Felix Jarrar and Jean Kim will be the composers-in-residence at SUNY Fredonia’s Hillman Opera program.

Jarrar, also a pianist,  is a composer of art song and numerous operas including “Tabula Rasa,” “Mother Goose,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” among others. In sum, he has composed 12 operas, 194 art songs, and numerous other chamber works.

Kim is a pianist, educator, and conductor who has appeared at such venues as the Alcazar Palace in Seville, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Fine Arts Building in Chicago, and the Banff Centre in Canada, among others.

The composers’ works will appear in performance on August 27, 2022.

“I am very grateful to /kor/ productions in Chicago for organizing this residency for the fall semester with SUNY Fredonia’s Hillman Opera, and am honored to be a composer in residence alongside Jean Kim,” Jarrar told OperaWire. “In this position, I am excited to offer my catalog to the students via /kor/ for them to perform. New music should be performed at all ages, levels, and various stages of artistic development, and many of the works in my output are successfully done by students and seasoned professionals. This residency celebrates the accessibility of my output.”

“Yesterday in my coachings with the singers via Zoom, I was touched to see how the students really resonated with my narratives, queer themes, and really worked to learn not only the music, but all of the emotions I put into these songs when I wrote them,” he concluded.