The Brightness of Light

Renée Fleming is one of the most highly-acclaimed singers of our time, performing on the stages of the world’s greatest opera houses and concert halls.

In 2013, President Obama awarded her the National Medal of Arts. Winner of four Grammy Awards, she has sung for momentous occasions from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to the Diamond Jubilee Concert for Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. She earned a Tony Award nomination for her performance in the 2018 Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. Her new album Renée Fleming: Broadway was released in September 2018 by Decca. She is heard on the soundtracks of the 2018 Best Picture Oscar winner The Shape of Water and of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and she provided Julianne Moore’s singing voice for the film Bel Canto, released in the fall of 2018. As Artistic Advisor to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Renée Fleming spearheads a collaboration with the National Institutes of Health focused on music, health, and neuroscience. Among her awards are Germany’s Cross of the Order of Merit, France’s Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, and Honorary Membership in the Royal Academy of Music.

In 2022, she will create the role of Clarissa in the world premiere of The Hours by Kevin Puts.

Learn more at ReneeFleming.com.

Rod Gilfry is a two-time Grammy nominee, singer and actor who has performed in all the world's music capitals and appears on over 30 recordings. He is acclaimed worldwide in opera, musicals, recitals and cabaret. His 75-role repertoire includes 13 leading roles he has created in new operas. Recent performances include LA Opera productions of David Lang's solo opera the loser and Matthew Aucoin's Crossing, and Jake Heggie's It's a Wonderful Life at the San Francisco Opera. He recently created the role of Claudius in Brett Dean's Hamlet at the Glyndebourne and Adelaide Festivals, a role he reprised in the 2021/22 season at the Metropolitan Opera.  

Other appearances for the season include the Marquis de la Force in Houston Grand Opera’s Dialogues of the Carmelites and Robert McNamara in the world premiere of Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang’s The Rift at the Washington National Opera. 

In 2019, he began a tour of Kevin Puts’ The Brightness of Light with Renée Fleming at the Tanglewood Festival, which was later performed with the National Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Future performances of The Brightness of Light are scheduled for the Aspen Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Oregon Symphony. 

Future seasons will find Mr. Gilfry singing Alfonso in Così fan tutte with the Dallas Opera, Scarpia in the Houston Grand Opera’s Tosca, Claudius in Dean’s Hamlet and Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro at Munich’s Bavarian State Opera. 

He earned advanced degrees from California State University Fullerton and the University of Southern California. From 1987 to 1989 he was a member of the Frankfurt Opera ensemble, and from 1989 to 1994 he was a member of the Zurich Opera ensemble. He is in his 14th year as a professor of vocal arts at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, but will retire from that position in December 2022 to make more time for performing.

(RodGilfry.com)

Kevin Puts is the winner of numerous prestigious awards, including the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for his debut opera Silent Night. His works have been commissioned, performed, and recorded by leading ensembles, and soloists throughout the world, including Yo-Yo Ma, Renée Fleming, Jeffrey Kahane, Dame Evelyn Glennie, the New York Philharmonic, the Tonhalle Orchester (Zurich), the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Miro Quartet, and the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Cincinnati, Detroit, Atlanta, Colorado, Houston, Fort Worth, St. Louis, and Minnesota.

His newest orchestral work, The City, was co-commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in honor of its 100th anniversary and by Carnegie Hall in honor of its 125th anniversary. His new vocal work Letters From Georgia, written for soprano Renée Fleming and orchestra and based on the personal letters of Georgia O’Keeffe, had its world premiere in New York in the fall of 2016, and his first chamber opera, an adaptation of Peter Ackroyd’s gothic novel The Trial of Elizabeth Cree, commissioned by Opera Philadelphia, had its world premiere in September 2017, followed by performances with Chicago Opera Theater in February 2018.

His next opera, The Hours, based on Michael Cunningham's novel, will premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in 2022, starring Renée Fleming as Clarissa, Kelli O’Hara as Laura and Joyce DiDonato as Virginia Woolf. 

Kevin is currently a member of the composition department at the Peabody Institute and the Director of the Minnesota Orchestra Composer’s Institute.

Learn more at KevinPuts.com.

Sought after for her insightful interpretations and dynamic presence, New Zealand-born Gemma New is a leader among the new generation of conductors. She is currently in her sixth season as the Music Director of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra and her second season as Principal Guest Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Hailed as “a rising star in the musical firmament” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch), New was awarded Solti Foundation Career Assistance Awards in 2017, 2019 and 2020. 

