Turn The Spotlight Foundation to Mentor Arts Leaders
Turn The Spotlight’s mission is to identify, nurture, and empower leaders, and in turn, illuminate the path to a more equitable future in the arts. The foundation was created to pair top-tier mentors with exceptional women, people of color, and other equity-seeking groups in the arts.
July 31, 2018
Lumos Fellows Elena Uriote and Melissa White. Photo by Daniel Cavazos
Today, twenty-one arts leaders and activists announce the launch of Turn The Spotlight, a foundation created to pair top-tier mentors with exceptional women, people of color, and other equity-seeking groups in the arts. Beth Stewart, a New York City-based arts entrepreneur and classical music publicist, will lead the foundation, which is supported by an Advisory Board of arts world luminaries, including soprano Julia Bullock, journalists Anne Midgette and Celeste Headlee, conductors Lidiya Yankovskaya and Nicole Paiement, stage director Francesca Zambello, classical music publicist Mary Lou Falcone, arts advocates Monica Yunus and Camille Zamora, and women’s rights advocate Amanda Mejia.
“We believe that systemic change is crucial,” said Turn The Spotlight Founder Beth Stewart. “We also believe that one-on-one mentoring can have real impact, particularly in an industry in which so many professionals are freelancers working outside an established institutional framework. Our mission is to identify, nurture, and empower leaders, and in turn, illuminate the path to a more equitable future in the arts.”
Stewart has recruited ten industry-leading mentors from a wide range of artistic specialties, including Emmy Award-winning documentarian Kristin Atwell Ford, producer/director Avery Willis Hoffman, Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, and composer Kamala Sankaram. They will join arts activists Alysia Lee, Rebecca McFaul and Anne Francis Bayless, sopranos Heidi Melton and Corinne Winters, and designer Jessica Jahn in mentoring the foundation’s fellows during the 2018/19 season.
“Nearly all of our first cohort of Lumos Fellows have founded organizations, produced or commissioned new work. Each has a distinctive voice and clear personal mission, and they are committed to using their art to strengthen their communities. We believe these versatile and inventive arts leaders and activists are the way forward,” said Stewart.
The 2018/19 Lumos Fellows will collaborate on a striking breadth of projects, ranging from building community investment in arts entrepreneurship to developing a line of gender non-binary swimwear, and confronting personal violence through performance. The Fellows include vocalist Lucy Dhegrae, founder of the Resonant Bodies Festival, director/producer Jamil Jude, founder of The New Griots Festival, violinist and Fulbright Scholar Teagan Faran, who studies how music can strengthen community togetherness, and composer Frances Pollock, whose music examines social issues through collaboration outside traditional academic circles.
Emerging classical singers Rehanna Thelwell, Felicia Moore, and Anush Avetisyan, costume designer Sueann Leung, and DC Strings Artistic Director Andrew Lee will round out the first cohort, along with violinists Elena Urioste and Melissa White, whose company Intermission was founded to teach musicians yoga techniques to support the demanding physicality and emotional undertaking of performance.
At the conclusion of the mentorship season in May, one Lumos Fellow will be chosen by the Spotlight Advisory Board to receive the Hedwig Holbrook Prize, to include $5,000 and a website designed by Stewart’s PR firm, Verismo Communications.
“It’s my hope that this prize, named in honor of the late soprano Jennifer Holbrook, will represent a galvanizing force in one fellow’s life each season,” said Stewart. “I expect each of our Lumos Fellows to emerge from this experience with a clearer vision of the path of his or her personal mission, and a deeper well of fuel to get there.”
Though the organization’s day-to-day operations will be focused on individual mentorship, Turn The Spotlight leaders hope that their cumulative efforts will contribute to addressing inequity across sectors of the arts industry.
“The classical music industry continues to lag woefully behind when it comes to diversity, especially in leadership positions within larger-budget organizations,” said conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya, founder of the Refugee Orchestra Project and the only female Music Director in the top 50 opera companies in the United States. “Turn the Spotlight is providing the essential mentorship and support those from marginalized groups require in order to reach high-level career goals. I am thrilled to be part of this vital resource for deserving artists across the field.”
