Offstage, On-Air with Miriam Gordon-Stewart, Sept 11
Offstage, On-Air is a weekly show highlighting central Virginia’s vibrant classical music community. Each week you’ll hear conversations with local classical musicians, learn about upcoming concerts, and enjoy artist-curated playlists. Tune in Sunday from noon to 1:00pm here on WTJU (91.1 FM and streaming at wtju.net) This week’s guest will be Miriam Gordon-Stewart, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Victory Hall Opera. She will chat with WTJU classical host Xavier Taylor about the upcoming VHO season and a special season-opening concert on Saturday, September 24.
This one-night-only performance is called ‘Love the Color of Your Butterfly‘ and features Janinah Burnett, VHO Founding Troupe member and star of both Broadway and the Metropolitan Opera stages. She’ll be accompanied by a band of Grammy-winning jazz all-stars in an intimate program that marries jazz and opera, in what Janinah has coined “Clazz”. Inspired by her father – legendary jazz drummer Carl Burnett – and the supportive words of her mother, Imani Constance (“you can’t be another butterfly, you have to love the color of your butterfly”), Janinah explore the boundless musical elements of her life and career in this deeply personal performance.
Victory Hall Opera is in its seventh season of bringing cutting-edge, thrilling chamber opera to Charlottesville. In their first seven years, they have created 26 original productions, five of them world premieres, and pioneered a new model for opera companies, comprised of a troupe of exceptional singers working together to advance their art form. Audiences in central Virginia have come to appreciate the inventiveness and imagination that Victory Hall brings to each of their productions.
