One to One
Musical America
New York, NY
Susan Elliott
Lidiya Yankovskaya is busy—which, in light of the last six months, is good to hear.
The music director of the Chicago Opera Theater (COT), founder of the Refugee Orchestra Project (ROP), and former Musical America New Artist of the Month, Yankovskaya is at the moment involved in three projects simultaneously, each requiring major adjustments for the pandemic. One is a newly recorded opera video—with each of the components, from singers to strings, captured individually and later mixed together to be broadcast on giant video board in a ball park on Sept. 26 (Minnesota Opera’s “Opera in the Outfield,”); one is a live concert with the ROP, performed outdoors with socially distanced musicians and a socially distanced audience; and one is a live-streamed opera-in-concert (the COT premiere of The Transformation of Jane Doe), performed in an empty theater in Chicago with the singers six-feet apart on a wide stage and a small ensemble of musicians spread out in the pit.
Small wonder that she feels like she’s in a “whirlwind” working on several projects at once, “and of course none of them are regular performances in the way that we’ve been used to.” No kidding.