“The arts provide the prism through which we can first envision, and then build, a better and more just world,” added Camille Zamora, co-founder of Sing for Hope and a leading voice in the artist-as-citizen movement. “Turn The Spotlight is poised to do exactly what the name suggests: refocus the illuminating power of the arts.”
Rolando Sanz Brings Andrew Lippa Concept Opera to Strathmore
Executive Producer Rolando Sanz brought Lippa's latest work, a concept opera starring Kristin Chenoweth, to Washington, D.C. this weekend.
April 24, 2016
Composer/lyricist Andrew Lippa, Jacquie Sanz, Executive Producer Rolando Sanz, and star Kristin Chenoweth
Executive Producer Rolando Sanz brought the world premiere of Andrew Lippa's latest work, a concept opera called I Am Anne Hutchinson / I Am Harvey Milk, to the Music Center at Strathmore near Washington, D.C. this weekend.
Starring Kristin Chenoweth and composer/lyricist Andrew Lippa, the work deals with two reluctant prophets speaking up for women's rights and gay rights.
The production was met with critical acclaim, with the Washington Post raving, "This is music as activism, celebratory and inspirational. Strathmore gets very high marks for pulling together this premiere; surely – hopefully – this won’t be the last time Lippa and Chenoweth perform Anne/Harvey with the full battalion of musical support marshaled here."
Featuring forces of 175 musicians, the production was directed by Noah Himmelstein. Before the premiere, Rolando spoke with Classicalite and Broadway World Opera about the experience of mounting the project and the middle-of-the-night stroke of inspiration that led to coining the new "concept opera" genre.
Creative team and cast of I Am Anne Hutchinson / I Am Harvey Milk
Rolando Sanz Featured on Schmopera
"One does not need to "appreciate" singing to know what good singing is...we all know it when we hear it, and the goosebumps are proof positive of that." Rolando Sanz talks with Schmopera about listening to the greats, trusting oneself, and giving Aretha Franklin the R-E-S-P-E-C-T she deserves.
February 17, 2016
Rolando Sanz talks with Schmopera about listening to the greats, trusting oneself, and giving Aretha Franklin the R-E-S-P-E-C-T she deserves.
"Tenor Rolando Sanz has an enviable schedule, singing roles like Alfredo in La traviata, Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore, and Rodolfo in La bohème. He reprises Alfredo with Ash Lawn Opera in May, and he's currently juggling understudy responsibilities at The Metropolitan Opera for their ongoing production of Otello. Despite his busy schedule, Sanz found time to talk about his bucket list roles, and all the things "good singing" can mean. "One does not need to "appreciate" singing to know what good singing is...we all know it when we hear it, and the goosebumps are proof positive of that."
Rolando Sanz to Executive Produce Concept Opera Starring Kristin Chenoweth
In April 2016, Rolando Sanz and Strathmore will present the world premiere of I Am Anne Hutchinson/I Am Harvey Milk, a concept opera by Grammy and Tony Award-nominated composer Andrew Lippa.
September 9, 2015
In April 2016, Rolando Sanz and Strathmore will present the world premiere of I Am Anne Hutchinson/I Am Harvey Milk, the newest work by Grammy and Tony Award-nominated composer Andrew Lippa.
Broadway superstar Kristin Chenoweth will join Lippa, along with a full symphonic orchestra and a cast of 140 actors and singers. Part choral work, part theater piece, this concept opera will bring to life two trailblazing stories of struggle, joy, passion, and ultimately, triumph.
Centuries apart, two reluctant prophets stood up for equality and changed the world. This groundbreaking World Premiere Concept Opera combines song, movement and powerful storytelling, bringing to life the emotional tales of two American icons.
Starring Broadway luminaries Kristin Chenoweth and Andrew Lippa, this stunning production magically weaves together the lives of 17th century women’s rights activist Anne Hutchinson and 1970s’ gay rights leader Harvey Milk. Separated by time, space, and culture, these two heroes were each lit from within by the same fierce passion for human dignity and devoted themselves to the fight for justice. This new, riveting theatrical work celebrates courage in the face of daunting odds, shining across the centuries from the hearts of two good people who achieved greatness.
Strathmore will partner with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and the National Women’s History Museum, who will benefit from the proceeds of these performances.
