ASC & AIM Present Renée Fleming

Renée Fleming is one of the most acclaimed singers of our time, performing on the stages of the world’s greatest opera houses and concert halls. Honored with five Grammy Awards and the US National Medal of Arts, she has sung for such momentous occasions as the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony and the Super Bowl.

Fleming’s current concert calendar includes appearances in London, Milan, Paris and New York City (Carnegie Hall). In November, she starred in the world premiere staging of The Hours, a new opera based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and award-winning film, at the Metropolitan Opera. She won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo Album for Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene.

A leading advocate for research at the intersection of arts and health, Fleming launched the first ongoing collaboration between The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the NIH. She is a founding advisor for the Sound Health Network at UCSF.

Join Keith A. Wolfe-Hughes, General Director of Opera Birmingham, for a pre-concert talk highlighting Renée Fleming’s career as one of the world’s most recognizable lyric sopranos, her work as an advocate for arts in medicine, and a preview of the music she will perform.

Sunday, November 5
6:15 — 6:45p
ASC 

This event is only for Renee Fleming on Sunday, November 5 ticketholders. No registration is needed. Presented by ArtPlay Community Education.

About Keith Wolfe-Hughes

Keith A. Wolfe-Hughes joined Opera Birmingham as its General Director in January 2015, leading the company as it expands both the variety of works presented on the stage as well as opportunities to engage with the community in programs off the stage.  He helped the company launch a successful chamber opera series, bringing powerful contemporary stories to life through song, and started informal pop-up Opera Shots concerts and an annual Children’s Opera performance.

Prior to Opera Birmingham, Keith worked fourteen seasons with Fort Worth Opera, first as Managing Director since 2001 then as Executive Director as of March 2014.  He also served as the former Artistic Director of the Fort Worth Men’s Chorus, and was appointed as Interim Director of the Opera Studio at Texas Christian University in Fall 2013.  During his tenure at Fort Worth Opera, Mr. Wolfe-Hughes developed a number of expanded training programs for area young artists, including the development of the Fort Worth Opera Studio and formulated “The Ten Commandments of Auditions” with General Director Darren K. Woods, which was featured in Classical Singer magazine. Recent programming includes strategic planning for singers in master classes and seminars, and serving as a panelist for Opera America, presenting both the strategic planning process as well as how technology can be used to streamline the artistic process.  Keith also serves on the Board of Directors for the Alabama Association of Nonprofits.

Previously, Mr. Wolfe-Hughes served for seven years as the General Manager of the Seagle Music Colony (now the Seagle Festival) in upstate New York, the oldest young artist training program in the United States, where he returned to conduct Mark Adamo’s Lysistrata, and workshops of Jorge Martín’s Before Night Falls and Joe Illick’s Bliss.  Keith holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education and opera.  Prior to moving into arts administration, he performed with the Virginia Opera, the Washington Opera, the Virginia Symphony, the Shreveport Symphony, and the Virginia Pro Musica.  Among his roles, favorites include Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, and Nanki-poo in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado.

Sacred Harp Shape-Note Singing
Monday, November 6
4:30p
ASC 

Dr. Bridge Kennedy and other regional members of the Sacred Harp singing community will lead a singing session at the ASC. Participants will learn about the art and tradition of Sacred Harp music and experience the communal connection group singing can create when people come together to create music.

This event is free and open to the public, but you must register to attend.

Register

BRIDGE HILL KENNEDY, PhD (he/him/his), attended his first Sacred Harp singing in June of 2002.  This life-changing event came about when he was invited to accompany his sister-in-law to singing for a commissioned painting (“All Day Singing and Dinner on the Grounds” by Bethanne Hill, 2003, commissioned by Max Berueffy).  Since then, Bridge has been honored to serve as an instructor at both Adult and Youth sessions of Camp Fasola (2013-2018), Camp Fasola, Europe (2014), and several Sacred Harp Convention singing schools—including Berlin, Germany (2022) Cork, Ireland (2019); Ontario, Canada (2018); and Portland, OR (2015). Bridge has, also, conducted singing schools in collaboration with, Centrum Voice Works, (2023), Beethoven and Banjos (2023), Gotham Early Music Scene, Inc., the band Ruckus (LaGuardia High School, 2022), and the Ruckus Holy Manna tour (2022). As a social scientist, Bridge enjoys teaching the sociocultural aspects and benefits of Sacred Harp singing. However, he is most frequently sought after for his Sacred Harp leading workshops. Currently, Bridge serves as an Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the Online Undergraduate Psychology Degree Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Music and Mind
Monday, November 6
6p
Sirote Theatre at the ASC

Over the course of several months in 2020, renowned soprano and arts & health advocate Renée Fleming hosted a series of webinars called Music and Mind: Live with Renée Fleming. The online series featured the acclaimed singer and National Medal of Arts honoree in conversation with scientists and practitioners working at the intersection of music, neuroscience, and healthcare. Join us as we bring this conversation to the Alys Stephens Center featuring guest panelists: Dr. Bridge Kennedy (Director of the Online Undergraduate Program in Psychology and Musician), Sunny Davenport (AIM Music Therapist), Dr. Hon Yuen (AIM Researcher), and Sunil Iyengar (Director of the Office of Research & Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts).

This event is free and open to the public, but you must register to attend. 

Register