Elizabeth Clark’s “Seeds Under Nuclear Winter: An Earth Opera” returns to the Widow Jane Mine August 26 and 27th, Rosendale, NY

~A community of 31 Hudson Valley Artists come together to recreate lucid dreams and spiritual visions through performance art and music~

Elizabeth Clark’s “Seeds Under Nuclear Winter: An Earth Opera” returns to the Widow Jane Mine Theater, on August 26 and 27, at 3 PM both days.

 

The Widow Jane Mine is at 668 Route 213, Rosendale, NY. The venue phone is 845-658-9900.  The website is CenturyHouse.org. Tickets can be purchased at www.centuryhouse.org/events-2023/

 

Composer, producer, harpist/vocalist Elizabeth Clark says “‘The Earth Opera’ has evolved quite a bit since it premiered last summer. We are deepening the story this year with an incredibly talented and expanded cast and elaborating upon the work with additional scenes, songs, and dreams.” 

 

“Seeds Under Nuclear Winter: An Earth Opera” is a recreation of spiritual visions, dreams, and stories through world and sacred music, performance art, movement, and light experiments, shared within an immersive and multi-sensory community experience. The theme centers on “finding light and beauty in the darkest times, remembering how connected we all are to each other” says Elizabeth Clark, who wrote the opera while living in a tiny artists cottage in the forest at Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, Woodstock NY from 2019-2022.

 

Using world and modern sacred music, “Seeds Under Nuclear Winter” offers sounds and visions of otherworldly realms that unfold in a non-linear and timeless path, similar to the way we dream. Ms. Clark's “Earth Opera” combines an immersive experience from many creative disciplines including music, performance art, and movement, as well as experiments with light and audience interaction.

 

The “Earth Opera” includes an ensemble of 31 incredibly diverse Hudson Valley musicians, dancers, choreographers, actors, visual and performance artists. Elizabeth orchestrated the score for a world music “pit” orchestra of harps, piano, ethereal choral voices, Native American/Andean flutes and traditional instruments, Indonesian gamelan, chamber strings, drones and harmoniums, hammered dulcimer, French horn, waterphone, gongs, and frame drums.

 

Over 500 people attended performances of “Seeds Under Nuclear Winter: An Earth Opera” in 2022. Clark wrote the opera to be performed site-specifically within the Widow Jane Mine and describes the space as “ ….A pre-built post-apocalyptic set, complete with its own microclimate. It’s like being in an earth womb.”

 

Audiences praised: “So beautiful, transcendent, and healing" and “Sacred moments of pain and hope for the light....a celebration of our universal humanity. You took us on a journey."  

Noted author, playwright/director, and poet IONE (creative partner/spouse of composer Pauline Oliveros) writes: “A gifted harpist and vocalist, Elizabeth has created a rich, mythic tableau that brings forth potent musical stories, revealing the needs and longings of an entire community.” Woodstock-area Renaissance man (musician, archivist, writer) Robert Burke Warren said the show was “Breathtaking... Truly transcendent, moving, like a very intense dream from which I did not wish to awaken. It put me directly in touch with that part of me: the dreaming part, the deeper, truer part.”

 

 Financial support comes from a Community Arts Grant through Arts Mid-Hudson, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, in community partnership/fiscally-sponsored by the Ministry of Maat.   

 

ELIZABETH CLARK is a composer, harpist, pianist, vocalist, healing artist and humanitarian native to the Hudson Valley region. Bringing together elements of early, sacred, and world music with contemporary minimalism, she creates modern-day sacred music for world instruments and voices. Performing solo as well as with her ever-evolving world music project ‘Mamalama’, she employs interdisciplinary art forms in performance, exploring music as a form of sung prayer and a way of healing.  An artist-in-residence at Byrdcliffe Artists Colony from 2019-2022 where she composed and developed "Seeds Under Nuclear Winter: An Earth Opera", she also performs at many theaters, festivals, retreat centers,  and sanctuaries throughout North America including The Omega Institute, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM), Kripalu Center for Yoga, Deep Listening Space, and at the United Nations. She has composed music for film, dance, and puppet theater. Elizabeth is also a composer/songwriter with the Hudson Valley non-profit organization Sagearts, collaborating on many original, life-reflective songs with local elders. Her musical work with elderly Holocaust survivors is part of the 2022 documentary PBS Special “We Remember: Songs of Survivors.”   www.mamalamamusic.com

Full Hudson Valley Performances of Elizabeth Clark’s “Seeds Under Nuclear Winter: An Earth Opera” August 27 & 28, September 23, 24, 25 Multi-Hyphenate World & Sacred Music Composer AKA Mamalama

The first performances of "Seeds Under Nuclear Winter: An Earth Opera," in its entirety, takes place this summer and early fall in New York State's beautiful Hudson Valley.   

 

Confirmed performance dates are

August 27 & 28 at the Widow Jane Mine Theater, Rosendale, NY 

September 23, 24, 25 at the Byrdcliff Theater, Woodstock, NY  

"Seeds Under Nuclear Winter: An Earth Opera" shows stories of rebirth in a post-apocalyptic atmosphere. The theme centers on “finding light and beauty in the darkest times, and remembering how connected we all are to each other,” says Elizabeth Clark, composer/producer/performer of this immersive theater/performance art. 

Using world and modern sacred music, “Seeds Under Nuclear Winter” offers sounds and visions of otherworldly realms that unfold in a non-linear and timeless path similar to the way we dream.  Ms. Clark's 'Earth Opera' combines an immersive experience from many creative disciplines including music, performance art, and movement, as well as experiments with light and audience interaction. 

