Jessie Downs

A big announcement - I have a new website! Never fear; I will continue to make blog posts here on this tumblr and tumblr will continue to house all my posts about previous projects. However, if you’re looking for the most succinct and up-to-date information about my professional pursuits, please visit the link above.

I’ve recently recorded a couple of epic scenes from some of my favorite operas - the opening arias for both Norma (above) and Lucia (below). I also recorded Violetta’s first act aria (at the bottom of this post), which is more of a work in progress for me personally, but is equally exciting music that I hope to continue refining. Stay tuned for more recordings of both some of my older, more lyric repertoire as recently revisited, as well as a couple brand new pieces as I start putting together audition tapes in the coming months.

A double announcement:

First, the premiere of my new opera The Second Sight has been postponed to June 26th and 27th 2021 due to the COVID-19 health crisis. Luckily, much will remain as planned, only unveiled a year later than expected, and our production team is confident that the extra time will allow us to bring our audiences an even more spectacular performance.

Because of this delay, my second announcement is that I will be releasing previews of the opera between now and next June. These videos will feature short musical clips from the opera and home-made visuals capturing aspects of the opera’s story and mood. Above, you can watch the first of these previews.

Stay tuned to my Youtube page for more videos like above, as well as my continued release of classical performance videos (you can watch my April and May ‘performances’ below). I hope to accompany some of these with commentaries about the links between some of my favorite pieces from the repertory and my own opera, as a means of demonstrating how my practice as a classical performer relates to my work as a new music composer.

Stay tuned for these previews, performance videos and vlog lectures, as well as blog posts about various operatic themes as the year unfolds. Stay well and safe, all! <3 

I am thrilled to announce that the dates for the first production of my opera are now set! Performances will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church (695 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo NY) on the following dates:

Saturday, June 27th at 7pm

Sunday, June 28th at 2pm

TICKETS are also now ON SALE!

Additionally, the production is still very much in need of SPONSORS, and we are offering special give-backs for donations of $50 and up. You may donate through THIS ONLINE PLATFORM, or send a check to our fiscal sponsor, the Arts Services Initiative of Western New York, with “for Sotto Voce Vocal Collective” on the Memo line:

ASI

2495 Main St, Suite 422 

Buffalo, NY  14214

The other weekend, I was able to present my first public performance of “Caro Nome” from Verdi’s Rigoletto. This piece is extraordinarily dear to my heart, as it was the first big aria I ever learned when I began studying with the Maestro Franco Bertacci nearly ten years ago. Gilda is also an amazingly complex character, one example of what I believe to be Verdi’s nearly feminist portrayal of the women in his operas. While other composers would make her out to be naive and stupid, he turns her into a Christ-like tragic figure. It’s a pleasure to interpret her in a way that conveys her youth and femininity whilst also showing her strength and depth of character.

I am not doing as much performing this year as I would like, as I am focusing on completing my doctoral dissertation in Composition - writing and producing my own opera “The Second Sight.” However, the music ministry team at the Unitarian Church of Buffalo continues to program great classical works like this one on a regular basis.

Coming up on November 24th at 10:30am, the choir and soloists will be presenting a “Musical Feast of Thanksgiving,” featuring Florence Price’s “Communion Service in F” and Fanny Hensel’s “For the Feast of Saint Cecilia,” the latter of which features a soaring soprano solo above the ensemble (that I understand to be a portrayal of the indomitable spirit of Saint Cecilia herself). Pianist Jonathan Vogtle will also be presenting a new piano piece I was commissioned to write for the service, entitled “Diskana’s Lament.” - a transcription of a third act aria from my opera.

Look what’s come out of the box for the first time in an age! I was pleasantly surprised to find that I can still just pick it up and make a half-way decent sound. The reason for its freedom? Last week, I completed fleshing out all of the materials for Act I of “The Second Sight” (minus some editing and orchestration that I felt it best to return to once more of the work is completed). I am now working on Act III in earnest (skipping Act II for now, as the outer acts are more closely related to one another), and there’s a fair bit of clarinet-ing to figure out for it. While I’m glad that I can compose using a number of different strategies, I think I will always be primarily a “hands-on/ ears-on” composer: I work best when the sounds and sensations of the music are present at my fingertips. So, I’m excited to be working out clarinet and vocal lines for Act III Scene 2 - the finale - first, before fleshing out other vital parts like flute, harp, piano, and violin. From the work done thus far, I’m slightly worried that I may be writing a death scene that is about 20 minutes long... but it’s opera, so go big or go home, right?

