Lessons from Medusa

Molly
Jun 1
6 min read

STUDIO NEWS

Michael Begale (MSU - BM) is the Interim VP of the Northwest and Regional Leader of Sales of 10 offices for the Otis Elevator Company, where he also leads the Pride Group. He remains an active singer with his participation in the Golden Gate Men's Chorus (13th year!) ggmc.org and recently got married - congratulations, Michael!
Sara Kennedy (UNT - MM, GAC) was selected by Sarasota Opera to receive the Gunther and Ilse Kern Grant for Outstanding Opera Artists. She is also appearing as Bianca in Zemlinsky's Zimmer with Little Opera Theatre of New York.
Tessa Newman (UNT - BM) will sing the role of Lakmé with Chicago Summer Opera this year, and she also sang Donna Elvira with the International Bel canto Academy in the Netherlands. Tessa appeared as Fredrika in A Little Night Music with a professional company in Chicago, as well.
Shelby van Nordstrand (MSU - MM), Samantha Schmitz (UNT - MM), and Alex Longnecker (UNT - MM) made up three of the four soloists in the Mozart Requiem, as part of the Iowa State Singers Alumni Concert at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. This is a great representation of Fillmore Studio alums in one concert. Go Cyclones!
Anna Valcour (UNT - MM) was a guest speaker at Southern Illinois University this spring. The title of her lecture was "Enabling the King(s) of Opera: Institutional Responsibility for Sexual Misconduct".
Diego Valdez (UNT - BM) sang the role of Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Magnifico in early May
Maiya Williams (UNT - MM, GAC) is a member of the Spoleto Festival Chorus in Charleston, South Carolina this summer

MSU = Michigan State University, UNT = University of North Texas

STUDIO MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Soprano Yuhui Yang hails from Shanghai, China, and is a DMA candidate at the University of North Texas. She graduated from Shanghai Conservatory of Music for Bachelor degree and Manhattan school of Music for Master degree and Professional study certificate. Her opera credits include Manuelita in Offenbach's Pepita with Dallas Opera, Adele (Die Fledermaus), Despina (Cosi fan tutte), Frasquita (Carmen), and Barbarina (Le nozze di Figaro) with UNT Opera, Cupid (Orpheus in the Underworld) with Manhattan School of Music, Zerlina (Don Giovanni) with Macedonian Opera and Ballet in Skopje, Macedonia, and Musetta (La boheme) with Sherman Symphony. She was the first runner up in the Madame Rose Palmal-Tenser Scholarship Competition, and a soloist in the "Liederabend" produced by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe exchange program. She returns to Dallas Opera in the 2025-2026 as a principal soloist for their outreach program, among other engagements!

Congratulations on all of your successes, Yuhui!

REFLECTION - Lessons from Medusa

Note: Reflections are based on my life experience and not meant to be an explanation, judgement, or accounting of the lives of others.

There is a long history of music (and other arts) making statements about contemporary issues. In my experience, however, most of the music I have sung is commentary of psychological states: being in love, loss of love, feeling rejuvenated, feeling empty... and the list goes on. Of course, there are many art songs dealing with war: Mahler's "Revelge" or "Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen"... Poulenc comes to mind, as well.

But despite all of the minutes of my life that I have spent singing, I can only count two performance experiences that were very obviously meant to stir up dialogue about contemporary issues, with specific known figures as the topic. The first was Satyagraha, an opera with music by Philip Glass that highlights Mahatma Gandhi's years in South Africa. This took place at the Metropolitan Opera, and I sang the role of Mrs. Naidoo. The final scene of the opera was staggering: the audience saw the shadowed figure of an actor, representing Martin Luther King, Jr., giving an impassioned speech, surrounded on both sides of the stage by projected images of civil rights marches in Washington, D.C. And in the foreground the singer portraying Mahatma Gandhi sang 37 repetitions of a simple ascending line, musically composed with a transcendent beauty unique to Philip Glass. (The DVD of the opera, as well as streaming options, are available to watch, if you interested.)

I remember being in the wings, offstage, viewing that final scene. Seeing the artists representing Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi together, accompanied by videos of civil rights marches and the music by Philip Glass reached me and others in a way that no news story could. The combination of all the artistic elements, combined, was insurmountably powerful.

More recently, I had the opportunity to sing a work called Medusa, by contemporary composer Jocelyn Hagen, who set her music to text by Gretchen E. Henderson. I performed this with the UNT Wind Symphony, under the direction of Eugene Corporan. This was the first time I sang about directly about rape in a piece of music. It's not graphic, the word is simply used in a factual manner. And it should be used in a factual manner, not something cloaked in a closet of shame or fear. But it so often is.

Ms. Hagen's work is unique in multiple ways: the inventive music, the subject matter's perspective, and the way in which she has the wind players participate vocally by whispering, talking, even crying out at times. There is a moment in the work when one female wind player calls out, "Can you even see me?!"

Can. you. even. see. me. ...

Given my experience as a female, this phrase, in the larger context of asking it of the world, resonated so vividly in me.

We had two performances, and after the first performance, Ms. Hagen, who was in attendance, wanted to try a new idea for the second performance. She thought it would be great for me to take a longer time entering the stage, moving around it more, looking at both the musicians and audience directly as I did. I eagerly accepted the opportunity to more aggressively bring them into the performance. As I walked onto the stage, I felt a lot of #MeToo energy. I thought of Medusa, misunderstood, and condemned to misrepresentation. And I thought of the wind player, calling out, "Can you even see me?", and the other females in the wind symphony and what must they feel. I wondered, is the world an easier place for them to navigate as a female than it was for me as a college student? I hope so. Near the end of the piece, I ("Medusa") looked straight into the eyes of audience members when I sang, "What comes next?" I wanted to make them think of that. What comes next? Will things get better? Will double standards shrink? Will we get paid fairly? Will we be able to be less fearful going for walks or jogs if we are alone? Will reporters ask substantive questions of our female public figures and not those focusing on their bodies? Will our new mothers get the time off and support they need? Will we ... will we... will we...

I don't know. But I do know that Medusa allowed me (and my musical collaborators) to pose those questions to the audience through bold, captivating music, which undoubtedly affected the audience in a different way than scrolling through news tidbits or regular, spoken conversations. This is where an intersection of music and society can have such an enormous impact.

There are many incredible classical or mixed-genre composers out there who, like Jocelyn Hagen, are creating works that pound on the door of complacency and ask us to listen, and/or allow us to be heard. I was inspired to look for more of those works, and hope that my studio members and alums will, too.

Most special thanks to Jocelyn Hagen and to Eugene Corporan for the opportunity to perform Medusa, and to the UNT Wind Symphony - an incredibly talented group of musicians.

FEATURED FRIEND

This month's featured friend, Messi, lives with our featured studio member, Yuhui Yang in Shanghai, China!

Hello! My name is Messi, and I am 6-year-old Exotic Shorthair cat. My favorite things are my scratching post, feather teaser wand, and salmon freeze-dried treats.

Let me know!

If you are a studio alum or current member and have news to share (music-related or otherwise!), or would like to be featured (or would like your cat, dog, et al. to be featured), click here!

With gratitude for my students and for the craft of teaching,