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Marble City Opera presents the TN premiere of "Driving While Black"

Melony Dodson talks with Kathryn Frady, Executive and Artistic Director of Marble City Opera, about Driving While Black.

Marble City Opera presents the TN premiere of the one-act opera, Driving While Black, with music by Susan Kander and libretto by Roberta Gumble. The performance is on October 12th at 7pm at the Old City Performing Arts Center in downtown Knoxville.

Scored for soprano, cello, and percussion, this powerful piece takes a look at something ordinary...riding in and/or driving a car, and shows how the experience of that daily activity changes with age, just because of race. Librettist, Roberta Gumble, used personal experiences as her basis when crafting the work, which she premiered herself (Gumble is also a soprano) in 2018.

Marble City Opera's production will feature soprano, Allison Sanders, cellist, Cremaine Booker, and percussionist, David Verin. It is stage directed by Ivan Griffin. Tickets and additional information at https://www.marblecityopera.com/dwb

Melony calls the beautiful mountains of Boone, N.C., home, although she was born near Greensboro, N.C. There’s just something about those Blue Ridge Mountains that got in her blood and never left after she moved there to attend Appalachian State University (ASU). While at ASU, she majored in piano performance and music therapy and began to cultivate a love for accompanying and for collaborating with other musicians. This soon led her to earn a master’s degree in collaborative piano at the University of Tennessee, which she attended from 2006-2008.