National Sawdust presents Hannah Ishizaki, Chiori Miyagawa, and Mark Campbell: A Thousand Generations

National Sawdust presents A Thousand Generations, a new one-act chamber opera by composer Hannah Ishizaki with librettists Chiori Miyagawa and Mark Campbell. The work unfolds across 11 scenes for three vocalists, chamber ensemble, and electronics. It draws on the Japanese folk story Tsuru no Ongaeshi, or “The Crane’s Gratitude,” moving between 15th-century Japan and contemporary Japan and the United States. This is a staged evening built around a newly created opera rather than a conventional concert bill.

Ishizaki is a composer and sound artist based in Princeton, New Jersey, whose work investigates “the physicality of music performance.” Her materials and methods range from orchestral instruments to digital sensors, rocks, and zippers. Her compositions have been performed by Sō Percussion, the Attacca Quartet, Ensemble Intercontemporain, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In 2017, she became the youngest woman to have a world premiere with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The New York Times has called her music “Imaginative…effective and moving.” Miyagawa and Campbell join her here as the opera’s librettists, shaping its text and dramatic framework.