As One

A thoughtful journey through questions of identity, empathy, compassion, and humanity.

We open our season 2017/18 the Chicago premiere of “As One.” In this intimate show, a mezzo-soprano and baritone represent a single transgender protagonist, Hannah. As One takes us alongside as she seeks to resolve the discord between the truth of her own self and the world around her.

“This is a story that people can relate to whether they’re trans or not…I think we all grow and change and transition from one thing to another. And to confirm that you can unclog your world, being yourself instead of being this fabrication that everyone is telling yourself they’re supposed to be, that’s a very powerful thing.”

-Kimberly Reed (co-librettist, filmmaker)

Music & Concept by Laura Kaminsky
Libretto by Mark Campbell & Kimberly Reed

Cast

Hannah After
Samantha Attaguile

Samantha Attaguile

Hannah After

Praised for an exciting sound, Mezzo-Soprano Samantha Attaguile is quickly establishing herself as a spirited young talent in the modern artistic world. A New Jersey native, Samantha earned her Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from The Boston Conservatory and her Master of Music in Voice from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. Samantha has had the pleasure to work with many of Chicagoland’s musical organizations including Main Street Opera, Third Eye Theatre Ensemble, The Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company of Hyde Park, Thompson Street Opera, and Petite Opera. Samantha is also a managing div@ of Opera on Tap Chicago and helped kickstart New Brew Chicago, an offshoot of Opera on Tap dedicated to performing new vocal music.

Role highlights include Flora (The Enchanted Pig by Jonathan Dove), Lola (Cavalleria rusticana), Dido (Dido and Aeneas),Barbara Ansley (Roman Fever), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Phoebe Meryll (The Yeomen of the Guard), Maddalena (Il viaggio a Reims), Vèronique (Doctor Miracle), Nurse (Strawberry Fields by Micael Torke), and The Abbess (Sister Angelica).

A performer in every sense of the word, Samantha’s experience is not limited to the traditional operatic realm and she enjoys taking part in a wide array of musical and theatrical projects. She performs in semi-annual concerts with the Colombian folk group, The Mulati Ensemble, and appeared as the mezzo-soprano soloist in Duruflé’s Requiem with the DuPage Chorale, as well as with the Southwest Symphony Orchestra singing a concert of Rodgers & Hammerstein classics. For fun and fundraising, Samantha has participated in Compass Creative Dramatics’ adaptations of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Peter Pan to raise money for children’s theatre programs and appeared as a Puppeteer in Quest Theatre Ensemble’s Blue Nativity.

Samantha currently works, lives, and performs in Chicago with her outrageously supportive husband, Antoni, and feline fur babies, Desdemona and Ophelia.

Hannah Before
Jonathan Wilson

Jonathan Wilson

Hannah Before

Jonathan Wilson is grateful to perform again with Chicago Fringe Opera in this meaningful production of Two Remain.  Previously, Jonathan performed with CFO in the title role of their 2019 production of Woyzeck (Waits, Brennan) and as Hannah Before in their 2017 production of As One (Kaminsky, Campbell, Reed).  Praised by the Chicago Classical Review for his “resounding and luxurious” voice, Jonathan is an enthusiast of contemporary opera with other recent roles including Robert Dziekański in I will fly like a bird (Plant, Wainwright), The Poet in When Adonis Calls (Borzoni, de los Santos, Dillard), and John Brooke in Little Women (Adamo).  Later in 2022, Jonathan looks forward to performing in several productions with Lyric Opera Chorus, Grant Park Chorus, and Chicago Symphony Chorus.  Outside of performing, Jonathan is passionate about math and science and their creative overlap with music and the arts to explore the intricacy, complexity, and beauty of the world. He holds degrees in physics, mathematics, and electromagnetics, and has worked as an RF electrical engineer and a lecturer of physics, astronomy, and Earth science.

Covers

Hannah After
Jacquelyn Kress

Jacquelyn Kress

Hannah After

Jacquelyn Kress, mezzo-soprano, is a recent graduate of the Opera Institute at Boston University. With the OI, Ms. Kress was seen as Annio (La Clemenza di Tito), Kate (Owen Wingrave), Jean (Le Portrait de Manon), Mother Marie (Dialogues of the Carmelites), and Fidalma (Il Matrimonio Segreto). She has also performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s outreach program as Tisbe in La Cenerentola. Other performances include Hansel and Gretel (Hansel), La vie parisienne (Métella), The Pirates of Penzance (Ruth),Trouble in Tahiti (Dinah), L’enfant et les sortileges (L’écureuil/La chatte), The Mikado (Katisha), Roméo et Juliette (Stephano), Cosi fan tutte (Dorabella). She has also been on the international stage: Salzburg, Austria as Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro, and Périgueux, France as the title role in Offenbach’s La Périchole. Ms. Kress has a BM from the University of Illinois, and a MM from Roosevelt University.

