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New Year, New Beginnings!

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December 2019

 

My dear friends,

 

As you settle into the coziness that comes with the holidays and anticipate the dawn of a new decade, I send my thanks for your longtime support of FBN Productions, Inc. Opera for Kids. And I want to share with you some changes in how we share opera.

 

You may notice one thing right way – this simple letter in place of our annual newsletter.  Late this summer it became increasingly clear that touring is not a viable option for us right now. Our Spring 2019 tour was successful in every area save one – financially.  We shared opera with over 11,000 children at festivals, libraries, museums, classrooms and senior living facilities in South and North Carolina. Everyone loved the music and our singers were wonderful. Yet so many schools were unable to pay our modest fee of $750 per performance, so we made deals or gave away the shows, much as we’ve done, in accordance with our mission, since our beginnings in 1996.  Unfortunately, the cost of touring has proved too high- obvious costs such as gas, van rental, lodging, payments to musicians and collaborative artists, storage costs for sets, costumes, legal and professional fees have all risen. Different school districts demand different insurance coverages, effectively doubling our costs.

 

The board of directors has agreed that it is time for FBN to take a step back and take a careful look at the best way to share opera with children in this ever-changing world.  Evolve- that’s what opera has been doing for the last 500 years, and now FBN Productions is evolving, too.  We are very excited to announce plans are underway for a children’s opera festival in Columbia, SC for June 2021!! Instead of touring, our audiences will come to one location.

 

It will take the next 18 months to prepare for this festival – there are performing spaces to secure, new operas will need sets, costumes, props, nationwide auditions to find the great young singers, and sponsors to secure.  We are hoping that Elijah’s Violin by Meira Warshauer will be among the new operas produced. And maybe The Three Little Pigs will make a return appearance.  All of this will cost a great deal of money. (You knew that was coming!). So please, consider making a donation( on line or use the enclosed envelopto keep FBN thriving as we continue to plan this exciting 2021 Festival. I humbly ask you to continue your support.   And thank you.

 

Be well,

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Serena Hill LaRoche

Serena Hill-LaRoche, soprano, joined FBN Productions Opera for Kids, Inc. staff in the fall of 2016 as the Administration/Production Associate. She is currently Associate Professor of Music and Coordinator of Vocal Studies at Coker College, where she teaches applied voice, diction, vocal pedagogy and song literature.  Hill’s recent performance and/or master class engagements include East Tennessee State University, Greenville Light Opera Works, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, South Carolina Philharmonic, University of South Carolina, Columbia College, Bechtler Museaum of Art, Virginia Commonwealth University, Palmetto Opera, University of Maryland, Central Florida Lyric Opera, Firenze Lirico, Columbia Museum of Art, and Abadía Benedictina de la Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos as well as other performances in both Spain and Italy.  An award winning vocal artist, Hill was a 2003 finalist in the Southeast Regional Metropolitan Opera Auditions, a 2012 and 2008 NATSAA Regional Finalist and the 2006 Artist of the Year with FBN Productions, Inc.  In 2003, she was the Bizet Award winner for the Orpheus National Young Artist Vocal Competition and a Palmetto Opera Competition Finalist in 2005.  Hill received a Doctorate in Musical Arts and a Master of Music from the University of South Carolina, both in Vocal Performance, and a Bachelor of Music from the University of North Alabama. Recent engagements include performances of Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Herbert Howells’s Hymnus Paradisi, Bach’s Cantata No. 1, Vaughan Williams’s Dona nobis pacem, Britten’s Les Illuminations, Mendelssohn’s Hymn of Praise, Mozart’s Requiem, and Werner Jaegerhuber’s Messe Folklorique Haïtienne as well as a series of recitals down the East Coast.