The Opera Singer and The Physicist
Physicist and Composer Dr. Brian Holmes and Soprano Sheri Greenawald, Director of the San Francisco Opera Center
Saturday, October 8, 2pm at the Exploratorium
Join physicist and composer Dr. Brian Holmes and soprano Sheri Greenawald, Director of the San Francisco Opera Center, at the Exploratorium on Saturday, October 8 at 2pm, to explore how the art and science of singing combine in opera. How do opera singers sing loud enough to be heard over an orchestra? Can an opera singer’s voice really break a wine glass? What's the difference between a baritone and a soprano? Discover the answers to these questions — and more — in this presentation for the whole family. This event is the latest in a string of collaborations between the Exploratorium and the San Francisco Opera, prompted by the staging of Dr. Atomic. This event is free with museum admission.
Sheri Greenawald, San Francisco Opera Center Director, has had a distinguished international operatic singing career as a soprano, noted in particular for her enormous range of roles. She has sung featured roles with (among others) San Francisco Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Venice’s La Fenice, the Munich State Opera, Paris’s Châtelet Theater, Welsh National Opera, Seattle Opera Company, Houston Grand Opera, the Netherlands Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Naples’s Teatro San Carlos and Opera Theatre of St. Louis. She has worked with most of opera’s great conductors and directors, and she is featured on several recordings, including singing the title role of Blitztein’s Regina conducted by John Mauceri and recorded on Decca. A graduate of the University of Northern Iowa, Greenawald completed the Professional Studies Program at the Juilliard School of Music and has received a Rockefeller Grant, NEA Grant, and was Seattle Opera Association’s Artist of the Year in 1998.
Brian Holmes is a professor of physics at San Jose State University, where he teaches a course on the physics of musical instruments. He has given over one hundred talks on the physics of musical instruments at schools and colleges all over the USA. A professional French horn player, Holmes has often concluded these talks by performing on natural horn, the predecessor of the modern valve horn. Holmes is also active as a composer, with numerous publications, commissions, and prizes to his credit.
Cost: FREE [w/ museum adm.]