Focus Group LLC is an experimental opera ensemble formed in 2016 by Ethan T. Parcell.
Its members are: Hannah Bureau, Rebekah Dotzel, Eric Hollander, Ethan T. Parcell, Kenan Serenbetz, and Alec Watson.
Focus Group LLC is also a body of three operas. The three pieces are inward-turning, conversational, and reaching toward something essential through
smallness.
WORLD RECORD
In 2018, Focus Group LLC recorded and released WORLD RECORD, an opera in three acts.
WORLD RECORD is an opera about a singer in the Midwest concerned with the past, present and future of world records. It is a piece about creation myth, perfect performance, natural disasters, retirement communities, youth culture, false promise, birth reckoning, and metal theft. It is told in 27 songs, and on recording, 3 phone calls.
WASTED LIGHT
In 2019, Focus Group LLC recorded and released WASTED LIGHT, an opera in one act by Ethan T. Parcell, a sequel to WORLD RECORD.
WASTED LIGHT is an opera about singing in the midwest, taking the form of an unmetaphorical extended lecture on a broken LED billboard visible from a Chicago highway. It is a piece about meaning making, near ancestry, false promise, time passing, space passing, and billboards, and it is sung, spoken and played with smallness and hospitality.
Also in 2019, Focus Group LLC released BILLBOARD SONGS (WASTED LIGHT VARIATIONS).
The songs and sounds from the opera WASTED LIGHT explored and expanded by Focus Group LLC with friends.
The small fictions spread just a little wider and get stuck in your head. Five organs, new colors to explain familiar colors, a phone call, some nice kids, and an attempt to explain small inheritance checks.
WITNESS REUNION
On April 6 2019, Focus Group LLC will premiere WITNESS REUNION, an opera in seven parts alongside the Elgin Youth Symphony and Brass Choir.
It is an opera about singing in the form of a final acknowledgement of the human measurement urge, and a celebration of communal sound making.
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| photo by Dan Mohr / yesIsaid.com Alec Watson, piano Hannah Bureau, violin Bekah Dotzel, cello Eric Hollander, viola Ethan T. Parcell, voice Kenan Serenbetz, harmonium more information at www.focusgroupllc.online |