AOP Makes the NYTimes “Best Of” list for the 2nd Year in a Row with OUT COLD

“Out Cold” continues to gather great reviews and is now showing up on some best of the year lists!

The New York Times‘s Vivien Schweitzer named Out Cold one of six “performances that have stuck with me through the year” :

“…the vocalist Theo Bleckmann offered a vivid portrayal of the lovelorn protagonist of “Out Cold,” Phil Kline’s alluring new monodrama, which received its premiere there in October with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble. Mr. Bleckmann proved equally arresting in an arrangement of Mr. Kline’s “Zippo Songs.” FULL ARTICLE

Out Cold was also one of the top five best of 2012 in WQXR‘s year-end round up:

“In the BAM world premiere of Kline’s Schubert-meets-Sinatra song cycle, Bleckmann conjured Buster Keaton’s melancholy and Fred Astaire’s grace, transforming a black-box theater with a few café tables into a world as vast as a lover’s hopes and as stifling as regret. Directed by Emma Griffin and backed by the splendid American Contemporary Music Ensemble, he sang with sweetness, clarity, and self-lacerating woe. His performance of Kline’s Zippo Songs, a post-modern classic, was no less shattering. DVD, please, and soon.” FULL ARTICLE

And The Brooklyn Rail weighed in by choosing us as one of the best in this year’s BAM NextWave Festival:

“…a wonderful evening of music from Phil Kline with singer Theo Bleckmann, Kline’s great “Three Rumsfeld Songs” and “Zippo Songs” and a new set, “Out Cold,” all either written or orchestrated for ACME, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble. From the moment Bleckmann, in a suit, stood on top of a television and sang, “As we know, there are known knowns,” the whole performance, with smart staging from Emma Griffin, was as gripping and entertaining as a thriller. Kline’s music and original lyrics for “Out Cold” combine the aesthetic profundity of the art song with the succinct clarity of pop music, and the social and political message is more powerful for his light touch.” FULL ARTICLE

For a complete list of reviews for our Out Cold/Zippo Songs performance at BAM this past October, visit the OUT COLD page on the AOP website.

AOP receives NEA grant to develop, present “HARRIET TUBMAN” in 2013

$15,000 grant to fund presentations of new musical work by composer Nkeiru Okoye based on the life of Harriet Tubman, hero of the Underground Railroad, on 100th anniversary of her death.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman announced last week that AOP is one of 832 non-profit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. AOP is recommended for a $15,000 grant to support the creation, development and presentation of Nkeiru Okoye‘s folk opera Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom, during 2013, the 100th anniversary year of Tubman’s death and the 150th anniversary of The Emancipation Proclamation. Performances of the opera will occur in states along the Underground Railroad where Tubman was active.

“I’m proud to announce these 832 grants to the American public including AOP’s Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom,” said Chairman Landesman.  “These projects offer extraordinary examples of creativity in our country, including the creation of new work, innovative ways of engaging audiences, and exemplary education programs.”

Charles Jarden, General Director of AOP, states “AOP is grateful to the NEA for their support of new work, especially new opera.  Harriet Tubman is the fourth AOP opera in four years to receive NEA funds.  With the aid of this generous support AOP has launched four stylistically different, artistically excellent projects that have had and will continue for many years to have an impact on citizens of our county. AOP commissioned Nkeiru Okoye for songs  in our I HEAR AMERICA SINGING program, through funds from New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs, and we witnessed the powerful impact of her music on the general public when we performed them in various inner city locations.  We are thrilled to be working with Nkeiru on her first opera and her choice of the Tubman story is perfect for AOP, a Brooklyn-based opera company.”

In March 2012, the NEA received 1,509 eligible applications for Art Works requesting more than $74 million in funding. The 832 recommended NEA grants total $22.3 million, span 13 artistic disciplines and fields, and focus primarily on the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing works for the benefit of American audiences. Applications were reviewed by panels of outside experts convened by NEA staff and each project was judged on its artistic excellence and artistic merit.

As part of AOP First Chance, a public workshop series for developing new opera and music-theater works, music from Harriet Tubman has been presented at several New York City venues including Galapagos Art Space and the Brooklyn Public Library. It has also received libretto development in closed workshop sessions at AOP.

For a complete listing of projects recommended for Art Works grant support, please visit the NEA website at arts.gov