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Karlos Moser led the artistic team which created the opera "Esperanza", and he created substantial portions of the opera's orchestrations for the premiere performances. He and Melinda prepared the opera for the premiere in August of 2000, and Karlos conducted those performances.
Karlos and Melinda also created and performed the many community outreach performances of portions of the opera as it developed. These performances stretched over a period of three years, and included venues as diverse as a formal on-stage run-through of portions of the whole opera for a large and diverse community audience, a rousing round of acapella opera choruses at the Madison Labor Temple, and small house concerts for curious members of Madison's political and arts communities.
With "Esperanza", we worked to demystify opera among non-traditional, largely working-class, audiences. We also sought to bring the power of operatic expression to the concerns of working people, and honor those concerns thereby. Karlos and Melinda led and inspired us in those efforts.
Karlos Moser
Artistic Director and Conductor
Karlos Moser started his musical training in Western Brazil where he was born; and may have learned as much from the mutum bird and the tropical ambience as he did from his first teachers. He passed his early teens, however, under the strict discipline of Antonia Brico, in Denver, who introduced him to conducting, score-reading, ear-training, solfège, and transposition at sight, good skills to get in your teens.
During his long tenure at the School of Music, University of Wisconsin-Madison, many changes have occurred in the school and in the surrounding city, including a more modern perception of opera and its place in the larger community. "Esperanza" in many ways culminates and brings into focus his many interests and passions. The mix of working with old friends and getting to know new artists is especially appreciated.
Melinda L. Moser
Rehearsal Pianist and Musical Coach
Melinda L. Moser received her early piano training in Evansville, Indiana, and her Master of Music in Accompany degree at the UW-Madison in 1975. This training, however, did not completely prepare her for the speed, volatility, and arcane language of ballet, which she encountered in her first job, as a ballet pianist. She has since appeared as soloist with the Waukesha Symphony, and concertized in four-hands programs in Japan and throughout the USA.
Her work as coach for the UW-Madison Opera brought the rewards of the greater world of opera, with its variety, larger vision, and many languages. For many years she played for Metropolitan Opera Auditions in Milwaukee and Minneapolis, and for the master classes associated with it. In that capacity she has worked with such artists as Thomas Hampson and Evelyn Lear.