Mark your calendar and save the date!!!! I’m so excited! The Georgetown Cultural Council has agreed to help Joey raise funds for the production of his opera Alice Flagg and is sponsoring a fund raiser recital to be held in Pawleys Island next Thursday evening, February 25 at the LIVE OAKS CENTER, 9630 Ocean Highway, just north of the True Blue Nursery. Here is a Yapsody link to the Cultural Council’s Alice Flagg Event Page where donations can be taken to raise money for the production expenses: Alice Flagg Opera Production Fund. Scroll all the way down to the “Donation” button on the bottom, right. (It’s a bit too early to buy tickets, but mark your calendar now for the Low Country Premier of Alice Flagg on May 30, 2016 at the Winyah Auditorium in Georgetown, SC!
Here’s the press release that went out about it!
Young Local Composer to Take Center Stage at Upcoming Recital
(Pawleys Island, SC) – Joseph R. Kaz, a native of Pawleys Island, SC, will be performing at a benefit recital to raise funds for the upcoming local production of Alice Flagg, Kaz’s new opera. The recital will take place at 6 PM on Thursday, February 25, at the Live Oaks Center, 9630 Ocean Highway in Pawleys Island. Kaz, a tenor who has performed with various opera companies in the Washington DC area, will be accompanied by pianist, Suzanne Young.
Written entirely by Kaz, his opera, Alice Flagg, debuted to strong reviews at The John F. Kennedy Center on September 7, 2015. Locally, the production will debut on May 30 at the Winyah Auditorium in Georgetown. The Georgetown County Cultural Council has been central to planning and promoting the event.
Kaz’s composition is a two-act opera that tells the tale of one of the Lowcountry’s most beloved ghost stories – the story of Alice Flagg from Murrells Inlet. Set in Pre-Civil War South Carolina, Alice, a daughter of an aristocratic Southern planter, fell madly in love with a lumberjack beneath her station. In an effort to halt the affair, her family sent her away to boarding school in Charleston, but not before the two lovers secretly became engaged. While in Charleston, Alice became fatally ill, causing family and fiancé to come to her aid.
While the recital is free to the public, donations will be taken during and after the performance to aid in the production expenses of Alice Flagg. The Cultural Council has established a Yapsody Link for those who would like to donate but cannot attend the recital: Alice Flagg Opera Production Fund.
A former member of the Cultural Council’s “Young Treasures of the Tidelands,” Kaz plans to meet with some current “Treasures,” for a Q & A session while he is in town, and also hopes to be involved in local Lenten services.
A dynamic young composer, Joseph Kaz’s work is already well known across the Eastern United States. With performances by ensembles including The Metropolitan Wind Symphony, The University of Tennessee and Ithaca College, Kaz’s music covers many genres and fields. In competition, he has collected numerous awards including, among many others, the Jack Downey Composition Prize, the Texas Orchestra Directors Association Composition Contest and the Metropolitan Wind Symphony’s North American Composition Competition.
Joseph completed his Bachelors in Music Composition at Ithaca College where he studied with Dr. Dana Wilson, Dr. Sally Lamb McCune, and Dr. Jorge Grossmann. He is pursuing his Masters in Music Composition at the Catholic University of America studying with Dr. Andrew Simpson. He is a Graduate Assistant at The Catholic University of America and Tenor Section Leader/Soloist at Church of the Epiphany in Washington, D.C.
The son of Jeff and Troi Kaz, Joseph is a graduate of Waccamaw High School in Pawleys Island, SC.
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