latitude 49, Jani is an active collaborator, having performed with members of Bang On A Can All-stars, New Music Detroit, Eighth Blackbird, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Fifth House Ensemble, and members of the Detroit and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. Jani has appeared in educational residencies at the New England Conservatory, University of Minnesota, Indiana University, Northwestern University and University of Southern Mississippi, and has served as faculty at the Fresh Inc festival and Interlochen Summer Arts Camp. She can be heard on the Tzadik label and Çedille Records and has been broadcast as soloist and collaborator on CBC Radio 2 and Wfmt. Jani is a graduate of the University of Michigan (MM and DMA in Piano Performance and Pedagogy), the Vancouver Academy of Music (BM), and the Royal Conservatory of Music (ARCT). Her esteemed teachers include Dr. Arthur Greene, Dr. John Ellis, Prof. Christopher Harding, Lorraine Ambrose, and Allen Reiser. A passionate teacher herself, Jani serves on the piano faculty at Baylor University and teaches online-lessons to several students in Canada. Jani is generously sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts and is a Hambidge Scholar.

Percussionist
(Latitude 49)

Chris Sies

Chris Sies

Percussionist
(Latitude 49)

Chris Sies is a percussionist and composer originally from Manchester, Maryland. A diverse performer praised for his “virtuoso flair” (Detroit Free Press), Chris has appeared with the United States Navy Band, New Music Detroit, The Black Earth Ensemble, My Brightest Diamond, Man Forever, and the “experimental powerhouse,” So Percussion. An avid promoter and performer of contemporary music, Sies has premiered numerous works including the world premiere of Phil Kline’s Dreamcitynine as well as several premieres of John Luther Adams’ Inuksuit. He has also performed at such events as the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, New Music Gathering, the Midwest Composers Symposium, the University of Toledo’s Festival of New Music, and New Music Detroit’s annual Strange Beautiful Music. As a composer and collaborative artist, Sies has worked in many facets including dance, performance art, and multimedia projects with works presented by the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), the Percussive Arts Society, and Ann Arbor Dance Works. His most recent collaboration with dancer/choreographer Maddy Rager entitled (renewed) was featured at the American College Dance Association’s National Gala in Washington D.C. which included several performances at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Among his many musical projects, Chris is an active member of the Willo Collective and is currently working on a release under his solo noise-metal moniker S[K]IES. Chris Sies proudly endorses Vic Firth Sticks and Mallets.

Violinist
(Latitude 49)

Timothy Steeves

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.

Covers

Narcissus
Maximiliano Illanes

Maximiliano Illanes

Narcissus

Maximiliano Illanes Campetella is a tenor from Patagonia, Argentina. In 2018 he sang Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly and Don Basilio in Le Nozze di Figaro with Mediterranean Opera Studio & Festival in Sicily. He also sang Prunier in La Rondine with Varna International Opera Academy in Bulgaria.

In 2017 he made his first appearance in Chicago singing Judge Danforth in The Crucible by J. Ward with Chicago Summer Opera. In New York, he sang Don Basilio and Don Curzio in Le Nozze di Figaro and covered Tamino in “Die Zauberflöte” with the Manhattan Opera Studio. He also performed in a Gala Concert at Carnegie Hall on July 19th with the same company.

Mr. Illanes Campetella has started his training in Chicago with his current Voice Teacher Professor W. Stephen Smith in 2016 and has coached with Carol Smith, Ken Smith, Susana Cardonnet and Cesar Tello. He has participated in “The Naked Voice Institute” at Bienen School of Music, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois. There he studied with W. Stephen Smith and Gene B. Roberts and performed selections from Manon in the closing gala concert at Mary B. Galvin Hall.

In Argentina, he has been a member of the National Polyphonic Choir in collaboration with the National Symphony Orchestra, and a choir member in Juventus Lyrica Opera company. He has performed Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte. He made his undergraduate studies at the U.N.A., the University of the Arts Major in Voice and Choral Conducting in Buenos Aires.

Echo
Laura Smalley

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. 

