COMPOSER SABRINA PENA YOUNG | MUSIC TECHNOLOGY | FILM | CLASSICAL | OPERA

Yesterday I had an opportunity to speak with a representative from Opera America about the grant I recently applied for but did not receive. The grant was for a new opera I would like to put together called Alicia and the White Rabbit . Primarily a children's opera, the opera focuses on a young girl who must make a decision between moving in with a parent that she is never met, or going to the nefarious children's home full of gloom and sadness. The opera has a distinct Latin American music sound and is inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland stories. Although the story does not follow Alice's crazy exploration into a psychedelic dreamland, there are distinct aspects the parallel the original tale. While the opera grant proposal was not accepted, I did receive some encouraging words to help me if I choose to reapply to the Opera America grant. We discussed ways I could improve the grant application . Some of the the suggestions were fairly obvious ones th...

Looking Glass Looking Glass is based on a journal entry from August 30, 2003: English: Looking glass room Nederlands: Spiegelkamer (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I look in the Mirror And who do I see? Hollowed Eyes Looking Back at me Sensuous Lips Wrinkled and Torn Sallow Skin and Soul Forlorn But when I breathe, she breathes, too. Those tears in her eyes I knew We hold hands in our looking glass The moments melting into the past And underneath the hardened shell Is a little girl I knew so well Someday she'll learn to laugh again And love, maybe she will find it in the end But today I am left with my mirrored mate Goodnight, Lovely Alice, for it's getting late The moon has risen above the dying trees Forgotten wishes float away with the breeze Each moment passes quicker than before And our Alice, She sleeps Forevermore. The text of Looking Glass reflects on my own struggles of living a double life in the darker days of my early college years many years ago, the refere...