Saturday March 6, 2021
5:00pm PT
REPLAY until Sunday March 7 at 12 Midnight PT
*includes Q&A with Founder Stephanie Weisman and Hai-Ting Chinn
Hai-Ting Chinn
Science Fair:
An Opera with Experiments
SCIENCE FAIR is an opera singer’s love-song to science. Conceived and performed by mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn with pianist Erika Switzer, Science Fair uses physical demonstrations and experiments, a libretto created from the words of scientists, and original music to illuminate our current understanding of the natural world. Celebrating curiosities like the formation of our solar system, the structure of the atom, and the ancient legacy of DNA, Science Fair pairs light-hearted humor with luscious operatic vocals to uplift the ordinary into the realm of wonder.
“Chinn imbues everything — from a live experiment extracting DNA from a strawberry, to using her own powerful vocal chords to discuss sound waves — with a Tom Lehrer-like madcap humor and charm.”
– Allison Meier, Hyperallergic
SCIENCE FAIR was the culmination of a multi-year residency at HERE Arts Center in New York City. This fully-staged, theatrical presentation presents lyrics by well-known scientists and writers, including an astronomer, a chemist, a particle physicist, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer, and a middle school science teacher. The performance includes live demonstrations of basic scientific concepts that shape our understanding of the world, familiar classroom experiments elucidated and illuminated, slideshows with illustrations by comic artist Maki Naro, and even a wearable model of the solar system.
Lyrics from the words of Natalie Angier, Phil Plait, Pamela Gay; additional lyrics and fact checking from Alissa Gildermann, Daniel Heller, Page van Meter, and Debbie Berebichez.
Music by Matthew Schickele, Renée Favand-See, Stefan Weisman, and Conrad Cummings
“Chinn and director Lisa Rothe take extraordinary care with every facet of the production: Science Fair gleams with polish.”
– Helen Shaw, Time Out New York
TRAILER
INFORMATION
hai-ting.com/science-fair
WATCH HAI-TING CHINN on SOLO ARTS HEAL
PRESS
ABOUT THE PERFORMER
Pre-pandemic, American Mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn performed in a wide range of styles and venues, including 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. Hai-Ting was featured in the revival and tour of Phillip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach, and sang the role of Belle in Glass’s La Belle et la Bête; she was featured in The Wooster Group’s wildly experimental production of La Didone; she performed Peter Maxwell Davies’s unaccompanied monodrama, The Medium, on stages in London. She has had several monodramas written for her, including works by Tarik O’Regan, Stephan Dempski, and Matthew Schickele. With Soprano Lindsay Kesselman and contralto Kirsten Sollek, Hai-Ting formed Trio Triumphatrix, and during the pandemic they worked to create a visual album entitled Astronautica: Voices of Women in Space (more information at www.triumphatrix.com). Of mixed Chinese and Jewish ancestry, Hai-Ting is a native of Northern California and currently resides in New York City, where she has barely left her apartment since March 2020.
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