Faculty News

Brazelton Invited to Library of Congress to Perform New Work

Faculty member Kitty Brazelton is part of a group of American women—four composers and a librettist—whose song cycle on another great American woman, Fierce Grace—Jeannette Rankin, will be performed at the Library of Congress at their invitation in April.

The collaborative song set for mezzo-soprano and piano celebrates the extraordinary congresswoman from Montana—the first woman elected to Congress (in 1916), a committed leader of the woman’s suffrage movement, and a lifelong peace activist. Brazelton worked with composers Laura Kaminsky, Laura Karpman, and Ellen Reid, as well as librettist Kimberly Reed, on the song cycle. 

In April 2016, Brazelton was the recipient of a Commissioning Grant from OPERA America, under the auspices of the Opera Grants for Female Composers program supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation for her project Animal Tales. The orchestrated premiere will take place on March 25, 2017.