The Seasoned Woman
THE SEASONED WOMAN: PREMIERE!
Friday, May 3, 2024 | 8 PM
The Carver Community Cultural Center, San Antonio
The Seasoned Woman is a celebration of the beauty, strength, resilience, and wisdom of womanhood across time and cultures. A collaboration between poet and musician Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson and Syrian opera singer Lubana Al Quntar, this multidisciplinary, multicultural work marries poetry, music, and soaring vocals of re-imagined Jazz and Arab music standards through the cultural influences of the collaborating artists—including hip-hop, opera, and Middle Eastern music.
LUBANA AL QUNTAR was born in Damascus, Syria to a family of traditional singers. A descendant of the famous Syrian singer, Amal Al Atrash, and renowned composer and singer, Farid Al Atrash, Lubana grew up with an ear and a voice for music. She trained in classical international conservatories under the supervision of world-renowned opera singers such as Galina Khaldieva, Kenneth Woollam, and Maestra Mya Besselink. She has taken master classes with world-famous opera singers, namely Maestro Daniel Barenboim, Maestro Ricardo Mutti, and Sara Beaker. As a coloratura soprano, Lubana's rare and dramatic voice breathes life into the wide repertoire she sings in folk, traditional Syriac and Aramaic languages, pop, and classical opera. Lubana's ability to variate between Arabic and Western techniques as a soloist in opera is second to none. In 1995, Lubana won the prestigious title of the First Arab Opera Singer from Syria, receiving international fame and recognition. In 1996, she won the first audience prize and fourth overall prize in a Belgrade International Singing Competition. In 2000, she was awarded fifth prize at the Queen Elizabeth Singing Competition, Brussels, Belgium. Since 1996, she has toured internationally in over 10 countries in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and North America. Between 2006 and 2012, she served at the Syrian National Conservatory as the Voice Chair for the Department of Opera Singing. While in that capacity, she founded and launched the Department of Classical Arabic Singing allowing students to study both Western and Arabic forms together for the very first time. Represented by MAP talent agency, Lubana continues to share her craft to promote and preserve ancient Syrian cultural heritage.
ANDREA VOCAB SANDERSON is the first Black Poet Laureate of San Antonio, serving in this role 2020 through 2023. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including Dream Voice, People’s Choice Award, Best Live Entertainment/Band Musician of the Year by the 17th Annual SEA Awards, Best Literary Advocate 2021 San Antonio Magazine, and The Arts and Letters Award by Friends of San Antonio Public Library in 2020. Best Local Poet 2021 by The San Antonio Current. Vocab serves as a Teaching Artist for Gemini Ink and is an artist in residence with The Carver Community Cultural Center. In 2021, she received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship. Vocab's debut book is entitled She Lives In Music and was released by Flower Song Press in February of 2020. Her music is available on all music streaming platforms.
An Art2Action Production, THE SEASONED WOMAN is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Art2Action, the Carver Community Cultural Center, and NPN, and supported by the NPN Artist Engagement Fund. The Creation & Development Fund and Artist Engagement Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information, visit www.npnweb.org.
For Bookings & Tour Information, contact: info@art2action.org
PRESS / REVIEWS:
“Stirring, sometimes bittersweet, but always captivating...Pieces touched upon personal and universal explorations of womanhood, articulated by two masters of their craft...The Seasoned Woman engaged with the visceral, the senses, and the passage of time to share a uniquely profound experience.” -Nick Blevins, Scene in SA: READ THE FULL REVIEW
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