Despite COVID-19, New anticipates a 2020/21 season that will include performances with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, and leading the BBC Symphony Orchestra at London’s Barbican Centre in May 2021. On August 26, 2020, New led a performance with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, which was streamed live globally.

New’s 2019/20 season featured her inaugural concerts as Principal Guest Conductor in Dallas and debuts with the National Symphony Orchestra D.C., Milwaukee Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Kristiansand Symfoniorkester, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Ulster Orchestra, and New Zealand Symphony. New’s debut with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, conducting a production of Susannah with Susanna Phillips in the title role was replaced by an online performance of Bernstein’s “Make Our Garden Grow,” which raised over $350,000 for the St. Louis Artist Relief Fund.

Learn more at GemmaNew.com.

Hailed for his adventurous and bold artistic leadership, and for eliciting technically precise and expressive performances from musicians, Grammy Award-winner Grant Gershon celebrated his 20th anniversary as Kiki & David Gindler Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale in the 2021/22 season. The Los Angeles Times has said the Master Chorale "has become the most exciting chorus in the country under Grant Gershon,” a reflection on both his programming and performances. 
 
During his tenure, Gershon has led more than 200 Master Chorale performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall in programs encompassing a wide range of choral music, from the early pillars of the repertoire to contemporary compositions. He has led world premiere performances of major works by John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Eve Beglarian, Billy Childs, Gabriela Lena Frank, Ricky Ian Gordon, Shawn Kirchner, David Lang, Morten Lauridsen, Steve Reich, Ellen Reid, Christopher Rouse, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Chinary Ung, among many others.  

Gershon is committed to increasing representation in the choral repertoire, and in 2020 he announced that the Master Chorale will reserve at least 50% of each future season for works by composers from historically excluded groups in classical music. 
 
In July 2019, Gershon and the Master Chorale opened the famed Salzburg Festival with Lagrime di San Pietro, directed by Peter Sellars. The Salzburg performances received standing ovations and rave reviews from such outlets as the Süddeutsche Zeitung, which called Lagrime “painfully beautiful” (Schmerzliche schön). Gershon and the Master Chorale debuted the production in Los Angeles in 2016 and began touring the world with it in 2018. In its review of the premiere of Lagrime, the Los Angeles Times noted that the production “is a major accomplishment for the Master Chorale, which sang and acted brilliantly. It is also a major accomplishment for music history.”

He was the Resident Conductor of LA Opera from 2012 to 2022, and in this capacity conducted the West Coast premiere of Philip Glass’s Satyagraha in November 2018. He made his acclaimed debut with the company with La Traviata in 2009 and has subsequently conducted productions including Il Postino, Madama Butterfly, Carmen, Florencia en el Amazonas, Wonderful Town, The Tales of Hoffmann and The Pearl Fishers. In 2017, he made his San Francisco Opera debut conducting the world premiere of John Adams’s Girls of the Golden West directed by Peter Sellars, who also wrote the libretto, and made his Dutch National Opera debut with the same opera in March 2019. Gershon and Adams have an enduring friendship and professional relationship which began 27 years ago in Los Angeles when Gershon played keyboards in the pit for Nixon in China at LA Opera. Since then, Gershon has led the world premiere performances of Adams’ theater piece I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, premiered his two-piano piece Hallelujah Junction (with Gloria Cheng), and conducted performances of Harmonium, The Gospel According to the Other Mary, El Niño, The Chairman Dances, and choruses from The Death of Klinghoffer. 

In New York, Gershon has appeared at Carnegie Hall and at the historic Trinity Wall Street, and he has performed on the Great Performers series at Lincoln Center and the Making Music series at Zankel Hall. Other major appearances include performances at the Ravinia, Aspen, Edinburgh, Helsinki, Salzburg, and Vienna festivals, the South American premiere of LA Opera’s production of Il Postino in Chile, and performances with the Baltimore Symphony and the Coro e Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Torino in Turin, Italy. He has worked closely with numerous conductors, including Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Gustavo Dudamel, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Simon Rattle, and his mentor, Esa-Pekka Salonen. 
 
His discography includes the 2022 Grammy Award-winning recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as well as Grammy–nominated recordings of Sweeney Todd (New York Philharmonic Special Editions) and Ligeti’s Grand Macabre (Sony Classical); six commercial CDs with the Master Chorale, including Glass-Salonen (RCM), You Are (Variations) (Nonesuch), Daniel Variations (Nonesuch), A Good Understanding (Decca), Miserere (Decca), and the national anthems (Cantaloupe Music); and two live-performance albums, the Master Chorale’s 50th Season Celebration recording and Festival of Carols. He has also led the Master Chorale in performances for several major motion pictures soundtracks, including, at the request of John Williams, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. Gershon was named Outstanding Alumnus of the Thornton School of Music in 2002 and received the USC Alumni Merit Award in 2017.  

