Ben
Morris
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Description
In collaboration with Boulder Opera, Sohap Ensemble, and Art Song Colorado, join us for the premiere of this shadow puppet opera about the challenges of finding belonging and believing in yourself. For more information visit https://www.boulderoperacompany.com/colorado-sky
SATURDAY, JUNE 3RD AT 6PM - BROOMFIELD AUDITORIUM - 3 COMMUNITY PARK RD, BROOMFIELD, CO 80020
SUNDAY, JUNE 4TH AT 1PM AND 3PM - DAIRY ARTS CENTER - 2590 WALNUT ST, BOULDER, CO 80302
Ben Morris
Composer
Dates
Claire McCahan
Sky
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Description
Journey to a secluded upstate town, away from all the hustle and bustle but suspiciously short on cell reception. What will happen when a New York City transplant points out what the kids have been missing? Will the over-protective parents see the error of their ways, or will the grandparents need to step in to save the day? Glimmerglass is proud to present our annual youth opera on the Alice Busch Opera Theater mainstage again this season. This newly commissioned one-hour opera is fun for the whole family; all ages are welcome as we celebrate the talents of some of the youngest performers in our community alongside our Festival artists and world-class production team.
August 7th, 2023, 7:30pm
Aug 13, 2023, 7:30pm
Aug 18, 2023, 1:00pm
Ben Morris
Composer
Dates
Description
Jenny and her aunt Luz run a taco stand that has been named as a finalist for a social media influencer’s Most Authentic Taco title. As they await the influencer’s visit and final verdict, Jenny questions her cultural legitimacy as a first-generation Mexican-American, as Luz hearkens back to lessons learned from a lifetime of punk rock fandom. Who determines authenticity? How far should we lean into others’ expectations? Whose tacos will emerge victorious?
Washington National Opera's acclaimed commissioning program for contemporary American opera showcases three new 20-minute operas every year. In 2021, guided by Program Director, Robert Ainsley, the Cafritz Young Artists joined with members of the WNO Orchestra to premiere each of the new works in a virtual concert setting. Each opera was performed in English and highlighted a very different aspect of American life and culture. In 2021, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis, acclaimed librettist and dramaturg Kelley Rourke, and renowned conductor David Neely acted as mentors for the three teams of composers and librettists.
Ben Morris
Composer
Dates
Biography
Ben Morris is a composer and jazz pianist whose music tells unconventional stories and crosses genre boundaries. His music has been described as “charming and heart-touching” (OperaGene), "fresh" (All About Jazz), and "wonderfully inventive" (Tom Cipullo).
Ben’s creative work is inspired by his Norwegian heritage. He lived in Oslo, Norway on a Fulbright Grant and received an American-Scandinavian Foundation Grant to research the influence of folk music on Norwegian jazz. Ben's debut album, Pocket Guides, released in June 2022 on Origin/OA2 records and takes elements from Norwegian folk music, jazz, and contemporary chamber music. The music on the album garnered Ben two Downbeat Awards, two ASCAP Herb Alpert Jazz Composer Awards, a big band commission from New York Youth Symphony’s First Music Program, and an invitation to perform an original set with his quintet at the Newport Jazz Festival in 2019.
Also a versatile film, theatre, and opera composer, Ben scored the documentary films American River, which premiered at Montclair Film in 2021, and Saving the Great Swamp: The Battle to Defeat the Jetport, which won best documentary at the 2017 New Jersey Film Festival. He has worked as a music assistant, orchestrator, and copyist for documentary film composer and songwriter Michael Bacon in New York City. Ben is a frequent collaborator of librettist Laura Fuentes; his projects with Laura include Las Auténticas, a 20-minute opera for the Washington National Opera American Opera Initiative, The Fall of Man and Other Tales, a multimedia work for the ATLAS B2 Black Box, Colorado Sky, a shadow puppet opera in collaboration with Sohap Ensemble, and The Rip Van Winkles, a youth opera commissioned by The Glimmerglass Festival.
Ben writes for unique ensembles that blur established genre expectations. He has worked with the American Composers Orchestra, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Jazz at Lincoln Center trombonist Vincent Gardner, unassisted fold, NOW Ensemble, Imani Winds, ~Nois, The Living Earth Show, Playground Ensemble, and the NDR Big Band. He has been a composer fellow at music festivals and workshops including the Aspen Music Festival, the American Composers Orchestra Jazz Composers Institute, Red Note Festival, Sibelius Academy Creative Dialogue, New Music on the Point, the International Gugak Workshop in South Korea, highScore, Source Song Festival, and the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival, and his concert music has received accolades including an ASCAP Morton Gould Award and the International Society of Bassists Composition Contest Grand Prize.
Ben is an Assistant Professor of Composition at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition at the University of Colorado Boulder as an ATLAS Fellow studying with Carter Pann and Michael Theodore, received a Master of Music degree from the Rice University Shepherd School of Music, where he was a Brown Fellow studying with Karim Al-Zand and Anthony Brandt, and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music from the University of Miami Frost School of Music , where he studied with Lansing McLoskey, Gary Lindsay, and Martin Bejerano. Outside of composing and teaching, Ben enjoys traveling, hiking, reading history books, and exploring art museums.
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