News Release

*Local angles: Charlotte, Greensboro,
Raleigh,Wilson; Kunkletown, Pa.;
Temple, Texas; Virginia Beach, Va.

CHAPEL HILL — It is just before the American Revolution in a community settled by Scottish immigrants, along the Cape Fear River.

A vainglorious old Scottish laird fiercely maintains old ways, but a middle-aged Scottish woman, consumed by the fever of revolution and protest, eagerly embraces the new.

Such are the setting and plot of "The Sojourner and Mollie Sinclair," a comic one-act opera to be performed April 8 and April 9 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Both shows will be free to the public at 8 p.m. in Hill Hall Auditorium.

Singers of the UNC Opera, costumed in Scottish plaids, will present the tale with the 16-member University Chamber Players. Both groups are composed of undergraduate students, most of them music majors.

Set in the mid-18^th century, the jubilant opus explores lively attitudes about the approaching revolution. Carlisle Floyd, considered one of America’s greatest opera composers, was commissioned to write the opera by North Carolina’s Tercentenary Committee in the 1960s. The committee asked for a stage work drawn from the Tar Heel state’s history.

UNC music professors Dr. Terry Rhodes and Donald L. Oehler, and Jeremy Peterman, pianist, coach and accompanist for the opera, will direct the performances.

Different performers will play the starring roles each evening. The April 8 performance will feature Casey Molino Dunn and Sarah Brindley in the title roles, with Vanessa J. Isiguen and Kevin Campbell playing their children. On April 9, Brian Y. Park and Melinda Whittington will perform the title roles, with Heidi Fisher and Jonathan Nussman as the children.

The cast also will feature Erica Alston, Allison Brancati, Diana Chang, Jonas Hancock, Meg Monroe, Elizabeth Moran, Nicholas Nguyen, Danielle Korinne Pecone, Emily Shepherd, Kate Stratton, Emily Wolber and Frank Zachary.

Floyd is perhaps best known for two of his most performed operas, "Susannah" and "Of Mice and Men." In 2004, he received the National Medal of Art, the nation’s highest honor for artistic excellence.

The "Sojourner" production is supported by funding from UNC’s Office of the Provost and the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence in the College of Arts and Sciences. For more information, contact Rhodes at 919-962-2270 or rhodes@email.unc.edu.

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*Local angles: The starring students’ hometowns are as follows: Charlotte: Jonathan Nussman, Vanessa J. Isiguen; Greensboro: Brian Y. Park; Raleigh: Heidi Fisher; Wilson: Melinda Whittington; Kunkletown, Pa.: Casey Molino Dunn; Temple, Texas: Sarah Brindley; Virginia Beach, Va.: Kevin Campbell

Music department contact: Dr. Terry Rhodes, 919-962-2270, rhodes@email.unc.edu

News Services contacts: Print, L.J. Toler, 962-8589; broadcast, Karen Moon, 962-9585