Roosevelt University students will perform in the world premiere of Pale Courage at 7:30 p.m. on March 18 and 19. The opera follows the true story of one woman’s hunger strike for education in Korea.
Dr. Kyong Mee Choi is a professor of composition at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts. She wrote the music in honor of her great-aunt’s struggle for equal access to education. Voice performance and orchestral studies students will bring the three-act opera to life for the first time.
Performances are free to attend. No tickets required.
The opera exposes a conflict between traditional Confucian values and Western ideologies. It also addresses a universal message about women’s rights and education during Women’s History Month.
“Real life is always complex,” Choi explains. “We tend to make abstract images about good or bad. Sometimes, by doing that, we don’t see this complex web of the human condition.”
Choi’s compositions have been performed at international electroacoustic venues. She has received several prestigious awards, including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, Robert Helps Prize and Aaron Copland Award, among others.
Pale Courage will be performed at Merle Reskin Theatre, 60 E. Balbo Dr., Chicago.
For more information: www.roosevelt.edu/ccpa or 312-341-2352.
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Roosevelt University is a private nonprofit institution founded in 1945 on the principles of social and racial justice. The University continues to champion diversity, inclusion and access through experiential learning that transcends the classroom.
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