Bienen professor named Guggenheim fellow

Northwestern Now: Summaries

Fellowship will support composer’s work on third opera Prestigious fellowship recognizes exceptional creativity in the arts
Thomalla one of 173 fellowship recipients from nearly 3,000 applicants
Grant will support Thomalla’s work on third opera
“Dark Spring” is reinterpretation of Frank Wedekind’s play “Spring Awakening”
Hans Thomalla, associate professor of composition and music technology at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to support the development of his third opera, “Dark Spring.”
Guggenheim Fellowships are intended for individuals who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. The program’s purpose is to help provide fellows with blocks of time in which they can work with as much creative freedom as possible. This year, the Guggenheim Foundation awarded 173 fellowships to a diverse group of scholars, artists, and scientists from a pool of approximately 3,000 applicants.
Thomalla’s opera “Dark Spring” aims for a radical reinterpretation of Frank Wedekind’s 1891 play “Spring Awakening.” While the original plot focuses on the reactions of a group of young teenagers under extreme pressure from inhibitory sexual norms, inhumane school stress, and an authoritarian parent generation who chokes individual development, the opera will look at young adults today from an almost opposite point of view. These characters embody a “cool” generation in a cold society – young adults who seem to have learned not to show their feelings and to hide vulnerabilities in a world of extreme competition.
Commissioned by the National Theatre Mannheim for its 2018-19 season, “Dark Spring” features music, concept, and text arrangement by Thomalla and lyrics by acclaimed poet and UC-Davis Professor Joshua Clover. The Guggenheim Fellowship will allow Thomalla to continue working with Clover on the songs and workshop scenes with the cast in Mannheim.
Thomalla's first opera, "Fremd," based on the Greek myth of Medea, premiered in July 2011 ...

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