Scene from Act 1 Freedom of Speech "A Quiet Revolution"
Four Freedoms
Music and libretto by Joseph C. Phillips Jr.
Performed by Maryland Opera Studio Friday February 14, 2020 @ The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, College Park, MD
Sarah Stembel, soprano (Commissioner 1)
Colin Doyle, tenor (Commissioner 2)
In President Roosevelt's State of the Union speech from 1941 he outlined "Four Freedoms" that everyone should experience and live, "everywhere in the world": Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, Freedom from Fear. Those ideals still resonated almost 80 years later as I wrote the words and story for my opera Four Freedoms, which I based on four contemporary topics (voter disenfranchisement, worship and discrimination, immigration, and climate change) that all tie together to illuminate how far away as a country, and a world, we are from living up to those ideals.

NOTE: while the Maryland Opera Studio concert performance was just piano, as I was composing the Piano-Vocal version I was also orchestrating the opera and it's available for 12 musicians (Flute, Alto Saxophone, Bassoon, Trumpet, Horn, Trombone, Piano, Harp, Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass) along with the 11 solo voices and chorus.

Four Freedoms
an opera
Music & libretto by Joseph C Phillips Jr

Commissioned by & performed by
The Maryland Opera Studio
SOPRANOS: Sarah Stembel, Erin Ridge, Nora Griffin, Oznur Tuluoglu, Amanda Densmoor, Abigail Beerwat;
MEZZO SOPRANOS Gal Kohev, Katherine Kincaid;
TENOR: Colin Doyle;
BARITONE/BASS: Christian Simmons, Collin Power

Craig Kier, Director, Maryland Opera Studio
Amanda Consol, Director of Acting
Justina Lee, Principal Coach
Ashley Pollard, Studio Manager
​Kelley Rourke, Dramaturg

Premiere Friday February 14, 2020
The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
University of Maryland School of Music