I am thrilled to be able to share another preview of my opera-in-progress The Second Sight. The above video is of a recent performance at the 2019 June in Buffalo Festival of Act I Scene 2, “The Rain Scene.” The video features performances by many of the vocalists and instrumentalists who plan to be involved in next year’s full working performance, currently scheduled for May 22nd, 2020 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo. 

Although there is still a lot more music to write and logistics to secure, the June in Buffalo show was a wonderful opportunity to work in an extremely hands-on way with a full cast and sinfonietta, and the performance was very well-received by the audience. Coming out of the exhausting time of simultaneously writing, rehearsing, producing, and performing in this scene, I am nevertheless invigorated to keep moving forward.

The opera’s second scene picks up where the first leaves off (last year’s Beth Morrison Project’s Next Generation un-orchestrated performance is also linked below for reference). The Rain Spirits (portrayed by Sotto Voce Vocal Collective) foreseen in Diskana’s first scene vision (played in Buffalo by Tiffany DuMouchelle) come to life and mix magic. They ultimately lead Diskana to the mother of her vision, Freyaria (played by Claudia Brown). This final section of the scene is also the first reveal of the opera’s initial sinfonietta orchestration.

Stay tuned for more updates on the opera’s progress over the coming summer and fall, with the possibilities of further previews between now and next May!

I am excited to announce that 4 weeks from today - on Tuesday June 4th at 4:30pm in Lippes Concert Hall (on the University at Buffalo North Campus) - Act I, Scene 2 from my opera-in-progress The Second Sight will be presented at the 2019 June in Buffalo Festival. 

Act I, Scene 2 - otherwise known as “The Rain Scene” - prominently features members of the Sotto Voce Vocal Collective as rain spirits that call the rain and set the wheels of fate in motion. For this performance, Sotto Voce is myself (soprano), Mariami Bekauri (alto), and Blake Hurlburt (baritone) as the ‘Color Trio’ and Julia Anne Cordani (soprano), Suzanne Fatta (alto), and William Zino (baritone) as the ‘Base Trio.’ We are also lucky to have conductor Daniel Bassin helping to rehearse the group in preparation for the performance.

The scene also includes the entrance of the character Freyaria - a mother, an optimist - played by Claudia Brown, and the first meeting of Freyaria and Diskana - a young woman with the gift of the second sight, who was introduced in Scene 1 (watch last year’s BMP performance HERE) - played by Tiffany DuMouchelle.

Additionally, this will be the first time that an excerpt from the opera will be performed with its full accompaniment: a small 10-instrument sinfonietta. The ensemble will consist of piccolo (Michael Matsuno), English horn (Megan Kyle), clarinet (Michael Tumiel), French horn (Sara Petokas), percussion (Tomek Arnold), harp (Rosanna Moore), piano (Jade Conlee), violin (Hanna Hurwitz), violoncello (Katie Weissman), and contrabass (Megan McDevitt). Maestro Matthew Chamberlain will conduct and help with final stages of preperation.

I was informed this week that I have been chosen to receive a 2019 College of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Fellowship from the University at Buffalo! The funding I will receive will go towards putting on my opera-in-progress, The Second Sight - currently due to be presented in May 2020. I am beyond thrilled to receive this prestigious award and am furthermore so happy that I am now half-way towards my funding goal for this large-scale project. 

Costs will include adequately paying all my wonderful performers (8 vocalists, 10 instrumentalists, and a conductor), as well as constructing (rather minimal) sets and costumes that will help bring the story to life. While the workshop performance will be open to the public, I also plan to put together an audio-video recording that captures the experience - both so that I can use it in my PhD defense, and share it with companies or individuals who might be interested in giving the work a more official premier. 

February 2019 was a productive composition month for me. Act I Scene 2 of my opera The Second Sight is now complete (minus some soon-to-be-finished orchestration) and being rehearsed with my ensemble, the Sotto Voce Vocal Collective. In early June, we will present this excerpt of the larger work as a sneak-peak of the full performance, now set for April 2020. Stay tuned for details!