Artistic Team

Director
Susan Payne O’Brien

Susan Payne O’Brien

Director

Susan Payne O’Brien is deeply influenced by the rich theatrical landscape of the Chicagoland area where she works and resides. She trained as a director and performer under Byrne and Joyce Piven at the famed Piven Theater Workshop. Drawing upon her twenty year tenure as a teacher, performer and director at Piven and upon her years as an actress and opera singer Susan creates inventive work for the theater and opera stage.

She is the founder and Artistic Director of Forte Chicago, an all female operatic company that devises new work pushing the boundaries of the female voice. Since Forte’s launch in 2015 it has premiered five full length original devised shows exposing fresh audiences to the possibilities and delight of opera. Susan is passionate about bringing theatrical devising process to opera classrooms and has served on the directing and opera faculties of Roosevelt University, DePaul University and North Park University. She has directed, written and devised shows for The Piven Theater Lab, Black Cat Theater, 2nd Story, Links Hall, The Santa Fe Opera, The El Paso Opera, Artemesia, and the CUBE Ensemble.

Music Director
Catherine O'Shaughnessy

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 5th 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.

Composer
Christopher Cerrone

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. 

Designer
Sarah Bendix

Sarah Bendix

Designer

Sarah Bendix is a theater artist based in Chicago. Her work has been seen in theaters, parks, parades, galleries, universities, and festivals. She has worked with Redmoon, Piven Theater, Trap Door Theater, Operamatic, Red Tape Theater, Side Project and Forte Chicago, where she is the Associate Artistic Director. She is thrilled to be working with her longtime collaborator, Susan Payne O’Brien, and Chicago Fringe Opera on Love Wounds.

Lighting Designer
Becca Jeffords

Becca Jeffords

Lighting Designer

Becca Jeffords is a freelance lighting designer who works across the midwest and southeast. She has had the pleasure of designing Turn of the Screw and In the Penal Colony for Chicago Fringe Opera. Some other Chicago credits include lighting design for Lifeline Theatre, Porchlight Music Theatre, Raven Theatre, Chicago Children’s Theatre, About Face Theatre, Steep, The New Colony, Redmoon and Steppenwolf Garage Series. New York credits include Cherry Lane Theatre and the NYC Fringe Festival. Becca received her BFA in Production Design from Columbus State University and her Masters in Lighting Design from Northwestern University.

Sound Designer
Grayson Elliott Taylor
Stage Manager
Shelby Krarup
Technical Director
Ted Nazarowski

Ted Nazarowski

Technical Director

Ted Nazarowski has worked in many facets of theater throughout his career. In addition to his day job as a music and theater teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, Mr. Nazarowski has worked as a director, musician, and designer throughout the Chicago area. Recent lighting design credits include A Fool’s Journey (Misfit Circus), Lucrezia and Songs from the Uproar (Chicago Fringe Opera), The Violet Hour (South Shore Opera) and The Consul (Main Street Opera). He is thrilled to be working with such an amazingly talented cast and crew!

Ensemble
Latitude 49

Latitude 49

Ensemble

Latitude 49 is a dynamic mixed chamber group blending the finesse of a classical ensemble with the drive and precision of a finely tuned rock band. With members coming together from across the United States and Canada, L40 epitomizes a diverse, unconventional family of sounds, instruments, and human experiences. The group currently holds Ensemble-in-Residence positions at Princeton University and Baylor University with previous residencies at the University of Michigan, the Kenosha Creative Space, and the University of Illinois Chicago. Latitude 49 presents numerous concerts each season in major venues including the Ravinia Festival (Chicago), (le) Poisson Rouge (NYC) and Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Music Box. More than forty works have been written for L49 so far by a multitude of composers ranging from aspiring students to Pulitzer prize-winning masters. With commissioning and supporting living composers at the heart of its mission, L49 strives to engage diverse audiences with new sounds and specially curated programs that reflect the world in which we find ourselves, with all its beauty and curiosities. With it s name taken from the parallel along the Canadian/United States border, Latitude 49 serves as a bridge between artists, composers, and listeners of today.

*Andy Hall is a D’Addario Woodwind Artist and Clinician.
**Chris Sies endorses Vic Firth mallets and drumsticks.

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
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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