DIGITAL PROGRAM FOR SUCKTION: AN OPERATIC MONODRAMA

Artist Bios and Libretto

CREATIVE LEADS

Anne LeBaron

Composer

A Los Angeles-based experimentalist who is an innovative performer on the harp and a composer embracing unusual challenges, Anne LeBaron’s compositions have been performed around the globe. Venues in Italy, Mexico, Sydney, Vienna, Sweden, Kazakhstan, Russia, New York, Los Angeles, Italy, and elsewhere have programmed her works written for chamber ensemble, orchestra, opera, and chorus, and presented her as a performer. Major awards include the Alpert Award in the Arts, a Fromm Foundation commission, a Guggenheim, a Fulbright, and NEA grants. Her operas celebrate legendary female figures, such as Marie Laveau in "Crescent City." She is currently completing "LSD: Huxley’s Last Trip," an opera that includes many of the instruments built by Harry Partch. Her multi-year project, "The Heroine with a Thousand Faces," honors women across the globe with musical portraits. LeBaron taught in the Experimental Sound Practices and Music Composition Program at CalArts for twenty-two years.

Douglas Kearney

Librettist

Douglas Kearney has published eight books ranging from poetry to essays to libretti. His collection of Bagley Wright Lectures, Optic Subwoof, was awarded a CLMP and Pegasus Prize. Sho is a Griffin Poetry Prize and Minnesota Book Award winner, and a National Book Award, Pen America, Hurston/Wright, and Kingsley Tufts finalist. He is the 2021 recipient of OPERA America’s Campbell Opera Librettist Prize, created and generously funded by librettist/lyricist Mark Campbell. His operas include Sucktion, Mordake (“tragic, eerie, and at times wickedly funny”—SF360), Crescent City (“poetically rich” — The Los Angeles Times), Music Critics of North America’s Best Opera 2021, Sweet Land (“Mesmerizing” and “Visceral”— The Wall Street Journal; “Stern, yet colorful”—The New York Times; “Opera as astonishment” — The Los Angeles Times). The Comet / Poppea, commissioned by AMOC (American Modern Opera Company), premieres in 2024. He teaches Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities.

Alexander Gedeon
*Director*

**Alexander Gedeon** is a New York–based director and interdisciplinary performer working primarily in contemporary opera, music-theater and music video. His work spans the divide from pop to classical, and has been acclaimed as "provocative, visually stunning" and "a perfect, experimental approach to opera.” Credits include the music videos “Black Widow” and “Dame de la Lumière” for Grammy-winning vocalist Judith Hill; “Everything Rises” featuring Davóne Tines and violinist Jennifer Koh at the BAM Harvey (a New York Times Critic’s Pick); “Concerto for Having Fun with Elvis on Stage” at REDCAT; Sanctuaries at the Memorial Coliseum, Portland; and "La tragèdie de Carmen" at San Diego Opera. He has guest lectured on interdisciplinary performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, USC, UCLA and Harvard University. Alexander attended the Experimental Theater Wing at NYU, and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, London.

Marc Lowenstein
*Music Director*

**Marc Lowenstein** has been called “a terrific singer” (LA Times), an “assured conductor” (New York Times) and “raptly lyrical” (New Yorker). He is a founding member of the Industry, Los Angeles’ groundbreaking and widely acclaimed experimental opera company. With the Industry, he has served as Music Director for Raven Chacon and Du Yun’s *Sweet Land*, Anne LeBaron’s *Crescent City*, Christopher Cerrone’s *Invisible Cities*, Terry Riley’s *In C*, the collaborative opera Hopscotch, and more. Marc has served as Music Director and Conductor for leading new music presenters (such as LAPhil and Beth Morrison Projects), premiering works by John King, George Aperghis, Veronika Krausas, Stephen Oliver, Murray Schaeffer, Arnulf Hermann, Ted Hearne, Andrew Norman, Danielle Birrittella, John Cage, and Lou Harrison. Marc composes music infused with a searching sense of narrative and mysticism. In a previous incarnation as a tenor, Marc was an active performer of contemporary vocal music.

Lena Sands
*Scenographer*

**Lena Sands** is an award-winning costume designer for live performance, installation and film. She uses a variety of materials and methods to create bold and distinctive visuals, and collaborates with ensembles and communities to investigate bodies, histories, and the divine. Frequent collaborators, Sands and Gedeon’s work together includes NY Times Critic’s Pick, Everything Rises (Royce Hall, BAM), and the operetta of Dostoevsky’s The Double (Boston Court). Sands' works in new opera include Four Larks’ Hymns (Getty Villa) and Frankenstein (The Wallis), and Minute to Midnight at Opera America in June. Other notable costume designs are SITI company’s Bacchae (BAM, Guthrie, Getty Villa); Pat Benetar’s Invincible: The Musical (The Walls); CMPG’s Mariology (Mixed Blood Theater). Her work was displayed in Moscow for the exhibition “Innovative Costume of the 21st Century: The Next Generation.” Lena was a 2021 CTG Sherwood Award finalist. She teaches costume design at LA Mission College. MFA CalArts.

