Performers

KARIM SULAYMAN, tenor

TOOMAI STRING QUINTET

• EMMA FRUCHT, violin

• GEORGE MEYER, violin

• RAMÓN CARRERO-MARTINEZ, viola

• HAMILTON BERRY, cello

• ANDREW ROITSTEIN, double bass

DANNY ZELIBOR, piano and music director

KEVIN FITZGERALD, conductor

Program

UNRULY SUN, Music by Matthew Ricketts & Libretto by Mark Campbell

In 1986, not long after Derek Jarman was diagnosed with AIDS, the filmmaker and queer activist purchased a small fisherman’s shack in Dungeness on the southern coast of England. During this period, Jarman maintained a memoir of his experiences, creating a garden in a harsh environment, surviving AIDS, and looking back on his relationships, his art and his activism. It was published a few years later as Modern Nature.

Unruly Sun is a music-theater work featuring eighteen songs inspired by this memoir and created by Canadian composer Matthew Ricketts and celebrated American librettist, Mark Campbell whose operas have received both a Pulitzer Prize in Music and a GRAMMY Award.

Our unique concert performance of this magnificent work is performed by Lebanese-American tenor, Karim Sulayman who has garnered international attention as a sophisticated and versatile artist, consistently praised for his sensitive and intelligent musicianship, riveting stage presence, and beautiful voice. The 2019 Best Classical Solo Vocal GRAMMY Award winner, he continues to earn acclaim for his programming and recording projects, while regularly performing on the world’s stages in opera, orchestral concerts, recital and chamber music. He is joined by Texan pianist, Danny Zelibor, praised for his sensitive and colorful playing, and the gifted and musically voracious, Toomai String Quintet. The performance is conducted by 2021 Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellow, American conductor Kevin Fitzgerald whose open-hearted presence and commitment to a diverse and modernized musical world have brought him to the forefront of the next generation of conductors.

Tickets: Age 35+: $38 | 22-34: $20 | 21 & Under: Pay What You Wish

Honorary Concert Sponsor: Robert Johnston