Hannah Before
Maxwell Seifert

Maxwell Seifert

Hannah Before

Praised for his handsome tone and immaculate diction, operatic baritone Maxwell Seifert recently made his professional Chicago debut as Captain Valentine with the Chicago Folks Operetta in Kurt Weill’s rarely heard Johnny Johnson. A Pacific Northwest Native, he began his stage career as a boy soprano in the Seattle Opera’s 2006 production of Macbeth. Today, Maxwell maintains a wide variety of repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary opera to golden age musical theater. This spring he will play the leading role of Griffith in the world premiere of For Those in Peril by Francis Lynch with the Evanston Chamber Opera Company. Maxwell was recently awarded the grand prize at the Bel Canto Competition in Chicago and was a national semifinalist in the Classical Singer Competition. He has performed in numerous master classes, most notably with Jake Heggie and Isabel Leonard. He was a young artist at the Aspen Summer Music Festival performing in scenes from Ariadne auf Naxos and Die Fledermaus.
His operatic credits include the baritone in the jazz trio in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti and L’horloge in L’enfant et les sortileges at the Franco American Vocal Academy. In 2015, he graduated with a B.A. in music performance from Pepperdine University where he performed as Danilo in The Merry Widow, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Belcore in L’elisir d’more, and Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus as well as some musical theatre roles such as Enjolras in Les Misérables and the dancing chorus in Oklahoma. Maxwell is currently based in Chicago, where he earned his Master of Music degree from Northwestern University studying with W. Stephen Smith.

Artistic Team

Conductor
Alexandra Enyart

Alexandra Enyart

Conductor

Alex Enyart is an orchestra and opera conductor with a focus on new music. She had her international premiere with the Tomsk Philharmonic Orchestra in Russia in 2016, and has worked as an apprentice with the Louisville Orchestra and Kentucky Opera. She began focusing on contemporary opera with Thompson Street Opera Company in Louisville, KY where she also received her Masters in Orchestral Conducting. When the company moved to Chicago, she came with them and took the position of Music Director starting in the 2017-2018 season. Alex has also won the CODA conducting competition and as a result was invited to work with Anthony Maeillo. She has also had the privilege to work and study with Kimcherie Lloyd, Joe Mechavich, Harold Farberman, Teddy Abrams, and Donald Portnoy among many others.

Stage Director
Amy Hutchison

Amy Hutchison

Stage Director

Amy Hutchison has championed American opera throughout her career. Her production of Missy Mazzoli’s Song from the Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt for Chicago Fringe Opera was hailed as “imaginative” and “striking… contemporary music theater.” She has directed William Bolcom’s A View from the Bridge for Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Washington National Opera and Portland Opera. Her collaboration with Ricky Ian Gordon and Stacey Tappan, Once I Was: Songs by Ricky Ian Gordon, was staged at the Chicago Cultural Center and recorded on the Blue Griffin label. Hutchison’s production of William Grant Still’s epic masterwork Troubled Island for South Shore Opera Company was named the number one classical music event of 2013 by Andrew Patner in the Chicago Sun-Times. Hutchison has also directed: Joelle Lamarre’s The Violet Hour: the Life of Leontyne Price; Jonathan Stinson’s The March: A Civil Rights Opera Project and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Dream Lovers and African Romances for South Shore Opera Company. Other local productions include Leo Fall’s Madame Pompadour (Chicago Folks Operetta), Dido and Aeneas and The Telephone (Elgin Opera), Brigadoon (Music By the Lake), Faust (DuPage Opera), and Ned Rorem’s Our Town (DePaul Opera Theatre). Productions nationwide include Carmen (Kansas City, Milwaukee, Columbus), Turandot (Orlando), Don Pasquale (Indianapolis), La Traviata (Costa Mesa), Il Matrimonio Segreto (Boston), and Help, Help, the Globolinks! (Madison).