PERFORMERS

Laura Bohn
*Irona*

Soprano **Laura Bohn**, heralded as “an amazing blend of vocal splendor and physical virtuosity” (SF Chronicle) has been featured in performances with the LA Philharmonic, The Industry (LA), The Mostly Mozart Orchestra (NY), The Nederlandse Reisopera, Het Residentie Orkest (Netherlands), I Solisti del Vento (Belgium), Operadagen Rotterdam, Syracuse Opera (NY), West Edge Opera (CA), Festival Opera (CA), The Center for Contemporary Opera (NY), Dallas Opera, The Millennium Jazz Orchestra (NL), the Grand Harmonie Orchestra (MA) and Silbersee Opera (NL). A champion of living composers, Laura has enjoyed singing Anne LeBaron’s music for over 20 years, most recently the tour-de-force solo “DISH” and scenes from “LSD: Huxley’s Last Trip.” Upcoming projects include the lead in “The Silent Partner” (Seattle Opera/West Edge Opera) and “Lullaby” a one-woman opera written for her by Kamala Sankaram which will tour the Netherlands in '24-'25 including the Dutch National Opera Boekmanzaal.

Efraim Schulz-Wackerbarth
*Percussion*

**Efraim Schulz-Wackerbarth** (*1984) is an Australian-born German jazz drummer based in Amsterdam. His versatility, sensitivity to style, tight ensemble playing and improvisational skills make him a sought-after player with instrumentalists and singers alike and have led him to collaborate with musicians from around the globe. In March 2024 his debut album as a bandleader "Between Two Worlds" was released on renowned Dutch label Zennez Records. In 2022 Efraim recorded and performed with saxophone player Iman Spargaaren's album "Sly Fly". As a member of the band surrounding singer-songwriter Carly E. he recorded and performed her album Timeless Thoughts in Holland in 2018/2019. Efraim studied jazz drums at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Marcel Serierse and Martijn Vink, where he received his bachelor's degree in 2010. As part of his following Master's study he attended the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, where renowned drummer John Riley taught him. In June 2012 Efraim obtained his Masters's degree in Amsterdam. Efraim continues an active teaching schedule in his own private drum studio in Amsterdam.

James Waterman

Vibraphone

James Waterman (he/him/his) is a multifaceted percussionist, composer, songwriter, and teaching artist based in Los Angeles. He has regularly collaborated with prominent ensembles and organizations including Bridge to Everywhere, four larks, and Dhara, and has performed and premiered new works at venues such as SFJAZZ, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, The Getty Villa, REDCAT, and Carnegie Hall. James’s original compositions span from the stage to the screen, and include the original score for Sharine Atif’s award-winning film Jebel Banat (Festival de Cannes and Tribeca Film Festival). In 2022, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra premiered James's electro-acoustic composition "Lift to Return." As an arts educator, James has presented lectures at UCLA, USC, Loyola Marymount University, Chapman University, and CalArts. He is currently on faculty at Mount Saint Mary’s University and Glendale Community College, where he teaches courses in Music Education, Music Technology, instrumental music, applied percussion, and hand drumming.

Brody Scott
*Laptop*

**Brody Scott** is a performing saxophonist, artist, improviser and noise manipulator. Having come from a jazz background and having performed with the likes of Michael Formenek, Tim Berne, Ralph Alessi, and others, Brody’s compositional techniques sit at the extreme fringes of jazz language. His solo saxophone works experiment heavily with distortion and other effects to create new instrumental sounds which are distinctly “unsaxophonian,” even aiming to create an experience which is unearthly. This is combined with use of raw materials, field recording, radio, tape sampling, DAW composition, and low budget equipment to procure a DIY aesthetic which explores the dilapidation of sound. His compositions are primarily improvised, though he also creates Dada-inspired collages and paintings that function as scores as well. Brody’s music is released under the moniker ‘bes.’

CREATIVE/PRODUCTION TEAM

Elliot Menard

Producer

Elliot Menard is an opera-maker (a vocal performer, composer, producer, and grant writer). She is dedicated to bringing new opera-theater to life and exploring opera’s many forms. As a performer-composer, she explores how text allows music to emerge and the expressive range of the voice. She is currently developing [Orpheus], an opera that explores a personal loss through Ovid’s poetry on the Orpheus myth. Her academic background in vocal performance and ancient literature brings a deep knowledge of the voice and unique perspective on Latin poetry to her compositions. Her producorial practice centers on supporting emerging artists and living composers. She is a Co-Founder of Renegade Opera, a Portland-based company dedicated to creating immersive and accessible opera and promoting institutional reform in the opera industry. She holds an M.F.A. in Voice Arts from CalArts and a B.A. in Classics from Reed College.

DIGITAL PROGRAM FOR SUCKTION: AN OPERATIC MONODRAMA

Artist Bios and Libretto

CREATIVE LEADS

PERFORMERS

CREATIVE/PRODUCTION TEAM

LIBRETTO