A $15,000 grant awarded last yr to the Cal Country San Bernardino Department of Music has immune the CSUSB Opera Theatre to create and release "New Frontiers: Multimedia Monodramas," a series of multidisciplinary, multimedia monodramas and arts events focusing on aspects of new frontiers, California, diverseness, women and the idea of the West.

The Grants for Arts Project, awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, has helped CSUSB recently create two full-length works this leap semester: "Why Women Went West: I Mary, Mary by Herself," which premiered at Cal Country Fullerton in February, and "The New Borderland: An Atomic Historic period Jazz Opera," which volition premiere at CSUSB on Thursday, March 24, at 7:thirty p.1000. in the Performing Arts Recital Hall. These shows volition also exist shown in other venues throughout California and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

"We are very excited to be producing these NEA winning works, both at CSUSB and CSU Fullerton," said Stacey Fraser, CSUSB professor of music, soprano and the projection director.

The monodramas are among the more than 1,100 projects beyond America totaling near $27 1000000 that were selected during a second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2021 funding. They are produced by Cal Country San Bernardino and Cal State Fullerton in clan with the Across Opera Commonage, with funds awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, California State University and the Gimmicky Irish Arts Eye of Los Angeles (CIACLA).

The get-go opera, "Why Women Went Due west: I Mary, Mary By Herself," was presented on February. 25 with Fraser and the Grammy-nominated and winning players of Brightwork newmusic Los Angeles as part of the Cal State Fullerton New Music Festival. Exploring controversies over human rights, water wars, early on 20th century feminist creative person communities, "Why Women Went Due west" celebrates writer Mary Hunter Austin's quest for the American Southwest. The multimedia monodrama was created by composer Pamela Madsen, with librettist/video artist Quintan Ana Wikswo for Brightwork newmusic, and Fraser, every bit the projection initiator/director and soprano.

The second opera, "The New Frontier," which premieres at CSUSB on March 24, is a tragic chamber opera exploring aspects and characters of the Common cold War era in the U.South. Composer Jack Van Zandt, poet-librettist Jill Freeman and Fraser, once more every bit the projection initiator/manager and soprano, team up with an ensemble led by Grammy-winning pianist Nadia Shpachenko to create a piece that focuses on aspects of life of women activists and pioneers against the backdrop of the diminutive flop and the daily Cold War threat of nuclear annihilation during the 1950s and 1960s.

"Jack'southward music and Jill's words are amazing," Fraser said, noting that the opera "comes at a poignant time."

"The piece revolves effectually the discovery of the splitting of the atom and the threat of nuclear war, something that is on our minds once more in 2022 as we come across the frightening events unfolding in Ukraine," she explained. "Our music director, Grammy-winning pianist Nadia Shpachenko, was in fact born in Ukraine and much of her family are even so in that location. We are of course thinking of her family and all the people suffering as a result of this terrible disharmonize."

Theatrical action is conveyed through Fraser bold a different character for "singing" each of the separate songs on the jazz-like set up listing, with a wide-ranging number of emotions and musical formats. The order is sequenced to tell the story and explore the feel of the period with music of many dissimilar emotional qualities. The characters include 1930s physicist Lise Meitner, a teacher instructing her class in Duck and Cover drills, the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, a fallout shelter saleswoman appropriating the linguistic communication of hipsters for her sales pitch, a fictional survivor of an atomic war describing the nuclear wintertime she lives in, a scientist light-headed from observing the pyrotechnics of hydrogen flop explosions, and Expiry happily dancing with The Flop.

"The piece is a great challenge for me, both vocally and artistically as the music calls for the integration of an operatic technique with a jazz mode," Fraser said.

Terry Donovan Smith, CSUSB department chair of theatre arts, serves as the phase managing director, Andre D. Harrington, CSUSB professor of theatre arts, serves as the costume designer, and Jason Isle of mann, CSUSB associate professor of theatre arts, serves as the lighting and projection designer.

"I am having lots of fun with information technology, and making music with these superstars is an unbelievable opportunity," said Fraser. "The artistic direction past Terry is genius and the design team is doing fantastic work."

For tickets to "The New Frontier: An Diminutive Age Jazz Opera," visit the CSUSB Department of Music's website.

Visit the CSUSB Opera Theatre website to learn more than about the program.

For more than data about the National Endowment for the Arts, visit the NEA website.