Ms. Hutchison has served on the directing staffs of Lyric Opera of Chicago and Houston Grand Opera. She has staged the Maurice Sendak production of Hänsel und Gretel for Opernhaus Zürich, The Juilliard School (televised for PBS: Live from Lincoln Center) and for the Canadian, San Diego, Indianapolis, and Baltimore opera companies. As Associate Director, Hutchison has staged Porgy and Bess throughout the United States and globally, including Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, L’Opéra National de Paris, Teatro La Fenice, and opera houses in Düsseldorf, Lucca and Tokyo.

Ms. Hutchison is a member of the faculty of The Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, where she teaches Opera Workshop to Voice Performance majors.

Upcoming projects include: AS ONE for Chicago Fringe Opera, THE POET for South Shore Opera Company of Chicago, and A Donizetti double bill of IL PIGMALIONE and RITA for Chicago Opera Theatre.

Lighting Designer
Ted Nazarowski

Ted Nazarowski

Lighting Designer

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!

Costume Designer
Shanna Philipson
Stage Manager
Isabelle Rund

Isabelle Rund

Stage Manager

Isabelle Rund is a new resident of the Chicago area. Since arriving she has had the opportunity to work with Chicago Folks Operetta and Spartan Theatre in addition to Chicago Fringe Opera. Rund is previously from St. Louis, MO. While there she had the opportunity to Stage Manage at the Loretto Hilton Center, the Fabulous Fox Theatre and the Tennessee Williams Festival. Isabelle will Stage Manage As One and The Great God Pan for Chicago Fringe Opera this
season. Rund is a graduate of the Stage Management program at the Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University.

String Quartet
The Zafa Collective

The Zafa Collective

String Quartet

The Zafa Collective was formed in 2016 by co-founders Hannah Christiansen (violin) and Casey Karr (double bass). The Chicago-based new music ensemble follows in the footsteps of Ensemble Dal Niente and ICE with its flexible instrumentation, allowing Zafa to choose its repertoire with no limitations. Formed upon the idea that classical music should be inclusive and accessible both in terms of programming and performance, the Zafa Collective actively seeks music from outside the canon of Western art music. Zafa presents programs with diverse aesthetics, seeking to make contemporary music accessible and appealing to as wide of an audience as possible. In their opening season, The Zafa Collective premiered works by Michal Massoud, Theo Chandler, Connor Singh Vanderbeek, and Derek Tywoniuk, and worked with composers including Ellen Ruth Harrison, Eliza Brown, and Sato Matsui. Zafa has performed in a wide range of venues, from Constellation to Ganz Hall to private homes.

Violinist
Hannah Christiansen

Hannah Christiansen

Violinist

Artistic Director of The Zafa Collective, Hannah Christiansen is a Chicago-based violinist. She holds degrees from Oberlin College, Oberlin Conservatory, and Northwestern University, where she studied with Milan Vitek and Gerardo Ribeiro, respectively. A member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Ms. Christiansen has been featured as a soloist with the Northwestern University Baroque Music Ensemble and Contemporary Music Ensemble. In the summers, Ms. Christiansen has been a chamber music fellow at the Manchester Music Festival and at le Domaine Forget, and has been heard in halls including Carnegie Hall (NYC), Ozawa Hall (Tanglewood), the Mozarteum (Salzburg), and Dvorak Hall (Prague). A sports enthusiast, Ms. Christiansen is a writer for Inside Lacrosse in her spare time.

 

Violinist
Emelinda Escobar

Emelinda Escobar

Violinist

Emelinda Escobar is a Chicago-based professional violinist who plays with Quad City Symphony, Heartland Festival Orchestra, and The Zafa Collective. She is on the faculty of Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook and maintains a private studio in both Evanston and Lincoln Park. She graduated from Northwestern University with her MM having studied under Gerardo Ribeiro and was concertmaster of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago 2014-2016 and has played with professional orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She has been a soloist with the South Loop Orchestra and has performed with Yo-Yo Ma on Chicago’s WFMT broadcast. Her festival credits include attending Meadowmount as a teaching assistant in addition to the Green Mountain Music Festival, Aria Music Festival, Triada, and Okemo Mountain Music Festival.

