OUR COMPOSERS
Susan Hulsman Bingham
Susan Hulsman Bingham (b. 1944) was a concert pianist before taking up composing in 1974. The Children's and Liturgical Opera, LLC, formerly known as Chancel Opera Company of Connecticut, Inc., was formed in 1979 in order to perform her liturgical operas and other works.
Pieces in the Children's and Liturgical Opera library include eighteen sermon-length liturgical operas and several anthems, psalm settings and motets. The operas tour extensively in the Northeast United States, four of them have been broadcast over NBC television, and the Company toured to Germany in 2000.
Susan Bingham has also written the following operas for children of all ages: The Emperor and the Nightingale, Eli W, Tiny Operas, The Little Match Girl, Rabbi Nachman's Chair, Old Befana, The Musicians of Bremen, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, The Changeling, Char Face, The Legend of the Bluebonnet, Anniversary Tales, Daniel's Gift, The Other Wise Man, and The Talking Stones of Machu Picchu (opera based on Inca tales). Four of her chamber operas have been presented at New York's Lincoln Center under the auspices of MEET THE COMPOSER.
Ms. Bingham has also written the ballet The Snow Queen, based on the Andersen tale, which premiered in New Haven with the New Haven Ballet and Orchestra New England.
Before becoming Artistic Director of the Children's and Liturgical Opera, Susan Bingham co-directed music at the Foote School Summer Theatre Program in New Haven, Connecticut, and the Children's Opera Program at the Shubert Center for the Performing Arts. She worked for 23 years as a volunteer composer with students at the Worthington Hooker Elementary School on opera projects. Her work was supported for many years with grants from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, The New Haven Foundation, The New Haven Fund for Arts in Education, the Margaret Jory Music Copying Grant, MEET THE COMPOSER, and others.
Susan Bingham recently moved to Emmaus, Pennsylvania, with her husband, retired lawyer Timothy Bingham. They have a grown daughter, a grown son, and five grandsons. Susan has also taken up painting and spends a great deal of her time working with the young people in her parish.
For further information:
Children's and Liturgical Opera, LLC
502 Chestnut Street Apt. 3
Emmaus, PA 18049
203-562-0634
www.chancelopera.org
e-mail: chancelopra@chancelopera.com