Highbury Opera Theatre: The Open Fund for Organisations

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Fever Pitch - A New Community Opera

Fever Pitch is a new music theater work (opera) written by Scott Stroman to a libretto created by Tamsin Collison, based on the best-selling book by Nick Hornby. It will be presented in Union Chapel by Highbury Opera Theatre, a 5-year-old community company comprised of professionals, amateurs, and children and managed by a team of dedicated volunteers. Set at and around Arsenal football ground, Fever Pitch is a story about passion, winning, loss and obsession among common people; and it will be performed by common people, both those who make their living in the arts and those who take part for personal pleasure. Creating Fever Pitch is a major step forward for HOT; they have staged three original productions of contemporary existing works and two new works written by Stroman, their artistic director, and are now prepared to create an original evening-length work firmly rooted in opera yet intended, through its subject matter and eclectic musical style, to generate appeal far beyond a ‘traditional’ opera/theatre audience. In its five-year life HOT has developed a network of enthusiastic and talented directors, producers, performers, supporters, workers, and a loyal audience base which it wishes to expand; Fever Pitch is the ideal vehicle for its next step, and Stroman‘s experience as a composer, conductor and performer in a wide range of musical styles makes him an ideal candidate to compose it.

Fever Pitch was one of PRS Foundation’s recipients of the David Bedford Music Education Award in 2016.

The David Bedford Music Education Award is given four times a year by PRS for Music Foundation to exceptional education projects involving composers and new music which they have funded. You can read about the most recent David Bedford Music Education Award recipients here.