Now that March is here, a few other performance engagements have sneaked into my schedule as well. As my cat Silver can attest to, it’s all good stuff.

My March-April 2019 Performance Schedule:

Friday March 15th @7:30pm “Viva Italia!” with Buffalo Master Chorale

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Buffalo NY

Opera choruses and sacred music by Rossini, Verdi, and Puccini

Saturday March 30th @7/7:30pm (TBA) “MUGSA Symposium”

Baird Recital Hall, Amherst NY

Excerpt from Alex Huddleston’s “The Sonnets” (2018), with Julia Anne Cordani

Thursday April 18th @7pm “Maundy Thursday Contemplative Service”

UU Church of Buffalo NY

Arias from Mozart and Puccini, alongside other soloist offerings

Sunday April 28th @10:30am “Schubert Mass No. 4 in C Major”

UU Church of Buffalo NY

As I head into a busy month or so of singing, I’d like to announce a number of exciting upcoming performance events. The complete list is below, but here are a few details of note. On December 15th I will be making my Carnegie Hall debut singing an operatic hymn arrangement in A Night of Inspiration - featuring uplifting music from diverse traditions, raising money for arts education. Mine will be a small feature next to many established artists, but I am extremely grateful to Vivian and Ray Chew for the opportunity. More locally, on December 6th I will be making my Nickel City Opera debut on their Broadway Night, singing “The Sound of Music” and Violetta in the “Libiamo” chorus from La Traviata. December 9th and January 6th I will be performing as the soprano soloist in the last two sections of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, closing a several-year long cycle of performing this work in collaboration between member of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and UUCB Choir.  Lastly, don’t forget to join Sotto Voce and friends THIS WEEKEND for “Science and Spirit,” a concert of 4 world premiers!

It has been a crazy past few months!

In September I passed my comprehensive Exams, and by January I will have ABD status for my PhD in Composition at UB. The next few months will be crazier still, as I try to simultaneously dig into my dissertation - continuing to write the opera The Second Sight - and embrace a variety of new opportunities to perform as a vocal soloist. Stay tuned for a list of upcoming performances in the Buffalo and NYC areas. 

As a kind of preview, here is a video of a recent performance at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo of the aria “Un Bel dì vedremo,” from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. 

Sotto Voce just returned from our first mini-tour through Ohio, stopping in Oberlin and Cleveland. The group was extremely well-received by our new audiences, with comments about the plethora of vocal colors in individual voices and through the ensemble, the fluid programming and variety of temporal experiences from piece to piece, and the refreshing nature of hearing new music written specifically for voices. My hope is that this is just the beginning of sharing our sounds with the world.

The experience was also valuable because it allowed the group to dig deeper into the subtleties of the works on the program, especially Alex Huddleston’s “The Sonnets,” one of our commissioned works. The athleticism and mind-bending intellectual planning that the piece requires has no doubt helped us to mature as an ensemble. You can now hear lovely live recordings of all the Living Voices pieces on the soundcloud playlist linked above. The playlist includes the most representative recordings from a combination of our Buffalo, Oberlin, and Cleveland shows.

It was also such a wonderful experience for me personally to “come home” to this area of Ohio in which I spent 4 happy years as a wide-eyed undergraduate music student, and to be able to show off this beloved project to dear friends and mentors. It also made me reflect upon how - while the young folks in the ensemble have this group to help them to grow in their technique, musicianship, and familiarity with strange musics (as well as a handful of supportive teachers in the Buffalo area) - when I was their age I was caught in a crossfire between a vocal department that didn’t want to work with strange voices or strange musics and a composition department that wanted to work with vocalists but only on their own terms. In my crafting of Sotto Voce, I have done my best to create a vehicle that rises above these kinds of harmful dichotomies, so that other would-be interpreters of new music don’t have to go in on their own, as I once did.

I am thrilled to finally share my most recent compositional work, “fireflies” for voice and percussion. You can watch the video of the premier above, listen to the audio on my soundcloud, and/ or view the recently engraved score that is now online. The piece was composed this winter and performed in March by myself and my dear friend and collaborator Christian Smith. It felt wonderful to write a piece for Christian and myself to play, as we have worked together for many years now, and yet we had never come together in this most obvious formation. The piece also brings together my two favorite compositional media - voice and percussion (specifically found objects and/ or bells) - as well as several of my more abstract musical interests.

