ADMISSION:
Admission is free. Reservations required. RSVP beginning Wednesday, December 7, at 9 a.m.

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DESCRIPTION:
“A masterpiece. Hopscotch has broken the fourth wall with a vengeance.”
—The Wall Street Journal

Hopscotch, the first-ever “mobile opera”—performed in cars and at iconic L.A. sites in 2015—has completely altered how we think about opera. Hear from Hopscotch composers, director Yuval Sharon, and the people behind The Industry, the independent artist-driven company that made Hopscotch, in a fascinating conversation with arts journalists about producing live performing arts in L.A.’s public spaces, and listening to the music of an opera outside of its original context. Panelists include composers Veronika Krausas and Marc Lowenstein, Yuval Sharon and Elizabeth Cline of The Industry, and arts journalists Mark Swed and Sasha Anawalt (moderator).

Participant Bios:

Sasha Anawalt, an associate professor and the director of the MA in Arts Journalism Program at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, is an acclaimed critic, writer, and media entrepreneur. She was chief dance critic for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, LA Weekly, and KCRW, and is the author of The Joffrey Ballet: Robert Joffrey and the Making of an American Dance Company, called a “milestone in dance writing” by the New York Times. (Twitter)

Elizabeth Cline is the executive director of The Industry. She was previously the assistant director at Machine Project and a curatorial associate at the Hammer Museum. Her first opera, Tragedy on the Sea Nymph, starring an all-dog cast, premiered in 2010. In 2013, her chamber opera The Edge of Forever was performed by wild Up at The Philosophical Research Society.

Veronika Krausas, known for her innovative use of dance, acrobatics, and video,  was one of six composers involved in Hopscotch. She is a professor in the Composition Department at the USC Thornton School of Music. 

Marc Lowenstein, the music director of The Industry, has conducted the premieres of new operas including The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth, Dice Thrown, The Scarlet Letter, The Peach Blossom Fan, and WET. He has conducted for the New York City Opera’s VOX new-music festival and the Monday Evening Concerts series. Lowenstein was the founder and music director of the Berkeley Contemporary Opera.

Yuval Sharon, The Industry’s founder and artistic director, is the recipient of the 2014 Götz Friedrich Prize for his acclaimed production of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic. At The Industry, he has directed Anne LeBaron’s Crescent City; Christopher Cerrone’s award-winning Invisible Cities, which took place at Union Station; and Hopscotch. He directed a landmark production of John Cage’s Song Books at the San Francisco Symphony and Carnegie Hall, as well as Peter Eötvös’s Three Sisters for the Vienna State Opera. He has just begun a three-year residency with the L.A. Philharmonic. (Vimeo)

Mark Swed has been the classical-music critic of the Los Angeles Times since 1996. Before that, he was a music critic for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and The Wall Street Journal. He has also written extensively for international publications. Swed is the author of the book-length text to the best-selling iPad app The Orchestra and a former editor of Musical Quarterly. He was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in criticism. He is currently working on a book on John Cage. (Twitter)

Related Event:
Hopscotch in Concert
Friday, January 20, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
Alfred Newman Recital Hall
For more info, click here.

Additional Links:
The Industry Facebook
DanceMapLA Facebook, Twitter
Formalist Quartet Twitter

Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative. Organized by Sasha Anawalt (Arts Journalism) and Veronika Krausas (Music).