The Tardigrade Presents the End of the World

Announcing The Tardigrade Presents the End of the World Commissioning Consortium for four voices, piano, glockenspiel, oboe, bass clarinet, and cello/bass!

ABOUT THE OPERA

The Tardigrade Presents is a forty-five minute, three-act work that spans the genres of opera, musical, and art song; addressing past and present extinctions through the deep-time wisdom of a tardigrade and the story of toads; with the goal of inspiring hope through humor and real-life environmental success.

WHY THIS, WHY NOW?

Kendra and Jessi are both passionate about creating works that are based in science, accessible, and environmentally friendly. They have a passion for fighting against worldwide trauma and environmental despair though art that acknowledges grief but stubbornly focuses on humor and joy and recognizing positive environmental actions and events. Thus, this work mixes various vocal genres to create a flexible musical work designed to have a high social impact while being environmentally low impact. This is achieved by inclusive vocal writing for four singers, Baroque-inspired open instrumentation for small to large chamber ensemble, flexible stage settings from minimal to elaborate, and other adaptations that can be tailored to any audience. It allows for almost any performance organization to use local performers, recycled stage props, and any kind of spaces.

SYNOPSIS

The Tardigrade Presents is inspired by the titular creature, one of the universe’s most resilient species; and was provoked by the Anthropocene extinction, which is currently accelerating. The story transports audiences between three locations. The first is the home of Norbu, the tardigrade, which is a land apart from space and time where Norbu spends time contemplating the mass extinctions they’ve seen and the real possibility of more to come. Norbu introduces the second location, the Carnival of the Recently Departed, and its carnival barker, Kit. There they sing the stories of the creatures we have lost or almost lost in the Anthropocene, using different musical styles, conveying the emotions they experienced while facing these extinctions, and celebrating the living beings that they were. The final location, the (fictional) Laramie Toad Flats, is where two scientists search for the (real) Wyoming Toad, considered extinct in the wild. While the music spends time mourning flora and fauna lost, the ending of the work is a victorious salute to the rediscovery of the Wyoming Toad, complete with raucous toad chorus.

CONSORTIUM DETAILS

Composer: Jessi Harvey

Librettist: Kendra Preston Leonard

Deadline to Join: January 31, 2025

Difficulty level: Moderate

Length: 45 minutes

Rates: Full score and parts $1500 per company/producer(s); piano-vocal score only $1200.

Email Kendra at kendraleonard@pm.me to join.

CONSORTIUM MEMBER BENEFITS

PDF of score and parts delivered by September 1, 2025.

Three hours total of Zoom workshopping or consultation with the creators.

Eighteen month exclusivity window to premiere the piece between September 1, 2025 and February 28, 2027.

Your name listed in the score and program notes as a commissioner.

The right to list yourself as commissioning consortium member in programs and announcements.

PREVIOUS WORK

Jessi’s Goats of Llandudno

Jessi’s 196 Flavors

Jessi’s What the Trees Hear

Read Kendra’s work here.

ABOUT THE COMPOSER

Jessi, also known as George, Harvey is a Montana-born freelance composer and teacher; gardener and reader; thinker and walker. Works are based in science and nature, integrating social curiosity, humor, and a love of knowledge; described by Seattle Mag as “full of surprises and consistently attention holding” and by commissioner Julia Lougheed as “diving into the absurd corners of the human condition-the moments where you have to laugh so you don’t cry”.  

Jessi’s work, by the nature of our conversation, won first place at the 2020 Darkwater Womxn in Music Festival and proposal, fish dance, was an honorable mention for the 2020 Splinter Tongue Call for Proposals.  Jessi has worked with Opera Elect, the Art Song Collaborative Project, Strange Interlude, the Onomatopoeia Trio, Karin Steven’s Dance, Julia Lougheed, Olivia Valenza, the Live Music Project and others.  One of their favorite projects was the organization of THINGS THAT BREAK, a collaboration with three other women artists, all creating works based on the theme of breaking which was awarded the 4Culture Tech Specific Grant.  They have had work featured at the Music by Women Festival (2021, 2019), Darkwater Womxn in Music Festival (2021), and New Music Gathering (2020, 2021).  Jessi was a selected composer at Unheard//of Ensemble’s Collaborative Composition Initiative (2021), Laboratoire de musique contemporaine de Montréal (2019), and the Waterloo Contemporary Music Sessions (2018).  They were an artist-in-residence at the Rensing Center (2021), Open AIR (2022), and the Denver Botanic Garden’s Landline Residency (2022).

Recent projects include Diabelli Recomposed, 50 new variations by women composers from 22 different countries, initiated by musicologist, Claudia Bigos. Since 2022, Jessi has been part of the Emlen Artist Co-Lab, a collaboration with choreographer, Julynn Wildman, Open AIR, the Missoula Butterfly House and Insectarium, the University of Montana’s Music Department, as well as the Emlen Evolutionary Biology Lab. The project, supported by the Prop Foundation, the Harnisch Foundation, Open AIR, the University of Montana, and individual donors, brings to life the research done at the lab into the curious and mysterious mating songs and dances of the Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle through the realms of music, dance, costume, and will be culminating in a final documentary.  

Outside of composition, Jessi is an avid cook, particularly of potatoes and chillies, constant learner, and watcher of the wildlife in their backyard.  To learn more about Jessi, visit https://www.jessiharveymusic.com/.

CONSORTIUM MEMBERS