Sarah Hutchings ''

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

'' Reneer (born September 27, 1984) is an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

of contemporary

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

art song An art song is a Western vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano accompaniment, and usually in the classical art music tradition. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the collective genre of such songs ...

, and choral works.

Life and career

Sarah Hutchings was born Sarah Reneer in Lexington, Kentucky on September 27, 1984 and raised in

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

where she had her first music lessons at the age of four. Hutchings received her

Bachelor of Music Bachelor of Music (BM or BMus) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree, and the majority of work consists of prescr ...

degree in 2007 from

Western Carolina University Western Carolina University (WCU) is a public university in Cullowhee, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system. The fifth oldest institution of the sixteen four-year universities in the UNC system, WCU was founded t ...

, her Master of Music degree from

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

in 2010, and her

Doctor of Musical Arts The Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) is a doctoral academic degree in music. The DMA combines advanced studies in an applied area of specialization (usually music performance, music composition, or conducting) with graduate-level academic study in ...

from University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 2013. She has studied under

Ladislav Kubík Ladislav Kubík (26 August 1946 – 27 October 2017) was a Czech-American composer. His style is associated with other post-war Eastern European composers, such as Krzysztof Penderecki and Witold Lutosławski. He graduated from the Music and Danc ...

, Clifton Callendar, Michael Fiday, Joel Hoffman, and

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Ellen Taaffe Zwilich ( ; born April 30, 1939) is an American composer, the first female composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Her early works are marked by atonal exploration, but by the late 1980s, she had shifted to a postmodernist, ne ...

. Hutchings is married to operatic baritone Mitchell Hutchings and lives in

Boca Raton, Florida Boca Raton ( ; es, Boca Ratón, link=no, ) is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It was first incorporated on August 2, 1924, as "Bocaratone," and then incorporated as "Boca Raton" in 1925. The population was 97,422 in the ...

Works

Hutchings's compositions include four short operas, art songs, and a choral work.

Operas

*''Remember Me'', an operatic scene for soprano and baritone with piano accompaniment, received a Festival Award from

Boston Metro Opera Boston Metro Opera was a semi-professional American opera company based in the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts. The company specialized in contemporary works and operated from 2008 to 2015. It also sponsored and ran the Boston-International Co ...

's International Composers' Competition in 2012 and was performed at the Robert J. Werner Recital Hall, University of Cincinnati in 2013.Boston Metro Opera (2014)
''Boston-International Contempo Festival''
/ref> *''Styria'', for nine voices and full orchestra with a libretto based the Gothic novel ''

Carmilla ''Carmilla'' is an 1872 Gothic fiction, Gothic novella by Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu and one of the early works of vampire fiction, predating Bram Stoker's ''Dracula'' (1897) by 26 years. First published as a Serial (literature), serial in ' ...

'', was composed for her doctoral dissertation. It was performed in

concert version A concert performance or concert version is a performance of a musical theater or opera in concert form, without set design or costumes, and mostly without theatrical interaction between singers. Concert performances are commonly presented in c ...

at the Robert J. Werner Recital Hall, University of Cincinnati in 2013. *''Twenty Minutes or Less'' was commissioned by the

Washington National Opera The Washington National Opera (WNO) is an American opera company in Washington, D.C. Formerly the Opera Society of Washington and the Washington Opera, the company received Congressional designation as the National Opera Company in 2000. Performa ...

as part of its "American Opera Initiative". It was performed in a semi-staged version in December 2015 at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater along with two other 20-minute operas commissioned by the initiative, David Clay Mettens's ''Alexandra'' and Christopher Weiss's ''Service Provider''. *''Rodman in North Korea'', scored for three soloists, SATB chorus and chamber orchestra, is a satirical opera based on Dennis Rodman's 2013 visit to North Korea. It was given a workshop performance by Houghton Lyric Theater at

Houghton College Houghton University is a private Christian liberal arts college in Houghton, New York. Houghton was founded in 1883 by Willard J. Houghton and is affiliated with the Wesleyan Church.

in 2015.

Art song

*''Songs of Mortality I-III'' is a

song cycle A song cycle (german: Liederkreis or Liederzyklus) is a group, or cycle (music), cycle, of individually complete Art song, songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online'' The songs are either for solo voice ...

set to texts by

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

. It was composed as Hutchings's Master of Music dissertation between 2008 and 2009. * ''On Faith and Life'' is a song cycle composed in 2010. It was performed at the Robert J. Werner Recital Hall, University of Cincinnati in 2013. *''Ode to Free Beer'' is an art song composed in 2011 and set to partial text from Jeff Gundy's poem "March Ode". *''Vestige of a Woman'' is a song cycle composed in 2012. It was one of the finalists for the

National Association of Teachers of Singing The National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) is a professional organization for singing teachers, and it is the largest association of its kind in the world. There are more than 6,500 members, mostly from the United States. Additional m ...

's 2014 Art Song Composition Award. *''In Seasons of Life's Pursuit'' is a song cycle for baritone and piano. It was premiered by Mitchell Hutchings on April 26, 2016 at Hatch Recital Hall,

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman. It offers Bachelor of Music (B.M ...

and was one of the finalists for the National Association of Teachers of Singing's 2017 Art Song Composition Award.

Choral

*''Stabat Mater Seorsa'' for women's chorus (SSAA) was first performed on October 18, 2019 in Boca Raton by the

Florida Atlantic University Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Florida, Dania Beach, Davie, Florida, Davie, Fort Lauderd ...

Women's Chorus under the direction of Stacie Lee Rossow.

Reception

Alex Baker in '' Parterre Box'' described the score Hutchings's opera ''Twenty Minutes or Less'' as having "imaginatively captured the tonal shifts, moving from spiky, rollicking ensembles to a series of introspective Bernstein-esque arias." In her review of the opera,

Anne Midgette Anne Midgette (born June 22, 1965) is an American music critic who was the first woman to write classical music criticism regularly for ''The New York Times''. She was the chief classical music critic of ''The Washington Post'' from 2008 to 2 ...

of the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', wrote that Hutchings composed "appealingly for instruments, with a sinuous muted trombone adding a big-band flavor, but needed work setting the text so that it could be understood."

References

External links

Official website

Sarah Hutchings
on

Operabase Operabase is an online database of opera performances, opera houses and companies, and performers themselves as well as their agents. Found at operabase.com, it was created in 1996 by English software engineer and opera lover Mike Gibb.Edward Sch ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutchings, Sarah Women opera composers 1984 births Living people Western Carolina University alumni Florida State University alumni University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music alumni American women composers 21st-century American women