Cellist
Audrey Q Snyder

Audrey Q Snyder

Cellist

Audrey Q. Snyder is a cellist in Chicago, Illinois.  An advocate of contemporary music, she currently plays as part of the Chicago-based Zafa Collective, a new music group founded with the idea of inclusivity (both in programming and performance) at its core.  Audrey is also a member of the Houndstooth String Quartet, which focuses on contemporary music in its programming. Miss Snyder also regularly plays popular music, having performed several times with folk artist Emily Mure at venues including Club Passim, Rockwood Music Hall, and The Living Room, and can be heard on Emily’s upcoming 2017 album. In 2016, she played with the national tour of The Bridges of Madison County.  Most recently, Audrey has subbed on Hamilton: An American Musical in Chicago. Audrey holds a B.M. and M.M. (with an Arts Leadership Certificate) from the Eastman School, where she studied with Alan Harris.Audrey Q. Snyder is a cellist in Chicago, Illinois.  An advocate of contemporary music, she currently plays as part of the Chicago-based Zafa Collective, a new music group founded with the idea of inclusivity (both in programming and performance) at its core.  Audrey is also a member of the Houndstooth String Quartet, which focuses on contemporary music in its programming. Miss Snyder also regularly plays popular music, having performed several times with folk artist Emily Mure at venues including Club Passim, Rockwood Music Hall, and The Living Room, and can be heard on Emily’s upcoming 2017 album. In 2016, she played with the national tour of The Bridges of Madison County.  Most recently, Audrey has subbed on Hamilton: An American Musical in Chicago. Audrey holds a B.M. and M.M. (with an Arts Leadership Certificate) from the Eastman School, where she studied with Alan Harris.

Violist
Danielle Taylor

Danielle Taylor

Violist

Danielle Taylor is a violinist and violist in the Chicago area. She holds degrees from Oberlin College and Oberlin Conservatory, where she studied with Gregory Fulkerson and is completing her Masters at Northwestern University where she works with her mentors, Blair Milton and Victor Yampolsky. A passionate advocate for arts education and inclusion, Danielle has been a member of Chicago Sinfonietta and the Grant Park Music Festival’s Project Inclusion program and maintains a busy teaching schedule in addition to performing with groups including The Zafa Collective and Chicago Solisti.

Rehearsal Pianist
Alexander Kirillov
Artist
Karla Wong

Karla Wong

Artist

Karla Wong was born in Minatitlan, Veracruz, Mexico in 1974. Her father is originally from Ixtetec, Oaxaca and her mother from Santiago La Ollaga, Oaxaca. This is the reason why Karla’s heart very much belongs to the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Karla grew up in Istmo a region of Oaxaca. The region’s tradition of celebrating art and colors are evident throughout her work. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Law and Social Sciences from the University of Oaxaca (U.A.B.J.O.).
After graduating, Karla began her career as composite artist for the general prosecution and justice department for the state of Oaxaca, which she continues into the present day. She considers herself a “self-taught” artist. Karla started out with pencils then gradually experimented with oil paints. She eventually took private lessons from a renowned master artist in Oaxaca. In every brush stroke, Karla plasters the splendors of her culture, a culture her parents instilled in her. She pushes the limits and steers away from more traditional elements to give it a magical touch of surrealism. Karla paints magical characters using emblematic symbols of Istmena culture. Such imagery as the hair pieces, papel picado (paper banner), the Tehuano hat, and embroidery among others. She brings such characters to life with brightly-colored detail. She has exhibited in the state of Oaxaca, the state of Puebla, multiple museums in Mexico City, numerous cultural houses, and in the National Palace and other prestigious government buildings.

Conductor's Note

As One is excitingly unique in that it is an episodic monodrama in which the main character is never truly seen on stage.  Hannah, our transgender protagonist, is represented by two cisgender singers, each playing a part of the whole.  A baritone performs as Hannah Before and a Mezzo as Hannah After.  Anyone who has transitioned can tell you that it is not as simple as “before” and “after”; Campbell, Kaminsky, and Reed brilliantly capture the muddy humanity of transition by having both characters alternate between being narrators and active participants in any given moment of Hannah’s life.  In the first part of the opera, Hannah Before grows from an anxious child into a more mature and eloquent poet expressing her isolation.  Such rapid changes create a self-awareness for the opera; the performers act more as aspects or characteristics of Hannah, than as Hannah herself.  This honest interpretation connects the audience to the work with the openness of communal exploration through storytelling.

