LETTERS AND THE LOST VOICES OF THE WOMEN IN WWI
Presented by The American Opera Project and The National WWI Museum and Memorial
MARCH 21, 2022 | 8pm ET
ONLINE

Moderated by Kelly Kennedy, Journalist / Managing Editor, The War Horse

PROGRAM ORDER

WELCOME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lora Vogt and Mila Henry

Lora Vogt — Curator of Education and Interpretation, National WWI Museum and Memorial (Museum and Memorial)
Mila Henry — Artistic Director, The American Opera Project

The Dancers (poem by Edith Sitwell) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Video Presentation
from Letters That You Will Not Get: Women’s Voices from the Great War

Caitlin McKechney — Mezzo-Soprano
Ensemble: Maria Lindsey, Jessica Sandidge, Sarah Beckham-Turner, Briana Hunter, Angel Desai
String Quintet: Melissa Tong, Elena Moon Park, Andie Tanning, Meaghan Burke, Mimi Jones

Introduction of Museum and Memorial Letter Archive Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kelly Kennedy

Kelly Kennedy, Journalist / Managing Editor, The War Horse

Letters of Clara and Alice Wrasse, excerpt #1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Angel Desai

Angel Desai — Actor, Musician and Activist

Letters of Clara and Alice Wrasse, excerpt #2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tesia Kwarteng

Tesia Kwarteng — Mezzo-Soprano, Actor, and Voiceover Artist

War Girls (poem by Jessie Pope) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Video Presentation
from Letters That You Will Not Get: Women’s Voices from the Great War

Ensemble: Maria Lindsey, Caitlin McKechney, Jessica Sandidge, Sarah Beckham-Turner, Briana Hunter, Angel Desai
String Quintet: Melissa Tong, Elena Moon Park, Andie Tanning, Meaghan Burke, Mimi Jones

Letter of Selah (surname unknown) from Pine, Colorado . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Angel Desai

Angel Desai — Actor, Musician and Activist

Introduction of Letters That You Will Not Get: Women’s Voices from the Great War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kelly Kennedy

Kelly Kennedy, Journalist / Managing Editor, The War Horse

REMARKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jennifer Orth-Veillon

Jennifer Orth-Veillon — Scholar, Curator of the WWrite Blog

Diary entry of Alta May Andrews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tesia Kwarteng

Tesia Kwarteng — Mezzo-Soprano, Actor, and Voiceover Artist

The Gift of India (poem by Sarojini Naidu) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Video Presentation
from Letters That You Will Not Get: Women’s Voices from the Great War

Angel Desai, Soprano
String Quintet: Melissa Tong, Elena Moon Park, Andie Tanning, Meaghan Burke, Mimi Jones

CLOSING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kelly Kennedy

Kelly Kennedy — Journalist / Managing Editor, The War Horse

Q & A SEGMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . All

Kelly Kennedy — Journalist / Managing Editor, The War Horse
Jennifer Orth-Veillon — Scholar, Curator of the WWrite Blog
Kirsten Volness — Composer, Letters That You Will Not Get: Women’s Voices from the Great War
Susan Werbe — Co-librettist and Dramaturg, Letters That You Will Not Get: Women’s Voices from the Great War
Lora Vogt — Curator of Education and Interpretation, National WWI Museum and Memorial

FEATURED ARTISTS

LETTERS AND THE LOST VOICES OF WWI TEAM

Kelly Kennedy Moderator
Jennifer Orth-Veillon Keynote Speaker
Lora Vogt National WWI Museum and Memorial's Curator of Education and Interpretation
Mila Henry The American Opera Project’s Artistic Director

PRODUCTION

Emitha, LLC Production Services

LETTERS THAT YOU WILL NOT GET CREATIVE TEAM

Kirsten Volness Composer
Susan Werbe Co-librettist and Dramaturg
Kate Holland Co-librettist
Caitlin McKechney Associate Producer
Lesley Steele Video direction, Editing and 16mm Cinematography
Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn Audio Engineering
Chris Comfort Additional Audio/Video Recording

ARTISTS INCLUDE:
Maria Lindsey / soprano
Jessica Sandidge / soprano
Sarah Beckham-Turner / soprano
Caitlin McKechney / mezzo-soprano
Briana Hunter / mezzo-soprano
Angel Desai / mezzo-soprano

