As One co-librettist and transgender filmmaker Kimberly Reed has created a video for the Op Ed page of The New York Times showing a day in her life – specifically April 7, when As One opened at Utah State University. In the video, Reed shows glimpses of the various ways she has attempted “to dispel misunderstanding and increase empathy” by introducing the quotidian stories of transgender individuals – through documentaries, news interviews, spoken word performances, and most recently through her work on As One.
Laura Kaminsky
AS ONE
With music and concept by Laura Kaminsky, libretto by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed, the opera As One was given its premiere by American Opera Projects at the BAM Fisher Theater in September of 2014. The production featured a film by Kimberly Reed, and was universally praised for its honesty and originality.
A rich addition to the repertoire … formidable on all fronts … As One is everything that we hope for in contemporary opera: topical, poignant, daring, and beautifully written.”
– New York Classical Review
“Artistically distinguished, socially important … says so much with relatively modest means.”
– WQXR
As One, … satisfies in an entertaining and delicately moving way.”
– New York Observer
A piece that haunts and challenges its audience with questions about identity, authenticity, compassion and the human desire for self-love and peace.”
– Opera News
As One forces you to think, simultaneously challenging preconceptions and inspiring empathy…[with] winning humor and a satisfying emotional arc.”
– The New York Times
“Perfect Boy” from As One [excerpt] from American Opera Projects on Vimeo.
Instrumentation
Mezzo-Soprano, Baritone, String Quartet (requires a conductor, who plays a small role in the piece).
Materials
For additional information, visit the AS ONE website here.
Licensing
To obtain a quote on licensing As One for performance, please fill out a request here.
Opera News Interview with Laura Kaminsky on Premiere of Musical Opera As One
Kaminsky One of Eight Recipients of Opera America’s Grant for Female Composers
“A Christmas Story” [excerpt] from As One from American Opera Projects on Vimeo.
“Out of Nowhere” [excerpt] from As one from American Opera Projects on Vimeo.
Performances
- World Premiere: American Opera Projects; Brooklyn Academy of Music, Sept. 2014
- Caine College of the Arts, Utah State University, April 2015
- West Edge Opera, Oakland Metro Opera House, July-August 2015
- UrbanArias, Atlas Center for the Performing Arts, October 2015
- International Opera Projects, Ballsaal Studio, Berlin Germany, July 2016
- Seattle Opera, November 2016
- Pittsburgh Opera, February 2017
- Opera Colorado, March 2017
- Long Beach Opera, May 2017
- New Orleans Opera, June 2017
- San Diego Opera, Nov. 2017
- Chicago Fringe Opera, Nov. 2017
- Des Moines Metro Opera, Nov. 2017
- Lyric Opera of Kansas City, January 2018
- Boston Opera Collaborative, January 2018
- Hawaii Opera Theatre, January 2018
- Anchorage Opera, February 2018
- Skylark Opera Theater, March 2018
- AEPEX Contemporary Performance, April 2018
- Opera on the Avalon, May-June 2018
- Cincinnati Opera, July 2018
- Chautauqua Opera, August 2018
- Peabody Opera, Nov. 2018
- Alamo City Opera, Jan. 2019
- Portland Opera, March 2019
- Opera Idaho, May 2019
- Eugene Opera, May 2019
- Merkin Concert Hall/American Opera Projects/New York City Opera, May/June 2019
- Opera Memphis, August 2019
- Bay Chamber Concerts, August 2019
- Boston University, October 2019
- Alchemical Studios (NYC), November 2019
- Opera Columbus, November 2019
- Pensacola Opera, November 2019
- EarSpace, Feb. 2020
- Gertrude Opera (Australia), Feb. 2020
- Shenandoah Conservatory, April 2020
- University of South Carolina, April 2020
- Teatro Espanol, Madrid, Sept.-Oct. 2020
- Utomjordiska, October 2020
- Orchestre Classique de Montreal, November 2020
- Servicios Especializados en Distribucion Artistica, Madrid, March 2021
- University of Kansas, April 2021
- Opera Orlando, May 2021
- Painted Sky Opera, May 2021
- Opera Maine, July 2021
- Lontano Trust, London Premiere, Sept. 2021
- Sacramento State School of Music, Nov. 2021
- Lowell Chamber Orchestra, Nov. 2021
- Opera Santa Barbara, March 2022
- Universidad de los Andes, March-April 2022
- Atlanta Opera, June 2022
- Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, July 2022
- Satakunnan musiikkijuhlat (Finland), August 2022
- Opera Steamboat (CO), September, 2022
- Lyric Opera of the North (MN), October 2022
- Boston Conservatory at Berklee, February 2023
- Florida State Opera, May 2023
- Holy City Arts & Lyric Opera, June 2023
- Washburn University, October 2023
- Theater Regensburg, December 2023-March 2024
- Kentucky Opera, April 2024
- NUOVA Vocal Arts, June 2024
- HOPERA, November 2024
Press
Denver Post, 2/25/2017
“As One” is the hottest title in opera right now, at least among the titles written in the last 100 years. The musical tale of a transgender woman’s personal evolution is somehow right on time–an accomplished bit of art-making, with considerable entertainment value, that thrusts itself smack into the current political and social discourse.
It’s in Denver this week week. Pittsburgh last. Seattle produced it in November and folks in New Orleans and Los Angeles get to hear it this spring. The chamber piece, which premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in late 2014, has a rare vitality in a business where new works–including the good ones–have to fight for even a second show.
