The Kalamazoo Philharmonia will collaborate with the West Michigan Opera Project to present another concert featuring “Susannah,” an opera from American composer Carlisle Floyd.
The opera is set in the mid-20th Century in the rural south amidst a small, tightly-knit religious community. Susannah does something she sees as harmless that scandalizes her peers. The charges against her grow into lies, yet the more she tries to defend herself, the more convinced everyone is of her guilt. “Susannah” asks important questions that resonated in the McCarthy Trial era involving how we condemn others, the righteousness of accusers and what we recognize as truth.
The concert takes place at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10, in Dalton Theater, Light Fine Arts Building. Tickets for the Kalamazoo performance are available at the door, and cost $5 for adults and seniors and $2 for students. Kalamazoo College students will be admitted free with a College ID.
The Philharmonia, directed by Kalamazoo College Associate Professor of Music Andrew Koehler, is an orchestra of Kalamazoo College and the community. The group brings together students, faculty and amateur and professional musicians. The group won the 2014 American Prize Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award for Orchestral Programming and has produced several CDs. It also has appeared on “CBS Sunday Morning,” and collaborated with the Bach Festival Chorus, as well as many renowned soloists. Listen to some of its recorded concerts at our website or listen to Koehler’s interview with WMUK regarding these concerts.
The West Michigan Opera Project of Grand Rapids is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing unprecedented workshop and performance opportunities to singers of all ages and is dedicated to educational outreach, as well as community enrichment. For more information about this organization, visit its website.
For more information about the concert, call the Music Department at 269.337.7070 or email Susan.Lawrence@kzoo.edu.