Scott Joiner

Scott Joiner is an American operatic tenor and composer.^[1][2][3] He created the role of Dickon in the world premiere of Nolan Gasser's The Secret Garden with the San Francisco Opera and Cal Performances in 2013.^[4][5] He composed the score and starred in the short opera film, Connection Lost (The Tinder Opera) or L'opera di Tinder,^[6][7] which won Best Score at Ireland's Kerry Film Festival.^[8] The miniature one-act opera received its live stage premiere by Opera Carolina in November 2016 as part of National Opera Week.^[9] Joiner and Tinder Opera Co-creator, Adam Taylor (writer/director) were featured on NPR’s All Things Considered in 2017.^[10]

Opera performances

Joiner is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and the Manhattan School of Music (BM '05, MM ' 07, DMA candidate),^[11] where he studied with tenor Neil Rosenshein (performing the role of Chevalier de Danceny in Conrad Susa's The Dangerous Liaisons conducted by George Manahan).^[12] He also studied acting at Michael Howard Studios. Growing up in Colorado (where his grandfather, Richard Joiner was clarinetist of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra), Joiner had toured nationally and internationally as a boy soprano in the Colorado Children's Chorale, under the direction of Duain Wolfe. Through his connection to Wolfe, Joiner was invited to sing the boy soprano role of Erster Knabe in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at Central City Opera conducted by John Moriarty and the roles of Harry in Albert Herring and the Shepherd Boy in Tosca at Opera Colorado, directed by Nathaniel Merrill.^[13]

As a tenor, his first professional roles were with Asheville Lyric Opera, where he sang several roles, including Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Nemorino (L'elisir d'amore), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Goro (Madama Butterfly), and Basilio / Don Curzio (Le nozze di Figaro).^[14] While in North Carolina, he appeared as soloist with the Asheville Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Daniel Meyer in Gerald Finzi's For St Cecilia (broadcast live on WCQS Radio), Handel's Messiah, Mozart's Requiem, scenes from West Side Story and Holiday Pops Concerts.^[15] In 2011 he was a fellow at the Wintergreen Music Festival; created the operatic one-man show, Shakespeare Sings! with spoken word and musical settings of Shakespeare (co-conceived and directed by Francis Cullinan);^[16] and was the 2011 winner of the Heafner Williams Vocal Competition.^[17]

In the 2016/2017 season Joiner made his Carnegie Hall debut as Piemonteser in Richard Strauss' Friedenstag with the American Symphony Orchestra under Leon Botstein, returning to Carnegie Hall as the tenor soloist in the New York Premieres of Howard Goodall’s Eternal Light: A Requiem and Mark Hayes' International Carol Suites with Distinguished Concerts International (DCINY).^[18] Other notable performances include the San Francisco Opera premiere of the Secret Garden with music by Nolan Gasser and a libretto by Carey Harrison, the role of Edoardo in the North American premiere of Riccardo Zandonai's Il grillo del focolare with Teatro Grattacielo,^[19] soloist in the North American premiere of Derek Deane's Strictly Gershwin with the Tulsa Ballet (and Tulsa Symphony) led by Gareth Valentine,^[20] and performances with Knoxville Opera, the Center for Contemporary Opera (Edward Rochester in Louis Karchin's Jane Eyre), Colorado Music Festival, American Opera Projects (as Young Gulliver in the world premiere of Victoria Bond's Gulliver's Travels), Helena Symphony Orchestra, New York International Fringe Festival and the Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival at Symphony Space, where he created the title role in the 2018 world premiere of Eric Salzman's Big Jim & the Small-Time Investors.^[21] He sang the role of Tamino in Die Zauberflöte conducted by Christian Schulz at the Odeon Theater Wien as Artist-in-Residence for the 2018 Vienna Summer Music Festival, and was a 2018 Festival Artist with Sherrill Milnes' Savannah VOICE Festival.^[22]

Composition and other activities

While Joiner has no formal training in composition, he learned many aspects of the craft from other activities, including performances as a professional jazz pianist.^[23] In an interview for the Keep it Classical podcast, Joiner explained that he got a first-hand view of the composition process as a performer involved in many premieres and workshops.^[24]

After filmmaker Adam Taylor approached Joiner about making a short opera film in 2015, Taylor wrote a screenplay-libretto in about ten days and Joiner had the piano/vocal score completed in five weeks.^[25] Connection Lost (The Tinder Opera) was released on April 18, 2016. The work received a positive review from Schmopera.com and was an official selection of the Orlando Film Festival, the Nickel Film Festival^[26] and many others. It was also screened at Cinemartini at The Downtown Independent in Los Angeles. The film won Best Musical Comedy Short in the Inaugural London-Worldwide Comedy Short Film Festival^[27] and was presented at the cell Theater in NYC by the Center for Contemporary Opera along with the live US premiere of Eric Salzman's one-woman opera Cassandra.^[28] Opera Carolina staged the work as part of an event for National Opera Week, alongside A Hand of Bridge by Samuel Barber and The Telephone by Gian-Carlo Menotti.^[29]

Taylor and Joiner formed the group The Rainy Park Opera Company and released their second film, Something Blue (L'opera del Bachelor) in December 2016. The film was an official selection of the 2017 Indianapolis International Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Score in a Short Film at the Southampton International Film Festival.^[30][31] According to NPR, Opera Carolina will present a double-bill staging of both The Tinder Opera and The Bachelor Opera in fall 2017. The Rainy Park Opera Co's third collaboration, The Bridesmaids is their first working intended directly for the stage and was premiered at the Odeon Theater in Vienna, Austria as part of the Vienna Summer Music Festival in June 2018, conducted by Kristo Kondakçi and directed by Arisa Sullivan and selections from the opera were featured at the Laurie Beechman Theatre as part of the Anything You Can Do - A New Works Concert for Leading Ladies, in Aug 2018. ^[32] Joiner wrote classical and orchestral pops arrangements for A Night of Opera and Couture at Zankel Hall, serving as music director and conducting a 16-piece orchestra for the event in April 2018.

References