COMPOSERS
Lead Composer Licity Collins, invited collaborating composers to score a solo instrument for one of the Sams. This thrilling collaborative venture creates a unique sound for each character's journey, and a diversity of sonic perspectives. Licity worked closely with each composer while giving them freedom to score the text according to their inspiration.
Many of the composing team and performance musicians
are members of Licity's fluid band of collaborators SynchroLicity Collective.
Libretto by Licity Collins
Music by Licity Collins, Stephen Montalvo, Mendel Lee, Nicole Buetti, Laura Kuhlman, Cecille Elliott.
LICITY COLLINS
Creator, Librettist, Lead Composer
Requiem of the Routines
(7 movements for chamber ensemble: Scenes 1, 2, 5, 10,1 4, 15, 19)
Suzy's Voice and Electric Guitar
(Aria Scenes 7, 11, 13, 18, 20 + moments in Scenes 8, 9, 12, 17)
Multi-Sam chamber ensembles (moments in Scenes 8, 9, 12)
Leitmotifs (Throughout)
Described by NPR as “Courageous. Writing and singing full-frontal.” A multidimensional genre-busting artist, Licity creates music, word, and art experiences designed to ignite fearlessness in the blood of her audiences.
Meet the sounds of the sams
STEPHEN MONTALVO
Sam's Saxophone (Scenes 3 and 21/22)
Stephen Montalvo is an active composer and performer of acoustic and electronic music, as well as audiovisual installation artist, based in New Orleans, LA. Through his music, he explores concepts related to resonance and rhythmic interplay, works to promote equity in artistic experiences by creating agency for performers and audiences, and draws inspiration from social, ecological, and political concerns. He is a Take Notice Fund Awardee for 2023, a program by the National Performance Network recognizing artists of color in Louisiana, and his works have been performed throughout the United States by artists and ensembles including Longleash, trumpeter and technologist Alexandria Smith, the Portland Percussion Group, mezzo-soprano Megan Ihnen, the Rhythm Method String Quartet, Bent Duo, and the Talea Ensemble, as well as internationally at the Osaka University of Arts Electronic Music Festival.
LICITY COLLINS
Sam 1's Double Bass (Scene 4)
Sam 6's Synthesizer (Scene 17)
Growing up in the cello section of the Washington, DC Youth Orchestra Program, Licity has a particular affection for composing for double (and electric) bass, the supportive sound she heard behind the cellos. Sam 1 is also Licity's favorite scene, coming entirely out of her imagination, not from any real-life scenario, this scene felt truly written by the character himself. This scene is where Sam showed Licity that the work was about shifting realities, a splintering of time, and a heart that wanted to stay connected. It became an entire world, narrative, and journey—and an opera. It was a delicious, mournful, delight to write and compose Sam 1's ice cream scene.