Opera companies love it. One reason is that it’s relatively inexpensive to present: no chorus, orchestra or big sets. Composer Laura Kaminsky’s creation has just two singers, a string quartet and a couple of temporary screens that show films in the background.
But that’s why audiences seem to like it, too. It’s intimate. All the complaints so frequently lodged against the art form–that it can be distant, formal and out-of-touch, aren’t a factor for “As One.” Nor is length; it clocks in at just 75 minutes.
December 19, 2014 – Excellence in Opera (“Freddie”) Award
Operavore
December 18, 2014 – Slate
The Uses of “Trans” in Art
October 2, 2014 – GAY CITY NEWS
Opera review: “New Starts”
September 11, 2014 – OUT MAGAZINE
Opera review: “A Transgender Woman’s Operatic Path to Self-Acceptance”
September 10, 2014 – NY OBSERVER
Opera review: “An Emotional Before-and-After Opera of Gender Transformation Premieres at BAM”
September 9, 2014 – Q ON STAGE
Opera review: “Magnificent ‘As One'”
September 9, 2014 – THE FILM EXPERIENCE
Opera review: “Stage Door: ‘As One’ by Kimberly Reed”
September 2014 – OPERA NEWS
Opera review: “As One BROOKLYN American Opera Projects”
September 5, 2014 – THE NEW YORK TIMES
Opera review: “The Arc of a Transgender Life”
September 5, 2014 – NEW YORK CLASSICAL REVIEW
Opera review: “Kaminsky’s transgender opera “As One” makes a poignant and remarkable premiere”
September 5, 2014 – WQXR: OPERAVORE
Opera review: “Opera As One Explores Gender Change, Identity Struggles”
September 5, 2014 – PARTERRE.COM
Opera review: “outskirts”
September 4, 2014 – WWFM: CADENZA
Opera profile: “As One”
September 4, 2014 – HUFFINGTON POST
Opera profile: “‘As One’ Opera Brings Husband And Wife Stars Together For Heartfelt Transgender Role”
September 3, 2014 – GAY CITY NEWS
Opera profile: “The Voyage to Oneness”
September 2, 2014 – BK LIVE
Opera profile: Video Interview: “As One”
September 2, 2014 – BROOKLYN DAILY
Opera profile: “Husband and wife share role of transgender woman in new opera”
September 2014 – OPERA NEWS
Composer/Opera profile: “Hearing Both Sides”
Fall 2014 – OPERA AMERICA MAGAZINE
Composer/Opera profile: “Are Women Different?”
July 17, 2014 – THE ADVOCATE
Opera profile: “Husband and Wife to Share Role in Trans Opera”
July 10, 2014 – WQXR: OPERAVORE
Opera profile: “What to Hear in NYC Opera and Vocal Music”
Ensemble Pi Premieres Kaminsky Deception
Ensemble Pi’s Ninth Peace Project Concert
“Word Interpretations”
World Premieres by Laura Kaminsky and Susan Botti
Works by Jason Eckardt, Bryant Kong, Penderecki, and Shostakovich
Language gets appropriated, translated, and sometimes “reformed” by culture and politics. For their annual Peace Project’s ninth installment, music collective Ensemble Pi performs new commissions and other works which examine the relationship of language, truth and politics – and how words change meaning when used in contexts different than the ones intended.
Clarinetist Moran Katz then joined the trio for another world premiere, Laura Kaminsky‘s strikingly intense diptych, Deception. Katz’s moody, richly burnished low register in tandem with the cello built an air of mystery and foreboding, occasionally punctured by the piano. The second movement worked clever variations via individual voices in a very Debussy-esque arrangement that also offered a nod to Shostakovich and possibly Penderecki as well.
Read the review of the concert here.
Laura Kaminsky’s Deception, for b-flat clarinet, violin, cello, and piano (2014) – a work exploring the manipulation of language in situations such as reconsidered statements, solo pronouncements, intertwined dialogue, and that which is unspoken. Musical gestures and interruptions are used to symbolize two ways of creating language, then using it in a different context to create new meaning.
Performers include Idith Meshulam, piano; Airi Yoshioka, violin; Katie Schlaikjer Schlaikjer, cello; Moran Katz, clarinet; Kristin Norderval, voice; with guest artist Rachel Rosales, voice.
Ensemble Pi, a socially conscious new music group founded in 2002, features composers whose work seeks to open a dialogue between ideas and music on some of the world’s current and critical issues. For the last ten years, Ensemble Pi has presented an annual Peace Project concert, praised by The New York Times as “gracefully played…a fiery and emotive performance.” The Ensemble has commissioned new works and collaborated with visual artists, writers, actors, and journalists, among them South African artist William Kentridge and American journalist/writer Naomi Wolf, Frederic Rzewski, and Philip Miller. The ensemble was in residence for four American music festivals presented by the American Composers Alliance and now collaborates with the APNM. Ensemble Pi has also created artistic and educational programs in response to major exhibitions at Chelsea Art Museum, The Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, and the Museum of Modern Art. Gramophone wrote of the Ensemble’s first CD, Keep Going, “a touching tribute to Ellias Tanenbaum, played with conviction and verve”. A second CD featuring Laura Kaminsky’s music was released by Albany Record this year and was described as “played with warmth and variety… in effective fashion” (American Record Guide). www.ensemble-pi.org
