LUX VIVENS

CREATIVE TEAM

Music and Libretto SARAH KIRKLAND SNIDER, based on the writings of Hildegarde Von Bingen

ABOUT

In a time when women were not allowed to have a voice, 12th-century saint/abbess/visionary/ composer/polymath Hildegard von Bingen became a powerful force in medieval Europe. Lux Vivens focuses on Hildegard's journey of discovering and trusting her visions and herself. From her years as an enclosed oblate at Disibodenberg Monastery, to her later life, when a vision of tongues of fire inspired her to record her story and convince the Pope and the Church that she was not a heretic, Hildegard's life was filled with adversity.

Along her extraordinary path, she founded two Abbeys, wrote theological and medical treatises, composed sixty-nine pieces of music, and became one of the most influential political advisors of her time. Drawing from Hildegard's music and texts, Lux Vivens tells an ancient story with incredible modern relevance of a woman overcoming those who wished to silence her, and discovering the power of her voice.

SUPPORT

Lux Vivens was commissioned in part by the OPERA America Opera Grants for Female Composers award funded by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.

PRESS

PRAISE FOR SARAH KIRKLAND SNIDER

“…one of the decade’s more gifted, up-and-coming modern classical composers.”

— Pitchfork

“Snider clearly has a lot to say that’s worth listening to…”

– Opera News