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Susan
Bingham
was a concert pianist before taking up composing in 1974. The Children's
and Liturgical Opera, LLC, formerly known as Chancel Opera Company
of Connecticut, Inc., was formed in 1979 in order to perform her
liturgical operas and other works.
Pieces in the
Children's and Liturgical Opera library include eighteen sermon-length
liturgical operas and several anthems, psalm settings and motets.
The operas tour extensively in the Northeast United States, four
of them have been broadcast over NBC television, and the Company
toured to Germany in 2000.
Susan Bingham
has also written the following operas for children of all ages:
The Emperor and the Nightingale, Eli W, Tiny Operas, The Little
Match Girl, Rabbi Nachman's Chair, Old Befana, The Musicians of
Bremen, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, The Changeling, Char Face,
The Legend of the Bluebonnet, Anniversary Tales, Daniel's Gift,
The Other Wise Man, and The Talking Stones of Machu Picchu
(opera based on Inca tales). Four of her chamber operas have been
presented at New York's Lincoln Center under the auspices of MEET
THE COMPOSER.
Ms. Bingham
has also written the ballet The Snow Queen, based on the
Andersen tale, which premiered in New Haven with the New Haven Ballet
and Orchestra New England.
Before becoming
Artistic Director of the Children's and Liturgical Opera, Susan
Bingham co-directed music at the Foote School Summer Theatre Program
in New Haven, Connecticut, and the Children's Opera Program at the
Shubert Center for the Performing Arts. She worked for 23 years
as a volunteer composer with students at the Worthington Hooker
Elementary School on opera projects. Her work was supported for
many years with grants from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts,
The New Haven Foundation, The New Haven Fund for Arts in Education,
the Margaret Jory Music Copying Grant, MEET THE COMPOSER, and others.
Susan Bingham
recently moved to Emmaus, Pennsylvania, with her husband, retired
lawyer Timothy Bingham. They have a grown daughter, a grown son,
and five grandsons. Susan has also taken up painting and spends
a great deal of her time working with the young people in her parish.
For further
information:
Children's and Liturgical Opera, LLC
502 Chestnut Street Apt. 3
Emmaus, PA 18049
203-562-0634
www.chancelopera.org
e-mail: chancelopra@chancelopera.com
(updated 9/17/2006)
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