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International Women's Day, Vox Novus 60x60, and Opera Production

Kaija Saariaho
Cover of Kaija Saariaho
Since our move to Buffalo, NY, life has busy. Check out the latest on music articles, 60x60  and opera production details 
for Libertaria: The Virtual Opera.

Through Her Eyes: The Composer's Voice
A brief overview of prominent composers like Pulitzer-Prize Winner Jennifer Higdon and Australia's Kaija Saariaho, famous for her musical contribution to the Sidney Olympics Opening Ceremony, as well as a short outline of my musical output for International Women's Day. The article includes interesting multimedia links and videos to works by Chen Yi, Alice Shields, and other prominent women in music. 

Vox Novus 60x60
As an active member of Vox Novus, a group of composers and musicians who promote new music, I had the opportunity to create an animation for the 60x60 Presenter's Mix and coordinate the 2012 60x60 Athena Mix. I wrote an interesting article about the 60x60 project, and specifically about the Athena Mix for International Women's Day.


Libertaria: The Virtual Opera is a modern opera, animated and produced with musicians and artists from all over the United States. The opera cast concluded the music production phase this month, and the animation team has been working incredibly hard on completing the animation. The all-female animation team consists of Carol Damian, Lucinda McNary, Patricia Johnston, Kera Hildebrandt, and myself. Using machinima, an animation style popularized by video game computer animation, the animation team is working hard to sync cast audio, create complicated virtual sets, and compile the entire feature film by the summer. You can check out the latest test animation that I created in Moviestorm and Final Cut below for the number Baby Machine, sung by Kate Sikora, Gretchen-Suarez Pena, Joe Cameron, Gracia Gillund, and Jennifer Hermansky.


Libertaria, The Novel
In addition to the opera, I started writing the novel version of Libertaria last year. While the opera and the novel follow a similar plot, the novel plunges deeper into the complex web of relationships, malice, and murder from Libertaria - without the singing geneticists! I joined up with the Buffalo Writer's Group here in New York and look forward to publishing the novel next year.


What's Next?
For the next several months I will focus on opera production. I am mixing hundreds of recorded files to the score, as well as supervising animation, animated a few scenes, and completing the final edit of the movie. You can read about the latest stage of production in the upcoming spring IAWM Music Journal, where I continue Virtual Opera Production: The Making of Libertaria, Part 2. I have been asked to write a third article upon the completion of the article for the Fall IAWM Music Journal.



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