The 'Earth Opera' includes an ensemble of 25 incredibly diverse Hudson Valley musicians, dancers, choreographers, actors, visual and performance artists.  Elizabeth orchestrated the Earth Opera's score for a world music 'pit' orchestra of harps, piano, ethereal choral voices, Native American/Andean flutes and traditional instruments, Indonesian gamelan, chamber strings, droning harmoniums, hammered dulcimer, French horn, wind chimes, and frame drums. 
 

Over 500 people came to the two 2021 performances of excerpts from “Seeds Under Nuclear Winter: An Earth Opera” at Rosendale, NY’s Widow Jane Mine Theater. Ms. Clark describes that venue like “an earth womb.” Audiences praised: ”So beautiful, and healing" and “Sacred moments of pain and hope for the light....a celebration of our universal humanity. You took us on a journey." 

 

Elizabeth Clark is a composer, harpist, pianist, vocalist, poet, performing artist, and humanitarian, native to the Hudson Valley region. Her ever-evolving sacred and world music project is called “Mamalama” and manifests itself with interdisciplinary art forms in performance. “I see my exploration of music as a form of sung prayer and a way of healing,” she says. 

 

She has performed a variety of solo and group performances and special presentations at many theaters, festivals, retreat centers, listening rooms, and sanctuaries throughout the Northeast including The Omega Institute, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, Kripalu Center for Yoga, Deep Listening Space Dream Festival, Bearsville Theater, The Colony, Levon Helm Studios (with Elizabeth Mitchell and Friends), at the United Nations, and others. She has spent many years offering live harp/vocal music at the bedside for those on hospice care. Elizabeth is also a composer/songwriter with the Hudson Valley non-profit organization Sagearts, collaborating on many original, life-reflective songs with local elders. Her work is part of the 2022 documentary PBS Special “We Remember: Songs of Survivors.”   

 

August 27 & 28 at the Widow Jane Mine Theater, 668 Route 213, Rosendale, NY, 3 pm,  845-658-9900  CenturyHouse.org

September 23, 24, 25 at the Byrdcliffe Theater, 34 Tinker Street, Woodstock, NY   845-679-2079  WoodstockGuild.org

NYS Music In Motion - John Hall Interview

Set up a reminder to listen to an interview with John Hall from @TheBandOrleans by @NYStateMusic. The interview broadcasts on the 5th of November. https://youtu.be/C4yKUQiNsMc via @YouTube

South Africa's Number One Flautist Wouter Kellerman To Tour The United States, July 26-August 12

"Wouter" pronounced "VO-ter."

In-Person Media opps available in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York City, Woodstock, Boston, Southern California, Las Vegas

After wowing audiences at SXSW in 2010 and 2011, South Africa’s Top Flautist Wouter Kellerman returns to the United States this July and August. Shows include dates at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage July 26, Summerstage and Joe’s Pub in New York City on August 6 and 7. These shows, in particular, were booked by Wouter and his manager Tholsi Pillay from their homebase in Johannesburg, South Africa. More shows are being scheduled now along the East coast, in Las Vegas, and Southern California.

Wouter’s album “Two Voices” won the 2011 SAMA (South African Music Award, the SA equivalent of the Grammy) for “Best Instrumental Album,” and reinforces his status as one of South Africa’s foremost musicians. Inspired by styles and cultures drawn from South Africa and around the world, Wouter Kellerman takes his listener on a musical journey through African, Latin, jazz and Celtic sounds, with classical inflections.

His debut album, “Colour,” enjoyed rave reviews, topped the charts and was nominated for a 2008 SAMA for “Best Instrumental Album.” His DVD “Kellerman Colour Live” won the 2010 SAMA for “Best Jazz/Instrumental/Popular Classical DVD.”

In March 2010 and 2011 he performed at the South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival in Austin, in Texas. SXSW is the biggest music festival in the USA. Wouter’s flute-playing can be heard on the soundtrack of the Emmy Award-winning film “Eye of the Leopard.” His albums “Colour” and “Two Voices” were mixed in Los Angeles by Grammy-winning engineer Husky Hoskulds.

In 2010 Wouter performed at the FIFA Soccer World Cup Closing Ceremony for a global TV audience of 700 million people, followed by Concerts at the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz festival in Johannesburg and two performances at the Shanghai World Expo, China.

Passionate about teaching and empowering young people, Kellerman has sponsored the living expenses of 10 children in the SOS Children’s Village in Ennerdale for the past 14 years, and also financed the building of a house in the SOS Children’s Village in Rustenburg. For his continued efforts in helping give these children a better life, Kellerman was nominated by the SOS Children’s Villages for the Inyathelo Special Recognition Award for Philanthropy. He continues to facilitate the teaching of young dance and music students.

Wouter Kellerman started playing the flute at the age of 10, and in 1981 appeared as a soloist with the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra. He went on to feature in several South African orchestras, scooping musical accolades along the way. Among these was winning the Perrenoud Foundation Prize during the 1997 Vienna International Music Competition.

Using his classical training as a foundation, Wouter focuses his attention on world music, exploring the versatility of the instrument and fusing classical and contemporary sounds, resulting in a potent and thrilling musical encounter. He is taking his crossover world music to a global audience, having gained a solid following in South Africa. He has already released the album in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and most recently in Australia, where he combined his release with a nationwide tour, which included a support slot on Johnny Clegg’s Down Under tour.

WOUTER KELLERMAN CONFIRMED TOURDATES
July 26: The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, Washington DC
July 27: North East Jazz & Wine Festival, Syracuse, NY
August 3: The Lily Pad, Cambridge, MA
August 4: Harmony, Woodstock, NY
August 6: Summerstage, Marcus Garvey Park, New York City, NY
August 7: Joe’s Pub, New York City, NY
August 9: Hotel Cafe, Los Angeles, CA
August 10: Caesars Palace, National Flute Convention

###Wouter Kellerman's "Mama Tembu"