Breathe
Songs by Adrienne Danrich and Drew Hemenger
“Breathe” is a collaboration between soprano Adrienne Danrich and composer Drew Hemenger. The powerful text, which includes a short spoken section, is their musical response to the ongoing tragedy of Black lives being lost through violence and ignorance.
The premiere was on Sept. 12, 2020 by Adrienne Danrich, soprano, and Brent Funderburk, piano.
The World Premiere Recording, “Looking At You,”
Bright Shiny Things releases the world premiere recording of “Looking At You,” an immersive techno-noir chamber opera by composer Kamala Sankaram and librettist Rob Handel. Developed with and directed by HERE Arts Center’s Founding Artistic Director Kristin Marting, the 86-minute chamber opera is scored for saxophone trio, piano, electronics, and six singers. The new recording stars Paul An, Adrienne Danrich, Blythe Gaissert, Eric McKeever, Brandon Snook, and Mikki Sodergren.
–Article By Francisco Salazar
Purchase on Bright Shiny Things
Love & Trouble: Five Personas ~ One Voice
Songs by Dave Hall and Adrienne Danrich
With a rich, expressively powerful voice, EMMY award winner Adrienne Danrich brings to life five personas through songs that are at times playfully funny, witty and emotionally riveting. In her debut album, Adrienne and New York based composer Dave Hall have seamlessly blended Classical, Jazz, Blues, Pop and Gospel styles to tempt a wide range of listeners. From the opera going crowd to the church revivalist, Love and Trouble has something for everyone.
This Little Light of Mine: The Stories of Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price DVD
Adrienne Danrich, winner of the 2011 Chicago/Midwest EMMY
(Outstanding Crafts Achievement for On Camera Talent – Narrator Performer)
This Little Light of Mine, nominated for the 2011 Chicago/Midwest EMMY
(Outstanding Crafts Achievement for Best Program Segment)
Written by Adrienne Danrich under a commission from the Cincinnati Opera, This Little Light of Mine is an inventive one-woman musical tribute honoring the ground breaking careers of two African-American opera legends who overcame many racial barriers from the Jim Crow era through the Civil Rights Movement to become international opera stars. Ms. Anderson became the first African-American singer to perform at The Metropolitan Opera House in New York and Ms. Price would take that torch and carry it to The Metropolitan Opera and the most prestigious opera houses around the world.
Best described as a ‘live documentary’, Ms. Danrich narrates the remarkable story with moving dialogue and songs and arias that bring the accomplishments of these two great women to audiences that will never hear them ‘live’. In addition to her storytelling ability and the beauty of her voice, Ms. Danrich creatively documents the lives of the two artist/pioneers by showing poignant multi-media images of the pair at different stages in their lives and playing audio excerpts of some of their most famous recordings.
An Aids Quilt Songbook: Sing For Hope
(All profits from the sale of this album will go to amfAR)
An all-star cast of renowned singers and instrumentalists comes together on one CD to sing for hope and in the cause of supporting AIDS research: Joyce DiDonato, Yo-Yo Ma, Jamie Barton, Noah Stewart, Susanna Phillips, Sean Panikkar, Matthew Polenzani, Anthony Dean Griffey, Monica Yunus, Camille Zamora, Isabel Leonard and many more. Actors Sharon Stone (“Casino”, “Basic Instinct”) and Ansel Elgort (“The Fault In Our Stars”) contribute readings of poetry. All profits from the sale of this album will go to amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research. This CD features new songs by established and emerging American composers, many specially commissioned to create a global musical portrait of AIDS today.
Purchase on Amazon
Purchase on iTunes
The Sound of Music: Live! NBC Television Event
(Adrienne Danrich-Nun Ensemble for this production)
Sony Masterworks proudly releases the companion soundtrack to NBC’s live broadcast of “The Sound of Music,” based on the classic stage musical. The three-hour live production, starring six-time Grammy Award winner Carrie Underwood as Maria von Trapp, will air December 5.
The cast also includes Audra McDonald (“Private Practice”), who has won five Tony Awards and two Grammys, as Mother Abbess; Stephen Moyer (“True Blood”), who will play Capt. Georg von Trapp; Tony Award winner Christian Borle (“Smash”), who will portray von Trapp family friend Max Detweiler; and Tony winner Laura Benanti (“Go On”), who will portray Elsa Schrader, the captain s onetime fiancee.
“The Sound of Music” Music From the NBC Television Event features studio recordings of all the musical numbers performed in the live broadcast, including Rodgers and Hammerstein favorites “The Sound of Music,” “My Favorite Things,” ‘Do-Re-Mi,” “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” and “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” among others.
“The Sound of Music,” set in the 1930’s before and during “Anschluss” when the Nazi’s annexed Austria, is based on the romantic true story of Maria von Trapp, an aspiring nun who leaves the abbey to become a governess for the widower Capt. von Trapp’s seven children. She soon finds herself falling in love with her employer and questioning her religious calling. It premiered on Broadway in 1959 where it broke box-office records and won the Tony Award for best musical. The 1965 film adaptation won the Oscar for best picture.
Only Heaven by Ricky Ian Gordon
Adrienne Danrich, Soprano Solist
“There are far more than a few “crumbs from the table of joy” in Only Heaven, a sophisticated and transporting musical theater work by Ricky Ian Gordon that opened Friday night in the Dayton Art Institute’s 500-seat NCR Renaissance Auditorium.
Produced by the Muse Machine as the centerpiece of its 20th anniversary and directed by Joe Deer, with music direction by Joseph Bates, the fast-moving but memorable two-act presentation is based on the writings of Langston Hughes.
Thirty-eight selections ranging from excerpts to entire poems are sung, spoken and interpreted in dance movements during what is not quite an opera or musical, but is much more than a revue. Some songs stand out as self-contained showcases of a thought or a singer’s vocal ability. Others blend in suites that approach narrative.
Their presence, dramatic expression and vocal power made the four featured singers–tenor Darius de Haas, soprano Adrienne Danrich, soprano Jonita Lattimore and baritone Jay Pierce–the near-constant focus during the final dress rehearsal performance on Wednesday night, but Hughes’ words are always at the center.
Played by an ensemble including the composer on piano, Gordon’s music flows from and alongside the lyrics, sometimes dashing ahead with impetuous enthusiasm to bring the text along, other times pausing to isolate or display a facet of it. The overall effect is an effortless pairing that clarifies interpretation and explores a wide range of feelings.”-Dayton Daily News