Media
Omar
Spoleto Festival USA, 2022 World Premiere
College of Charleston - Sottile Theatre
Charleston, SC
Role: Omar’s Mother Fatima
Stand Up!
Fort Worth Opera, 2022 World Premiere
Fort Worth, TX
Roles:
South African Student
Bukelwa Biko (Biko’s older sister)
Mrs. Stafford
Fort Worth Opera presents the World premiere of Stand Up! a 45-minute chamber opera at the Scott Theatre on Friday, November 11 at 7:00pm. Composed by Joe Illick, and libretto by Sheran Goodspeed-Keyton, Stand Up! gives the audience a snapshot of the life of South African activist Stephen Biko during Apartheid in the 1960s that segues to a Cultural Studies class in 2022, where a young black student struggles with his own will to speak out. With contemporary, high-spirited music and movement at the forefront of this compelling story, stand up will leave audiences not only applauding but feeling empowered!
"Omar," an opera, tells the story of Omar Ibn Said, a 19th century Muslim scholar stolen from Senegal and sold into slavery in America, who left behind a remarkable autobiography written in Arabic. Correspondent Martha Teichner talks with Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels about how their opera tells a largely-forgotten story, informing the history of our multicultural nation.
- David Kiley of Encore, MI (2019)
Ms. Kanyinda, who won a 2019 Wilde Award for her performance in The Consul last season, is very much a rising star and slays her role as Laura, modulating between pain, sorrow and devotion, and lifting her arias to the heavens.
Night of Black Excellence
Night of Black Excellence is an annual celebration of Black History Month with Songs of a Native Son. Held at Fort Worth’s historic I.M. Terrell Academy for STEM and VPA featured performances from singers John Holiday, Donnie Ray Albert, and Naguanda Nobles. Joined by the ANOBE Ensemble, Dr. Clark Joseph, Monya Davis Logan, Lesio Littlejohn and Cassidy Robinson, along with poet Leslie N. Polk, the Cosmopolitan Dance Troupe, members of our Hattie Mae Lesley Resident and Studio Artists and more!
Fort Worth Opera, 2022
Fort Worth, TX
Twilight: Gods
Michigan Opera Theatre, 2020
Detriot Opera House, Parking Center
Role: Flosshilde
Michigan Opera Theatre is taking opera to a whole new level – literally – with Twilight: Gods, a one-of-a-kind musical experience inside the Detroit Opera House Parking Center! Part live performance, part immersive installation, audiences remain in their cars to experience scenes from the final opera of Wagner’s Ring Cycle on various levels of the parking structure. The “drive-thru” performance features an extraordinary cast in an entirely new light: Christine Goerke, the world’s leading Brünnhilde; internationally-acclaimed tenor Sean Panikkar as Siegfried; and the magnificent bass Morris Robinson as Hagen. Detroit cultural icon Marsha Music performs new poetry that connects Wagner’s mythological world with the here-and-now of our city and our time.
Avery Boettcher, Olivia Johnson and Kaswanna Kanyinda were gloriously matched as the trio of Rheinmaidens, individual masters of their art creating a wash of harmony.
— Jennifer Goltz of OperaNews (2020)
“For These Classical Musicians, It’s Always Been About Racial Equity”
- Joshua Barone, The New York Times, Jan. 27, 2021
“Mezzo-soprano Kaswanna Kanyinda plays the role of Flosshilde during a drive-in opera performance of Twilight: Gods in the parking structure of the Michigan Opera Theatre in downtown Detroit on October 21, 2020. Groups of vehicles made their way through the structure as people performed 10-minute scenes of the opera on various levels of the parking garage.”
- Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press
Published 12:10 p.m. ET Oct. 30, 2020 | Updated 6:47 p.m. ET Oct. 30, 2020