The piece was originally inspired by my reading of the book “Distant Light” by Antonio Moresco, in an English translation by Richard Dixon. One passage in particular jumped out at me, and it is from this passage that my piece takes its title and subtitles. In it, a man - or a spirit, it is hard to say - speaks (inwardly) to a bunch of fireflies, and in so doing seems to wrestle with his own thoughts about life.

“Ah... you’re still here! You’re here still!” I try telling them, among all that dark swarming with lights. “So you haven’t been wiped out by the hail storm! Where were you hiding while those hailstones were raining down from the sky and smashing everything? They stop at nothing, not even the most beautiful scented flowers! Where do you hide in the daytime, when no one can see you? You too will have small holes, small underground burrows, somewhere to hide when it’s light, when the sky fills up with hail! But how do you manage to light up like that? What’s inside your poor little insect bodies? What power do you have to light up and transfigure yourselves like this, to produce such a light that can even be seen from far away, and flash on and off constantly, for hours and hours? Where has that tiny, desperate invention come from, that little light. And why, if you then disappear straight after, wiped out, not to be seen again for the rest of the year, if you live just a few weeks, come out from who knows where and thousands of you begin flying around pulsating in the darkness of this night that surrounds us? Why? Why have you invented this inconceivable thing?”

On the same concert that Christian and I premiered “fireflies,” we also premiered an older work by my partner Alex Huddleston entitled “Plague Journal.” Christian and I had recorded the piece in a studio the year before, and that recording can be listened to on Alex’s soundcloud. The live performance is now available to watch as well. It was this piece that inspired the idea that some of the music that both Alex and I write, as well as the music of other contemporary composers interested in all things ephemeral, might be better labeled “ghost music” than any of the usual technical terms. It was also the “sh” whistle that I developed for one of the sounds in this piece that was the original sonic impetus for composing “fireflies;” in a way “fireflies” is a sister piece to “Plague Journal” in that it represents my compositional exploration of a sound developed as a performer of another’s composition. One audience member at the concert also referred to this piece as “desert music,” which seems an appropriate image as well.

I’m thrilled to be headed to NYC today to take part in rehearsals leading up to Saturday’s performance of the opening scene of my opera-in-progress, “The Second Sight.” I feel very honored to have been chosen as one of the ten finalists in the BMP Next Generation Competition and am looking forward to meeting the other chosen composers and hearing their work, as well as meeting and working with the BMP Team. The scene that will be performed was premiered this past Summer in Nova Scotia at the Opera from Scratch Workshop (video below) but I am excited to see in what new directions the BMP team will take it.

As the competition performance approaches, I am feeling reinvigorated about the larger project of writing this new opera. The opera’s plot centers around the young woman with the gift of Second Sight that we meet in this opening scene, as well as her relationship with the mother and child of this scene’s vision. Having foreseen the disturbing event of the young child’s death and felt the sorrow of the child’s aggrieved mother, the seer attempts to defy fate by intervening to prevent the death from occurring. At its heart, the opera is a psychological drama about spiritual links between generations of women as portrayed by its three female leads - the seer, Diskahna; the child of the vision, Sashatya; and the child’s mother, Freyam. It is a narrative based partly on pre-existing mythologies and partly on my own experiences.

Here you can also listen to a short piece called “Sasha’s Songs,” based on translations of my baby half-sister’s vocalizations captured before she passed away in February of last year, an event which was on my mind when starting work on the opera. The vocalizations captured by myself here - as well as in the score - both honor the beauty of Sasha’s language and songs “without words,” and will go on to serve as inspiration for the composition of the part of Sashatya in the opera. Each of the three female leads will in fact have their own singing style. Already with the example of Diskahna’s folk-operatic singing in the video from Opera from Scratch and these intimations of Sashatya’s more experimental voice, you can imagine that the work will be a colorful exploration of the similarities betweens apparently quite disparate materials and persons.

If you’re in NYC next weekend, consider checking out the performance of this and other exciting new works!