Featuring

Creative Team

Reyna: Katherine Henly
Jo: Anna Hashizume
Reyna’s Husband: Justin Anthony Spenner
Piano: Maria Thompson Corley
Violinist: Elise Parker

Composer: Maria Thompson Corely
Librettist: Jenny O’Connell
Director: Sequoia Hauck
Audio Director: Chris Foss
Producer: Kelly M Turpin

Maria Thompson Corley

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Maria Thompson Corley (she/her), an international solo and collaborative pianist, began composing and arranging as a child. Her works have been commissioned by choirs, opera companies, and soloists from across the country. Her arrangement of Mary had a Baby was published by Walton, and her song cycle, For Terry, is published by Classical Vocal Reprints. Her art songs and arrangements have been performed, recorded and/or taught in the United States and abroad.

Aside from being an accomplished pianist, Maria Corley is a voice actor who has done spots for Santander, University of Pennsylvania, Unisys, Suntrust and others, a poet, and an author.

Anna Hashizume

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Anna (she/her) is thrilled to be working with AOT for the first time! Previous credits include: Artistry Theater: Mary Poppins; Theatre Elision: Of Art and Artists; Lyric Arts: Sense and Sensibility; Collective Unconscious Performance: Into the Darkness; Mixed Precipitation: The Clemency of Tito’s Tennis Club, Dr. Falstaff and the Working Wives of Lake County, Philemon and Baucis: Planet in Peril; Minnesota Opera: La Traviata, Thaïs; Fargo- Moorhead Opera: Speed Dating, Tonight!; Lyric Opera of the North: Rigoletto.

In 2017, she was a Schubert Club Competition Winner. Anna hosts a podcast called Thank You Places which can be found on most streaming platforms.

Sequoia Hauck

WEBSITE

Sequoia Hauck (she/they) (Anishinaabe/Hupa) is a graduate from the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities with a B.A. in American Indian Studies. She is a multidisciplinary artist in the Twin Cities focused on creating theater, film, poetry, and performance art that decolonizes the process of art-making. She makes art surrounding the narratives of continuation and resiliency among her communities.

Sequoia enjoys dabbling in many aspects of performance/theater as a stage manager, house manager, producer, director, curator, playwright, and performer. Sequoia has worked on and offstage with organizations such as Aniccha Arts, Art Shanty Projects, Exposed Brick Theatre, Māoriland, Pangea World Theater, Patrick’s Cabaret, Poetry and Pie, The Southern Theater, and Turtle Theater Collective.

Katherine Henly

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Praised for her captivating and affecting portrayals in genres ranging from opera, to musical theater, jazz, and pop throughout the United States and abroad, soprano Katherine Henly (she/her) has performed with LA Opera, Washington National Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Charlottesville Opera, Virginia Opera, The New York Musical Theatre Festival, The New York International Fringe Festival, The O’Neill National Music Theater Conference, and at The Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman. She spent her summers as a young artist with Utah Festival Opera, Charlottesville Opera, and The Glimmerglass Festival.

As a soloist, Ms. Henly has performed with Utah Lyric Opera, Utah Valley Symphony Orchestra, The Ramsey Wind Symphony, Palisades Virtuosi, Worcester Symphony Orchestra, Camerata New York, in concert at Mechanics Hall and Carnegie Hall.

Jenny O’Connell

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Jenny O’Connell's (she/her) debut book project, Finding Petronella, traces her 2014 solo trek across Finland following the footsteps of a female legend into the heart of the Arctic Circle. A Maine Literary Award finalist and Pushcart Prize nominee, Jenny's writing has appeared in Creative Nonfiction, SLICE Magazine, Appalachia Journal, Hippocampus, and elsewhere. She is an outdoor contributor at Maine Magazine. This is her first libretto.

Jenny earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Stonecoast. She lives in Portland, Maine, where she teaches creative writing to youth and adults, works on initiatives that empower writers to create positive change through the literary arts, and guides wilderness expeditions.

Elise Parker

Violinist Elise Parker (she/her), a core member of the Minnesota Opera Orchestra since 2012, is an active part of the Twin Cities music scene. Ms. Parker also performs with Minnesota Sinfonia, VocalEssence, Minneapolis Pops, Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Forum, Hennepin Theatre Trust, as well as recording and performing with the Guthrie Theater, STRINGenius, the Children’s Theatre, and is a member of the Jamison String Quartet.  The Star Tribune has described her playing as “soulful,” while the Pioneer Press wrote “Elise Parker wrings pure beauty from her violin.”

Ms. Parker has been a teacher for the Augsburg University Suzuki Talent Education Program, a nationally and internationally recognized program. She is also the adjunct teacher at Augsburg University.

Justin Anthony Spenner

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Praised as a “Standout” with “boisterous comic energy” by the Star Tribune, Baritone Justin Anthony Spenner (he/him) is known throughout the Twin Cities for his artistic honesty and engaging versatility. At home with Schubert, as he is with Stockhausen, Justin’s appearances run the gamut from recital and oratorio staples with regional organizations to world premieres of experimental music. Recent stage credits include Schaunard (La Bohème) with Theater Latte Da, Father (The Golden Ass/World Premiere) with 113 Composers Collective, Joey (The Most Happy Fella) and Guglielmo (Cosi fan tutte) with Skylark Opera Theatre, among many others.

As a 2016 Artist Initiative Grant recipient, Justin produced a staged version of Schubert’s Die Winterreise, which used dance and commissioned photography to re-imagine the piece through the lens of mental illness. In addition to performing, Justin keeps an active private studio, develops Opera Immersion classes, and works as a grant editor/consultant for various Twin Cities arts non-profits and individual artists.