Excerpts, talkbacks and Q&A with special guests
providing health and healing education and advocacy.
Solo Arts Heal Climate
EARTH DAY Celebration, Performance Excerpt and Talk-back
ASTRONAUTICA – Voices of Women in Space
A newly commissioned work of music, voice, and video by women composers, has a libretto drawn from the words of the women who have traveled in outer space and seen our world from a dramatic new perspective. Astronautica is an artistic evocation of the transformation that happens when one sees our small planet set against the endless blackness of space. Without borders. Without the artificial boundaries that divide – and could well destroy – humankind. Originally scheduled to premiere in May of 2020 at National Sawdust and The Flea Theater, Astronautica made a fluid and inspiring transformation to an online presentation with stunning multi-media components. The response to the Jan 27 world premiere was overwhelmingly enthusiastic!
Performed by the women of Trio Triumphatrix
Lindsay Kesselman, Hai- Ting Chinn, and Kirsten Sollek
Featuring the work of 9 Women Composers
Hai-Ting Chinn, Renée Favand-See, Jennifer Jolley, Elaine Lachica, Gilda Lyons, Rashonda Reeves, Kamala Sankaram, Jane Sheldon, Bora Yoon
Watch Below
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
Hai-Ting Chinn, Mezzo-soprano American Mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn performs in a wide range of styles and venues, from Purcell to Pierrot Lunaire, Cherubino to The King & I, J.S. Bach to P.D.Q. Bach. She has performed with New York City Opera, The Wooster Group, Philip Glass/Robert Wilson, OperaOmnia, American Symphony Orchestra; on the stages of Carnegie Hall, the Mann Center in Philadelphia, and London’s West End; and at Festivals including the Edinburgh, Verbier, Grimeborn, Tête-à-Tête, and Festival d’Autumne. As an Artist in Residence at HERE arts center, Hai-Ting created and performed Science Fair: An Opera With Experiments, a staged solo show of science set to music. Hai-Ting is a native of Northern California and currently resides in New York City. She holds degrees from the Eastman and Yale Schools of Music.
Lindsay Kesselman, Soprano Hailed by Fanfare Magazine as an “artist of growing reputation for her artistry and intelli-gence…with a voice of goddess-like splendor” Lindsay Kesselman is a soprano who passionately advocates for contemporary music. Kesselman has been the resident soprano of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble for 8 seasons, and toured to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019 with this ensemble for 30 performances of Kieren MacMillan’s The Gray Cat and the Flounder. Kesselman holds degrees in voice performance from Rice University and Michigan State University.
Kirsten Sollek, Contralto Called “ …an appealingly rich alto…” by The New York Times and “…an ideal Bach alto…” with “…elemental tone quality…” by The Philadelphia Inquirer, contralto Kirsten Sollek is sought out for her unique sound and compelling performance style, as featured with orchestras, operas and music festivals worldwide. In new music, she has collaborated regularly with Ensemble Signal and Alarm Will Sound, performing much of the vocal music of Steve Reich. Over the past decade, she has worked extensively with composer John Zorn, premiering his music in New York, Milan, and Paris.
ASTRONAUTICA Trailer LINK
ABOUT SOLO ARTS HEAL
SOLO ARTS HEAL, a weekly MarshStream Public Broadcast Platform program, presents empowering performances about healing and resilience. Through hosted interviews, talkbacks and audience Q&A, the Solo Arts Heal program provides transformative experiences, education, community outreach and advocacy through stories that celebrate the healing power of the arts.
About the Hosts
Stephanie Weisman founded and has been the Artistic/Executive Director of The Marsh since its inception in 1989. Under her leadership, The Marsh has grown from a one-night-a-week performance series to producing 600-700 shows annually on its four stages. In addition to its developing work performance series, The Marsh’s programs include: artist-in-residencies, after-school and summer workshops for youth both onsite and in 5 SFUSD, and performance development classes, workshops and Performance Initiatives. In 1996 Stephanie spearheaded the drive to successfully buy their 12,000 sq ft facility on Valencia Street in San Francisco. This increased The Marsh’s programs four-fold as well as provided for a stable Bay Area arts organization. In 2010, The Marsh added a second venue in Berkeley. In 2020, Stephanie initiated MarshStream. She is currently at work developing her opera, Aphrodisia, with dancer, Wei Wang
Gail Schickele champions arts & sciences as a writer, speaker, consultant, and producer. In January 2020 she convened an artist collective to assist solo artists whose unique stories of physical and mental challenges manifest the healing power of The Arts. COVID inspired Stephanie Weisman to create SOLO ARTS HEAL on The MarshStream to share these outstanding stories of resilience, dramatic and comedic, for the entertainment and benefit of communities everywhere. Gail’s work in marketing, management, and production has served various theaters, festivals and events nationwide. Trained as a journalist in New York and Colorado, she has covered Colorado state politics and the environmental landscape of the Rockies. Environmental educational and advocacy work in California includes the League of Women Voters and The Climate Reality Project. Gail is honored to curate and host SOLO ARTS HEAL where artists powerful stories offer audiences great performance and ‘informance’ on issues related to health and the environment, inexorably linked.
Kristin Scheel, has worked in production and development at The Marsh since 2018. She is a freelance writer and member of Open Windows art cooperative in the Bayview. She has a background in social work with the State of Oregon and program management experience as a small business owner and preschool director in San Francisco. She has an MFA from Mills College, and serves on the boards of Guerrilla Cartography and PATHSTAR.