OPERA (DESSERT) POTLUCK Salon
Wednesday, December 4, 2019
(Doors at 7pm, performances start at 7:30pm)
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, New York, NY
Suggested Donation: $10
The RWO ensemble artists perform at the Spring 2019 Salon at the Areté Gallery in Brooklyn, NY.
RHYMES WITH OPERA (RWO) will present the annual OPERA (DESSERT) POTLUCK SALON on Wednesday, December 4th at the Flea Theater in New York City. Doors open at 7pm, and performances begin at 7:30pm. The SALON features performances from the RHYMES WITH OPERA ensemble, composer and cellist FJÓLA EVANS, songs from the Downtown alt-cabaret songwriting duo NO HOPE, and sound artist MATTHEW SULLIVAN.
The RWO SALON was founded in the fall of 2011 as a supportive and receptive event at which composers and new musicians can try out new work in front of their peers. As much a social event as it is a performance, the RWO SALON is a potluck dessert party where performers are invited to go out on a limb and attendants are invited to bring a dessert to share. By design, the boundaries between performer and audience fade, so the audience gets to witness professional new music at close range and the performer gets the rare chance to interact with their audience face-to-face.
This year’s RWO Salon will take place at The Flea Theatre, where Rhymes With Opera serves as an Anchor Partner for the 2019-20 season.
Featured Artists
The NO HOPE songwriting team, Tim Aumiller and Scott Schneider, has written five full-length musicals and presented more than a dozen evenings of new music including two sold out shows at the legendary Joe’s Pub – Siren/Kings In Concert and their anniversary celebration Pulling The Plug: a decade of NO HOPE. Their musical Hello, My Name Is Billy was a FringeNYC award winner and a Backstage “Critic’s Pick.” On film, their song “Fools Like You” was featured in the award-winning documentary Actress and their music video for “Evolution” featuring Siren was released in the Fall of 2017. Sheet music for their compositions is available through The NO HOPE Songbook Volume I: 2003-2013 (published by Scissortail Press), which includes their MAC Award nominated song “So Many Reasons.” Their song cycle The Year After debuted to a sold out house at The Green Room 42 in the fall of 2018. Their most recent work, Once Begun, was presented at The Fresh Fruit Festival this past summer and received an award for Outstanding One Act.
FJÓLA EVANS is a Canadian/Icelandic composer and cellist. Her work explores the visceral physicality of sound while drawing inspiration from patterns of natural phenomena. Commissions and performances have come from musicians such as Bang on a Can All-Stars pianist Vicky Chow, Grammy-winning ensemble eighth blackbird, and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Her work has been featured on the MATA Festival, Bang on a Can Marathon, Ung Nordisk Musik, and the American Composers Orchestra's SONiC Festival. As a performer, she has presented her own work at Cluster Festival of New Music, (le) poisson rouge, and at Toronto's Music Gallery.
MATTHEW SULLIVAN is a Brooklyn-based sound artist and producer whose diverse career in creating and curating sound encompasses records, films, dance, and theater. He graduated from the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins before moving to New York to work with Quentin Chiappetta at Medianoise and at the recording studios Sear Sound and Reservoir Studios. Recent projects have included collaborations with Tyrone Page Jr, Rhymes With Opera, Tender Creature, Will Wells, and Regina Spektor. msullivan.bandcamp.com