Wendall K. Harrington’s career has embraced diverse disciplines including theater, publishing, multi-image/video design and production. As a designer of scenic projections for the stage, her work has been seen on Broadway in All the Way, Annie, Driving Miss Daisy, Grey Gardens, The Good Body, Drowning Crow, They're Playing Our Song, The Elephant Man, My One and Only, The Heidi Chronicles, Four Baboons Adoring the Sun, The Will Rogers Follies, Having Our Say, Company, Racing Demon, Steel Pier, Ragtime, Freak, The Capeman, Amy's View, The Civil War, Putting It Together and Vincent in Brixton. In 1993, Ms. Harrington designed the projections for the award-winning The Who's Tommy on Broadway, which toured the U.S. in 1994, and has had productions in Toronto, London and Frankfurt, Germany.

Additional theatrical projection credits include Old Hats and Angels in America O at the Signature Theatre, Amy's View at the National in London; The Civil War at the Alley and Broadway; Putting It Together at the Mark Taper Forum and Broadway; Golden Child at the Public Theater; Hapgood at Lincoln Center; Twelve Dreams at the Public Theatre, A Christmas Carol at the Paramount; Merrily We Roll Along (four times!) and the ill-fated Whistle Down the Wind.

She made her LA Opera debut in 2010 with projections for The Stigmatized, returning in 2014 as projection and scenic designer for Lucia di Lammermoor. Projection designs for opera elsewhere include Werther at the Metropolitan Opera, Julie Taymor’s staging of The Magic Flute in Florence, Italy, The Ghosts of Versailles, Rusalka, Nixon in China, Die tote Stadt, The Girl of the Golden West, Brundibar, A View from the Bridge, The Grapes of Wrath, The Juniper Tree, Morning Star, The Photographer, Transatlantic and Orpheo ed Euridice as well as sets and projections for Ricky Ian Gordon’s Rappahannock County.

Ballet designs include Anna Karenina, Opera, Pictures at an Exhibition, Cinderella and The Firebird for Alexei Ratmansky, Ballet Mécanique for Doug Varone and Dancers, Othello for ABT, The Nutcracker for San Francisco Ballet and a new Don Quixote for the Joffrey.

Concert work includes Songs of Innocence and Experience, William Bolcom’s setting of the Blake poems, The Talking Heads' “Stop Making Sense” tour, as well as tours for Simon & Garfunkel, Chris Rock and John Fogerty.

For her work in the theater, Ms. Harrington is the recipient of the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the American Theatre Wing Award, the TCI Award for Technical Achievement, the Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Projections and the Michael Merrit Award for Collaboration, Ruth Morely Design Award, USITT education award and Players Club Theatre person of the year

She directed and designed the world premiere of Doug Cuomo’s opera Arjuna’s Dilemma, as well as Snapshots, an evening of new string quartets and images.

She has written an adaptation of The Diary of Petr Ginz, to serve as an introduction to Brundibar, which has been presented by Opera Theatre of St Louis and the Palm Beach Opera, and is currently adapting Virginia Woolf’s Orlando for ballet.

Ms. Harrington’s work in the multi-image/video field includes the 1991 Words on Fire. This half-hour program, which she produced for PBS affiliate KTCA and Alive From Off Center, features six artists exploring their ideas of fire. Included in the eclectic mix are the cozy fireside warmth of the Tennessee poet Jo Carson, the urbane wit of Chris Durang, an excerpt from Fred Curchack’s incendiary one-man rendition of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, a feverish monologue by Todd Alcott, and steamy 16th-century erotic poetry seen through the filter of music and performance by Rinde Eckert.

During the mid-eighties, as design director of Esquire magazine, Ms. Harrington was responsible for the re-design and re-launch of the “Men’s Magazine of the 90’s.” Two years later, as editor-at-large for Esquire, she conceived and edited Randy Shilts’s “My Life on the AIDS Tour,” which was nominated for a National Magazine Award and published in Best American Essays of 1990.

In 1979 she founded Luminous Productions, Inc. where for six years she produced and directed multi-image and video projects for numerous corporate clients. “The Multi-Image Murders” and “Fifty Who Made the Difference” won several awards, including Gold Awards from IFPA, The Chicago Film Festival and the U.S. Industrial Film Festival.

Ms Harrington lectures widely on the art of Projection design and is the head of the MFA program in Projection Design at the Yale School of Drama.

Learn more at WendallHarrington.com.