Prototype Festival: Adoration
$35-$150 ($5 fee applies to online orders)
- Omar Najmi, tenor
- Miriam Khalil, soprano
- David Adam Moore, baritone
- Karim Sulayman, tenor
- Marc Kudisch, baritone
- Naomi Louisa O'Connell, mezzo-soprano
- Courtney Orlando, violin
- Nicole Sharlow, violin
- Gillian Gallagher, viola
- Maria Jeffers, cello
An adaptation of Atom Egoyan's film of the same name, Adoration follows Simon, an orphaned high school student. As part of a dramatic writing exercise, Simon's teacher encourages him to appropriate details from a historical terrorist attack as an event perpetrated by his parents. When his story goes viral, Simon uses the hysteria within his community and on the internet to highlight the challenges of intolerance and racism in our society. The fictional and actual circumstances of the loss of Simon's family are revealed in fragments, only fitting together with the final revelation that the prejudices of Simon's maternal grandfather led to his parents' deaths.
Hate is too often portrayed as binary. We either hate or we don't. We hate someone for something they did or some perceived slight, or we hate "the other." Yet we are not born with hate—it is learned, nurtured, and developed over the course of a lifetime. Adoration tells two simultaneous stories—a fictional story of terrorism and betrayal juxtaposed with a real story of family strife and rejection of something foreign.
Performances on January 12-13 and 18-20 at 8pm, and January 14 at 5pm.
About Omar Najmi, tenor
About Miriam Khalil, soprano
About David Adam Moore, baritone
About Karim Sulayman, tenor
Lebanese-American tenor Karim Sulayman, a 2019 Grammy Award winner for Best Classical Solo Vocal, is a sophisticated and versatile artist consistently praised for his sensitive and intelligent musicianship, riveting stage presence, and beautiful voice. Sulayman earns acclaim for his thought-provoking programming and recording projects, and maintains a busy career on the world's opera and concert stages, in programs that range from often-heard classical favorites to new work, to audacious commissions and curatorial projects. In 2022, he debuted the widely acclaimed Unholy Wars, a program that recontextualizes Italian Renaissance music about the Crusades through an Arab-American lens, paired with a new work by American composer Mary Kouyoumdjian.
https://www.karimsulayman.com/About Marc Kudisch, baritone
About Naomi Louisa O'Connell, mezzo-soprano
About Courtney Orlando, violin
About Nicole Sharlow, violin
Nicole Sharlow is a native of Rochester, NY. She is principal second violin of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra and has been concertmaster of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra in Germany, principal second violin of the Jerusalem International Symphony Orchestra, and concertmaster of the Canadian Chamber Orchestra of NY. Ms. Sharlow is the violinist of 'Scape Trio, a string group dedicated to bringing music and visual arts together. Since 2001 she has been spending her summers in residence at Quisisana Resort in Maine. A gifted educator, Ms. Sharlow is the head of the String Department at the Larchmont Music Academy where she teaches violin, viola and chamber music. She has been on faculty at Concordia College New York in Bronxville, NY and also maintains a private teaching studio. An active freelance musician, Nicole has performed with Il Volo, 2 Cellos, The Irish Tenors, Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra Jr., the Trans Siberian Orchestra, and Opera Cowgirls. Ms. Sharlow earned her Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music and her Bachelor of Arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University. Her foremost teachers have included Andres Cardenes and Lucie Robert. Nicole resides in Larchmont, NY with her dog, Kezar.
About Gillian Gallagher, viola
Gillian Gallagher grew up in Saratoga Springs, NY, and attended the Juilliard School where she received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees studying with Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory, and Hsin-Yun Huang. Gillian made her Weill Recital Hall debut in 2007 as founding violist of the Attacca Quartet, with whom she was awarded the Alice Coleman Grand Prize in the 60th annual Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition in 2006. Gillian performed with the Attacca Quartet for six years, during which time the quartet studied with the Guarneri, Juilliard, Emerson, Vermeer, Tokyo, and St. Lawrence String Quartets. She toured the United States from 2007 to 2014 with violinist and composer Mark O'Connor and cellist Mike Block as violist of the Appalachia Waltz Trio and, later, the O'Connor Quartet. Gillian has been on faculty at Boston University's Tanglewood Institute, the Berklee College of Music Summer String Program, Mark O'Connor's Fiddle Camps, and New York's Center for Arts Education. Highlights from recent seasons include performances at Carnegie Hall and the NY Phil Biennial as violist of Hotel Elefant, Taylor Mac's 24-Decade History of Popular Music, and performing the music of composer Ellis Ludwig-Leone as a member of the house band for the dance company BalletCollective.
https://musicatmenlo.org/artistbio/alumni-bio/?artist_id=349About Maria Jeffers, cello
Maria Bella Jeffers (cello) has been happily making music in New York City since 2001. Her classical background has led to performances of the timeless masterworks for chamber and orchestral ensembles and her love to rock has ushered her into studios and onto stages with some of finest artists of our time. With degrees in both performance and education from the University of North Texas and a master's degree from Manhattan School of Music Maria has had the great pleasure of performing around the world with music that ranges from Bach to rock and everything in between.
https://www.perennialmuse.org/maria-jeffers-celloThe Loretto Theatre at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture
18 Bleecker StNew York, NY 10012
United States