A Conversation on Chevalier, the New Film: Digital Program
Charles Vincent Burwell, composer
A congressional scholar in leadership, Charles Vincent Burwell (he series) received a B.S. in choral/vocal music education from Florida A&M University. Organizations that he has worked with include the Lincoln Center Institute, City Center, the Katherine Dunham Institute, Trenton Educational Dance Institute (TEDI), National Dance Institute (NDI), Urban Bush Women, Festival del Caribe (Santiago de Cuba, Cuba), Ile Aiye (Salvador de Bahia, Brazil), the Bates Dance Festival, and the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. He has composed music for the Cairo Opera House Ballet and Modern Dance Company (Cairo, Egypt) and National Dance Institute under the artistic direction of Jacques d’Amboise (Shanghai, China) and has sung at Carnegie Hall.
Burwell has served as a musician/teaching artist for National Dance Institute and associate musical director for the Trenton Educational Institute and has been a longtime member of the faculty and music staff at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre (“The Ailey School”). His music was featured in the HBO documentary Jacques d’Amboise in China: The Other Side of the World, directed by Anthony Avildsen. A musical theater composer/lyricist, Burwell, with writing partner James D Sasser and his producing team 959 Group, currently has multiple projects in development and maintains the belief that in art there must be continuous movement and growth; only then can it remain relevant. Burwell is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America and the National Alliance of Musical Theatre and is a charter member of the Omicron Gamma Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Professional Music Fraternity. He currently serves as professor of theater at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and resides in Brooklyn, New York.
Joe Neumaier, film critic for 710AM-WOR radio
JOE NEUMAIER, film critic for New York’s 710AM-WOR radio, has been an entertainment journalist, critic, Q&A moderator, festival programmer, and radio/TV commentator for over 30 years. Formerly the Chief Film Critic and Film Editor at The New York Daily News, his writing on cinema and culture has appeared in The New York Times, Variety, Time, The Washington Post, and The London Observer, and his broadcast appearances include MSNBC, CNN, CBS Sunday Morning, KTLA-Los Angeles, and KSRO-San Francisco. He has moderated events for every major film studio in addition to events at the United Nations and the New York Book Fair. He is a member of the Critics Choice Association and a former member of the New York Film Critics Circle.
Marlon Daniel, conductor
Described as “a natural and enormous talent” by the Chicago Sun-Times and as “fabulous and exceptional” by Pravda – Moscow, Marlon Daniel is one of the most dynamic conductors of his generation and is a bright light for diversity in classical music. He has performed in prestigious venues in Europe and the United States, from Carnegie Hall in New York to the Rudolfinum in Prague, and in various international music festivals. Currently, he is Artistic and Music Director of the Festival International de Musique Saint-Georges, Music Director of Ensemble du Monde (chamber orchestra) and Associate Conductor of Florida Grand Opera. He is a major exponent of music by composers of African descent and is the world’s foremost exponent and interpreter of the music of Chevalier de Saint-Georges, William Grant Still and Georges Walker, who was a mentor. A laureate of the 2018 Bucharest Symphony Orchestra International Conducting Competition, he received his formative education in Europe and the United States and is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music (United States) and the Prague Academy (Czech Republic). He also earned diplomas from Le Conservatoire Américain - Fontainebleau (France) and Centro de Estudios Musicales Isaac Albéniz - Reina Sofía (Spain). His conducting teachers have included David Gilbert, Tomáš Koutník, Miriam Němcová, the late Jiří Bělohlávek and Jorma Panula, who he keeps a close relationship. He has also received advice from Sir Simon Rattle at the Berliner Philharmonie and later, from Iván Fischer at the Beethovenfest Bonn. He has held positions as Associate Conductor of the Praga Sinfonietta, Associate Conductor of the Sofia Sinfonietta, Assistant Conductor of the Sofia National Opera and Ballet, Director of the Diversity in Classical Music Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, Director of Orchestral Ensembles at Fordham University and Guest Lecturer at Yale University. This 2023 he has been invited to be a guest lecturer at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Recently, he successfully débuted with the Chineke! Junior Orchestra, Havana Lyceum Orchestra, Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica EAFIT, Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Cuba, where he was the first American conductor invited since President Obama historic visit to the country in 2015 and is the only African American to conduct the orchestra in the orchestra’s sixty-five year history.
Marc A. Scorca, president/CEO, OPERA America
Marc A. Scorca joined OPERA America in 1990 as president and CEO. Since that time, the OPERA America membership has grown from 120 opera companies to over 4,000 organizations and individuals. Under his leadership, OPERA America has administered two landmark funding initiatives in support of the development of North American operas and opera audiences and launched an endowment effort in 2000 to create a permanent fund dedicated to supporting new works and audience development activities. In 2005, Scorca spearheaded OPERA America’s relocation from Washington, D.C., to New York City and the subsequent construction of the National Opera Center, which opened in 2012 and serves 80,000 guests each year. The Opera Center’s recital hall was dedicated as Marc A. Scorca Hall in 2015 in honor of Scorca’s 25th anniversary with the organization.
Scorca has led strategic planning retreats for opera companies and other cultural institutions internationally and has participated on panels for federal, state, and local funding agencies, as well as for numerous private organizations. He also appears frequently in the media on a variety of cultural issues. A strong advocate of collaboration, Scorca has led several cross-disciplinary projects, including the Performing Arts Research Coalition and the National Performing Arts Convention (2004 and 2008). He is currently a member of the U.S. delegation to UNESCO. Scorca serves as an officer on the boards of the Performing Arts Alliance and the Curtis Institute of Music and is on the Music Advisory Board of Hunter College (CUNY). Scorca attended Amherst College, where he graduated with high honors in both history and music.
Acknowledgments
The 2022–2023 season of OPERA America Onstage is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Programming at the National Opera Center is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.