True glimpses of Hannah appear with the assistance of the string quartet, most specifically the viola.  The viola takes on an important role as Hannah Always.  The addition of a third party portraying Hannah adds to the illusive nature of our protagonist.  Hannah Always, our violist, speaks constantly to both the performers onstage.  This interplay is often significant: Hannah Always even starts the show!  During the prologue, the viola enters the stage and contrasts the rest of the string quartet.  Kaminsky brilliantly captures the first moment Hannah feels different from everyone else.  Our violist also interacts directly with the singers portraying Hannah.  When Hannah begins hormone replacement therapy, the baritone representation of Hannah speaks directly with our viola representation of Hannah to find an inner peace and relieve some of her fear.

When we do see the true Hannah it is usually through the Kaminsky’s clear use of voice exchange.  This technique is used throughout the piece to bring the three Hannahs closer together and blur the line between before and after.  These musical moments are set when Hannah is at her most vulnerable and exposed.  Kaminsky also uses the note of F-sharp as a goal for Hannah to strive for, and achieve, in her most sincere moments, such as in conversations with her family about the word “love”.  At the end of the piece Hannah arrives at a brief unison on the F-sharp.  That too is just a glimpse: the F-sharp lasts for one beat before the baritone heads back to an A.

Our true Hannah is as elusive as the northern lights.  It is only when all three aspects come together that she can truly become As One.

Acknowledgements

Broadway Costumes
Chicago University, Center for Gender and Sexuality
The Chicago Tribune
Debbie Vanni
Doing the Work with Matthan Black
Dr. S. Simmons, UIC
Karari Olvera
Kemchan Jairam and Direct Office Furniture Warehouse
Maureen Bridges & Henry Latt
Megan Carney, About Face Theater
Ruth Margraff & Mark Jeffery
Rose Freeman
Ryan Butts
School of the Art Institute of Chicago

This production was rehearsed at Merry Music Makers.

As One Fundraiser Sponsors

Hydrate Nightclub (hosting and raffle)
Cream Wine (raffle)
Ace Hotel Chicago (raffle)
Elixir Lounge (raffle)
Tickets
Thank You

Chicago Fringe Opera is immensely grateful for our donors who support our mission of presenting innovative vocal works with an emphasis in the new and contemporary styles, engaging with the Chicago community through intimate and immersive performance experiences, and fostering and empowering local artists.

Donors

Year to date as of: March 22, 2022

Jennifer Alkem

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Kent Dymak

Maria Fletcher

Paul Freehling

Sarah Geocaris

Myron Levine

Joan Mazzanelli

Ashley McKinstry

Patricia McMillen

Carla & William O’Shaughnessy

Robert Daniel Reid

Jeffrey Roth

Elizabeth Rudolph

Laura Smalley

Tracey Smalley

Julie Stauffer

Carol Stukey

Joshua Taylor

Mark & Joan Walker

Isabella Weber

Jonathan Wilson

Dean Yannias

Jonathan Zeng

Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP 

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Company & Board

Board

President
Matthew Godfrey
Board Member
Sarah Geocaris
Board Member
Joshua Taylor
Board Member
Lara Yang

Company Members

Executive Director
Catherine O'Shaughnessy
Producing Artistic Director
George Cederquist
Casting Coordinator
Dana Campbell
Social Media Manager
Daina Fischer
PR & Audience Relations Director
Giovanna Jacques
Artistic Producer
Khary Laurent
Marketing, Brand & Web Director
Jenny Schuler
Vocal Arts Associate
Bridget Skaggs
Community Engagement Coordinator
Jonathan Zeng

As One
A chamber opera for two voices and String Quartet
Music & Concept by Laura Kaminsky
Libretto by Mark Campbell & Kimberly Reed
By arrangement with Bill Holab Music
As One was commissioned and developed by American Opera Projects (AOP)
As One film direction and film by Kimberly Reed, commissioned by AOP. As One premiered at Brooklyn Academy of Music, September 2014, made possible in part with funding from BAM/DeVos Institute of Arts Management at Kennedy Center Professional Development Program, OPERA America’s Opera Discovery Grants for Female Composers Program, supported by Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Art Works, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Bronx Council on the Arts, Purchase College Development Fund, Tanner Fund at Utah State University, Jeremy T. Smith Fund, Dr. Coco Lazaroff, Lynn Loacker, Judith O. Rubin, and many generous individuals.

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