Melissa Tong / Violin I
Elena Moon Park / Violin II
Andie Tanning / Viola
Meaghan Burke / cello
Mimi Jones / Double Bass

Letters That You Will Not Get videos were filmed on location in artists' homes

Presented by The American Opera Project and the National WWI Museum and Memorial

ABOUT LETTERS THAT YOU WILL NOT GET

Letters That You Will Not Get: Women's Voices from the Great War, a chamber opera by Kirsten Volness, Kate Holland, and Susan Werbe, gives voice to American, British, European, Asian, African and Caribbean women affected by WWI through a series of vignettes that share their responses to the war—from enthusiasm to resignation; support to opposition; the war’s beginning to its end. Combining powerful contemporary music with excerpts from women’s writings on both sides of the conflict, Letters tells the story of the Great War as experienced by the women who lived through it.    
www.aopopera.org/letters

ABOUT THE AMERICAN OPERA PROJECT

Founded in 1988, The American Opera Project (AOP) has been at the forefront of contemporary opera for over 30 years. AOP's mission is to develop and present new and innovative works of lyric theater, provide a creative home to emerging and established artists, and engage contemporary communities in a transformative operatic experience. Its works have received critical acclaim at opera companies and venues around the world, establishing a new musical canon that recognizes the operatic story in every life. AOP further expands the operatic field through its training programs The NYU Opera Lab, in partnership with NYU and for students and alumni in The NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, and C&V, AOP’s in-house, two-year fellowship program for emerging composers and librettists that provides experience writing for the voice and opera stage.
www.aopopera.org

ABOUT THE NATIONAL WWI MUSEUM AND MEMORIAL

The National WWI Museum and Memorial is America's leading institution dedicated to remembering, interpreting and understanding the Great War and its enduring impact on the global community. The Museum and Memorial fulfills its mission by maintaining the Liberty Memorial as a beacon of freedom and a symbol of the courage, patriotism, sacrifice, and honor of all who served in World War I; Interpreting the history of World War I to encourage public involvement and informed decision-making; Providing exhibitions and educational programs that engage diverse audiences; Collecting and preserving historical materials with the highest professional standards.
www.theworldwar.org/

The development of Letters That You Will Not Get: Women's Voices from the Great War is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. Recording of the 2022 World Premiere of Letters is made possible in part by the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University.

Letters That You Will Not Get is made possible through the generous leadership gifts of Lauren Adelman, Carrie Baldwin-Sayre, John Bates, Christina Bott Murphy, Marni Davis, Pegeen Rubinstein, Barbara Suter, Jean Telljohann, Denise VanLeuven, and the late Honorable Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

STAFF

Matt Gray General Director
Mila Henry Artistic Director 
Meagan Brus Director of Marketing and Communications
Takesha Meshé Kizart-Thomas Director of Development
Joel Kalow Associate General Manager
Charles Jarden Director of Strategic Planning 
Yuriko Shibata Administrative Assistant
Rosamund Dyer Administrative Assistant
Jay St. Flono Administrative Assistant
Naomi Ramirez Accounting Consultant
W. Wilson Jones Resident Production Stage Manager and Database Administrator
Caitlin Mead Grant Writer
Alexa Dexa Grant Writer
Adrienne Danrich Executive Producer and Creator of Music as the Message original series

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Anthony Roth Costanzo, Sarah Moulton Faux, J. David Jackson, Charles Jarden, W. Wilson Jones, Mark Kalow, Emily Manzo, Christina B. Murphy, Kevin R. Myers (President), Norman Ryan

ARTISTIC ADVISORY COUNCIL

Mark Campbell, Thom Collins, Sasha Cooke, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Alexandra Enyart, Susan Gonzalez, Briana Hunter, J. David Jackson, Laura Kaminsky (Chair), Jessie Montgomery, David Michalek, Ravi Rajan, Kimberly Reed, Huang Ruo, Craig Zobel

The American Opera Project’s current season is made possible by generous support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, Amphion Foundation, The BMI Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

AOP is a member of OPERA America, Fort Greene Association, the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance, the New York Opera Alliance, and Alliance of Resident Theatres/ New York (A.R.T./NY).

The American Opera Project (American Opera Projects, Inc.) is an IRS recognized 501(c)3 non-profit corporation.