Greetings from the ninth floor of the Professional Arts Building in Scranton, PA, and the three small rooms that serve as my composing and work studio for the months of the year when I’m not on Lake George.

In driving south into Pennsylvania after a summer spent at The Sembrich, I came upon a striking change in the signage along Interstate 81 on approach to Scranton.

The gateway to the city, formerly known as the Central Scranton Expressway, has been rechristened the President Biden Expressway, a reflection of the hometown pride felt by many here, this being the birthplace of the current resident of the White House.

In a similar fashion, the five-block thoroughfare through the center of town, two blocks from my 9th floor studio, has been renamed Biden Street.

*Composer Richard Wargo and Director Daniel Ellis with the UGA Opera Theatre cast of "A Visit to the Country."*

While the autumn season in recent years has become a time for me to travel, most notably, to Eastern Europe, to visit musical colleagues in Poland and Ukraine, this year, quite by chance, the travel focus has turned to colleges and universities here in the US, to hear performances of some of my works.

The first of these travel stops was at the University of Georgia in Athens in mid-November.

Daniel Ellis, the director of opera at the university, had seen last spring’s online production of the third segment of A CHEKHOV TRILOGY, “The Music Shop” by Vancouver Opera and wanted to explore the lyrical middle section of the Trilogy, “A Visit to the Country.”

In normal non-COVID times, this would be an easy enough process; a call to the publisher to order a copy of the score to determine if the piece was vocally appropriate for the singers in his program. But since my publisher was not sending out perusal scores due to COVID, Daniel’s search for a copy of “A Visit to the Country” took him across three continents, to inquiries in Australia and England until a copy of the score finally turned up on someone’s desk in the offices of Opera Idaho.

*"A Visit to the Country" with the UGA Opera Theatre. Click to enlarge*

Eventually, through additional inquiries and an Opera America message board, Daniel was able to reach me as well and extend an invitation for me to attend the final dress rehearsal and performances of “A Visit to the Country” in Athens.

The experience was a thoroughly rewarding one: the chance to hear once again this seldomly performed piece (my comic operas tend to be produced more often) and the opportunity to meet and work with the extremely talented and dedicated students and staff of the university. An added plus was the fact that the performances were live streamed which afforded members of The Sembrich community a chance to tune in and see the opera as well.

Here’s a recording of the prelude to the opera conducted by Mark Cedel along with photo stills of the production by Lisette Proaño.

*Set design sketch by John Stark for the Illinois Wesleyan production of BALLYMORE.*

My opera BALLYMORE, based on a play by Brian Friel, tells the stories of two separate pairs of lovers in the fictional Northern Ireland town of the work’s title. Though the operas, when performed together, make for a full-length evening, they can also be staged separately as one-acters. Such is the case with two upcoming college productions of the opera’s pair of contrasting tales, “Winners” and “Losers.”

The comic second act of BALLYMORE, “Losers,” is in rehearsal now at Illinois Wesleyan University and according to director Bob Mangialardi, the singers are enjoying the experience. I plan to go out to Illinois for a few days in mid-January for the start of rehearsals with orchestra. Then I return to Bloomington in February to serve as guest composer at the school’s yearly Symposium of Music prior to the opening of the opera on February 10th.

The lyric first section of BALLYMORE, “Winners,” is slated for production by the Westminster Choir College in early April. In a plan similar to that of Illinois Wesleyan, I’m scheduled to work with the singers in advance of the performances and to present a talk on the creation of the opera as a part of a lecture series in late February. A very special aspect of this production is the reunion it affords with two people who’ve been associated with this opera since the very beginning of its composition in the mid-90’s: Susan Ashbaker, Director of Westminster Opera Theatre, who participated in BALLYMORE’s original workshop with the Opera Company of Philadelphia---and extraordinary stage director Dorothy Danner with whom I’ve had the privilege of working on all my operas.

*Trumpet player Chris Coletti at his Ithaca College studio. Click image to enlarge*

Another recent university stop in early December took me to Ithaca College, though this time it was to hear music of another composer, Andy Akiho.

Virtuoso trumpet player Chris Coletti is among the performers that we’re looking to bring to The Sembrich for the upcoming summer festival---and a work by Andy Akiho is one of the many pieces we’re considering in planning the repertoire for the program.

Chris, the current director of the Ithaca College Contemporary Ensemble, invited me to hear a recent performance by the group that included a work by Akiho.

Chris, of course, is no stranger to The Sembrich audience. He joined us in concert with the Canadian Brass in 2018 and followed that up by producing and performing in an online performance of Copland’s “Quiet City,” a highlight of our 20/20: Virtual Visionaries season.

This is just one of many upcoming programs “in the works.” We look forward to sharing the exciting details of our entire 2022 festival lineup early in the New Year ahead.

I’d be remiss, at the close of 2021, if I didn’t mention the loss of two very special friends from the Sembrich community, Bill Hubert, who passed away in July and Charlie Richards, who left us in September.

*At the Lviv Brewery in Ukraine. Click image to enlarge*

Although Bill Hubert didn’t come on to the Sembrich Board until 2005, I was privileged to get to know Bill as a frequent museum visitor, always full of questions and ready to lend his expertise on a seemingly endless array of topics. We shared a lot of great times as colleagues and friends---and even had the opportunity to travel to Ukraine together in 2015 for that year’s “Discovering Paderewski” Festival in Lviv.

Bill always closed his emails with a particular quotation, a reminder to us all that seems well worth sharing here, at the dawn of a New Year:

"Friends, life is short and we do not have much time to gladden the hearts of those who travel with us; so be swift to love and make haste to be kind. "

— Henri-Frederic Amiel

*Charlie and Anita Richards, August 1996. Click image to enlarge*

From my very first arrival on the Sembrich scene on July 31, 1990, Charlie and Anita Richards were there, always ready to lend support and to go the extra mile, year after year…I could go on endlessly about Charlie’s support through the years.

I recall that when my opera “The Music Shop” was produced by Lake George Opera Festival in 1996, Charlie and Anita enlisted local artist Heidi Lewis to paint life-size murals of the opera’s characters to celebrate the premiere and to have on display in the museum’s University of Modern Languages during the run of the production---a tremendously thoughtful and creative gesture!

I remember taking this photo of Charlie and Anita (with their camera) posed in front of the murals of Dmitri and Masha. When the roll of film was developed and they passed along a copy of the photo to me, here’s what Charlie had written on the back: “I don’t know why we weren’t cast in the roles! Oops, maybe it was my T shirt!!” (Notice the Glimmerglass logo on Charlie’s shirt.)

This is just one of countless examples of the good humor that Charlie shared with all of us through the years. His presence and generous spirit are sorely missed.

To close, a song that, in my view, captures the nostalgic mood and essence of New Year’s Day, “To Gratiana dancing and singing” by William Denis Browne (who was killed at Gallipolli at age 26). I first became acquainted with this exquisitely beautiful piece when we selected the song to conclude our 2014 production of “Not About Heroes,” a play that dealt with English poets on the front lines of World War I.

In 2021, BBC Magazine cited the song as one of the five best settings of British poetry and wrote of the work: “The resulting song is joyful, yes, but as with so much music of the time, tinged with melancholy and regret.”

“To Gratiana dancing and singing” performed by baritone Ashley Riches and pianist Simon Lepper, alumni of King’s College, England:

Notes from the 9th Floor - January 2022

Notes from the 9th Floor - August 2022

Notes from the 9th Floor - June 2021