Welcome
OUR 2018 OPERA!
AUDITIONS: October 14, 15, 21, and 22, 2017
PERFORMANCES: March 17, 18, 24, and 25, 2018
Be part of the excitement: the first-ever production of WEEDPATCH!
This NCFO commission, with music by Stanford University’s Paul Phillips, and book and libretto by Grammy-winning storyteller Bill Harley, is based on the historical Weedpatch Camp, built and run by Okies who had traveled west and were shunned by the settled Californians.
Audition information will be posted on the website in late September. To receive audition notices, sign up on the NCFO mailing list by clicking HERE.
»
2017 Science Festival Chorus
Many thanks to our chorus and audience
for three successful performances!
Directed by Laura Backley
THREE FREE PERFORMANCES
during the two weekends of the Cambridge Science Festival
| Saturday April 15, 2017 at 3:00pm at the Peabody School, 70 Rindge Ave., Cambridge | |
| Saturday April 22, 2017 at 5:00pm at the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard, 415 Main St., Cambridge | |
| Sunday April 23, 2017 at 4:00pm at the Museum of Science, Boston | |
Peruse/download the program booklet for these performances
Once again, the North Cambridge Family Opera Science Festival Chorus presented a program of science songs at the 2017 Cambridge Science Festival in April. This year's production was a series of songs on the theme of weather and climate and covered topics as diverse as rain (including weird weather, like raining frogs!), tornadoes, the ozone hole (it's getting smaller--yay!), ocean level rise, the original climate change scientists (Fourier, Arrhenius, and Keeling), and the distinctions between weather and climate.
Singin' of the Rain comprises 19 songs by ten contemporary composers, including David Haines, who has been featured prominently in many of our previous Science Festival Choruses, plus Leo Hurley, Dan Kallman, Bruce Lazarus, and Lauren Mayer; as well as local composers Andrea Gaudette, Ruth Hertzman-Miller, Tim Maurice, and first-time locals Molly Ruggles and Stanley Sagov. The program also included a medley of songs composed by Cambridge Public School students under the direction of David Haines, as part of David's CPS Songwriting Workshops. The entire program was accompanyied by a slideshow of song lyrics and children's artwork.
Audio recordings of the performances, with and without video of the accompanying slideshow, can be found here, along with information about the composers and lyricists who contributed to the program.
»
Commission Competition
We are pleased to announce the winner of our family opera commission competition: Weedpatch, by composer Paul Phillips, book and lyrics by Bill Harley. Weedpatch is loosely based on historical accounts of Oklahomans who immigrated to California’s Central Valley in the 1930s. Funding for Weedpatch has been made possible by the Puffin Foundation.
We are always interested in hearing about new operas or entirely-sung musicals which might be suitable for our group. Please click here for more details of what we are looking for in the way of a "family opera."
»
»