Lynn Freeman speaks on National’s recently released arts policy document.

Labour’s response.

The policy document.

First, it is my great pleasure to announce the formation of a new opera company in central Kentucky called the Bluegrass Opera. We bring together a talented and versatile team of professional singer-actors whose musical training and experience include not only Opera and Musical Theatre, but also Jazz, Pop, Blues, Gospel, and a number of other styles.

Our mission is to bring musical works for the stage (including opera, musical theatre, and everything in between) to a new, younger, and more diverse audience. We do this by:
(1) Performing ONLY new works see our call for scores below!),
(2) reaching out to audiences that normally wouldn’t be caught dead at an “opera”, and
(3) Moving beyond the stereotypes that many associate with “opera” by embracing a wide range of musical and dramatic idioms.

Second, we are planning a number of different performances over the next several months - these include both fully-staged productions of complete works and staged concerts of excerpts, sketches, and scenes. That brings me to our call for scores — here are the guidelines:

- All composers, regardless of age, are welcome to submit works for performance.
- Composers may submit as many works as they wish; there is no fee.
- The principal language of the work(s) submitted must be English.
- Works must not have had any prior performances (workshops are fine).
- The work(s) can be of any style, size, and scope within the realm of theatrical music
(examples include full-length operas, musicals, one-acts, scenes, arias, ensemble pieces)
- Excerpts from works-in-progress are welcome.
- Our instrumentation is flexible; however, we can not accommodate live electronics at this time (pre-recorded sounds are fine).
- We ask that you submit:
(1) a piano/vocal score of each piece with the creator(s) clearly identified,
(2) a separate sheet containing:
(a) a brief synopsis or description of each work submitted,
(b) a short composer bio (including address, phone number, and email).
(c) the instrumentation for the work
(3) an audio recording is highly encouraged (MIDI is fine).

- Please include a self-addressed envelope with sufficient postage if you would like your materials returned. Otherwise, we will be happy to keep them and consider them for future performance.

- Please send materials to:
Bluegrass Opera
c/o Lorne Dechtenberg
P.O. Box 910527
Lexington, KY 40591

- The receipt deadline for sketches, excerpts, numbers, or scenes is August 5, 2008.
- The receipt deadline for large works is August 31, 2008 (works received by August 5 will be considered for inclusion in programs of excerpts as well).

Materials may also be submitted via email to bluegrassopera@yahoo.com
(scores in PDF format only please).

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at this address, or visit our temporary website — http://www.geocities.com/bluegrassopera

Sincerely,
Lorne Dechtenberg
Artistic Director, Bluegrass Opera

Your organisation was forwarded to me by Felicity Birch, Creative New
Zealand. I am a New Zealander who has been living in Asia for the past 15
years. During this time I wrote a novel, which I have since converted into a
musical play. I am proud of what I have acheived thus far and looking
forward to seeing this play in lights. The story is great, the music is
great and the theme is very colourful.

I am now in the process of developing this play. My first step is to create
the music composure for the play. At present I am doing this in Hong Kong,
but the process is very slow and frustrating.

Regards,

Michael S. Fletcher
Author, Play Write and Song Writer
michael88@on-nets.com

In light of a number of potential submitters who require a little more time to put together their abstracts and/or scores, the deadline for the CANZ/NZSM Composers Conference in September has been extended until 11 July.