Thompson Street Opera Company's 2020-2021 season opens with their first ever Commissioning Project, featuring monodramas specifically designed for the medium of remote collaboration and performance. Composers Njabulo Phungula (South Africa), Yshani Perinpanayagam (United Kingdom), and Del'Shawn Taylor (USA) have written three works exploring imminently relevant themes. Phungula’s multi-movement work will take fragments of poems by Whitman, Beaudelaire, Carroll, Cavendish, Joyce, and Roslys Jones to craft an exploratory narrative of time and memory. The narrator in Perinpanyagam's work is catching up with an old friend on a video call, having recently left an abusive partner who had isolated her from everyone she loved. Mamie Till-Mobley, mother of Emmett Till, takes the spotlight in Del’Shawn Taylor’s work.

This groundbreaking project features the vocal talents of company stalwart Kristina Bachrach and Chicago favorite Amanda Noelle Neal, in addition to presenting Executive & Artistic Director Claire DiVizio's return to the company stage. Filling out the musical landscape will be TSOC orchestra members Robert Alvarado Switala (concertmaster), Kelsey Hanson (viola), John Rogler (cello) and pianist Cody Michael Bradley.

The Fall Commissioning Project premieres virtually December 15th at 7:30pm CST. The total runtime of the event will be approximately 40 minutes, including a 5-minute pause.