Making Tellus:
A Ritual Opera for the Anthropocene

The history of the Earth is written in stone and ice. What is the story we inscribe in the strata-to-be?

Humans have become an epoch-defining geologic power. The emergence of our epoch is a story of unequal power; a history of both inter and intra-species violence, as natural forces are bent to human ends, and ways of being human within nature are extinguished. Making Tellus offers a series of interconnected ritual tableaux that trace the advent and question the implications of the Anthropocene.

An ongoing collaboration between composer Nina C. Young and librettist and soloist Andrew Robert Munn. Libretto available upon request.

Works-in-Progress Media

two sketches of material for the opera

Luke DuBois, projections & videography / Ben Grow, conductor / Andrew Robert Munn, bass / Charlotte Mundy, soprano / Sharon Harms, soprano / Kate Maroney, mezzo / The Nouveau Classical Project: Laura Cocks, flute; Mara Meyer, clarinet; Joe Tucker, percussion; Sugar Vendil, piano; Maya Bennardo, violin; Thea Mesirow, cello

Process, Improvisation, Play: Forging Words

The 2018 Workshop at the Lifebridge Foundation near Woodstock, NY involved a series of improvisations using audio, video, and generative software in which Nina tested and molded the interaction between live and electronic elements.

Charlotte Mundy soprano; Sharon Harms, soprano; Kate Maroney, mezzo.

PRINCIPAL ARTISTS

The music of composer Nina C. Young is characterized by an acute sensitivity to tone color, manifested in aural images of vibrant, arresting immediacy. Her musical voice draws from elements of the classical canon, modernism, spectralism, American experimentalism, minimalism, electronic music and popular idioms. Young’s current interests are collaborative, multidisciplinary works that touch on issues of sustainability, climate change, historical narratives, and women’s rights. Her projects strive to create unique sonic environments that can be appreciated by a wide variety of audiences while challenging stylistic boundaries, auditory perception and notions of temporality. Young’s works have been presented by Carnegie Hall, the National Gallery, the Whitney Museum, LA Phil’s Next on Grand and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Her music has garnered international acclaim through performances by the American Composers Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, and JACK Quartet. Winner of the 2015-16 Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome, Young has also received a Koussevitzky Commission, and many other accolades. A graduate of McGill University and MIT, Young completed her DMA at Columbia University. She is Co-Artistic Director of New York’s Ensemble Échappé.

Andrew Robert Munn was born in Palo Alto, California in 1986. He pursued a bachelors degree in voice at the University of Michigan, where he studied with George Shirley and Stephen West. A political and ecological awakening in 2007 led Andrew to dedicate himself to the movement for climate justice. Until 2014, he lived in the Appalachian coalfields, working as a leading organizer in a constellation of community resistance to mountaintop removal coal mining. He honed his craft under the mentorship of Dawn Upshaw and Sanford Sylvan at the Bard Graduate Vocal Arts Program (MM 2016) and The Juilliard School (GD 2018). He now regularly performs on opera and concert stages across Europe and North America, including Carnegie Hall, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Innsbruck Festival of Early Music, Lincoln Center, Opera na Zamku, and Tanglewood. He lives in Berlin and is represented by Kartsten Witt Musik Management.

SUPPORTING INSTITUTIONS

The American Academy in Rome
The Koussevitzky Music Foundation
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
The Lifebridge Foundation
Bard College