Conductor and pianist Kelly Kuo hails from Oregon and currently serves as Artistic Director of the Oregon Mozart Players, and now, he comes farther north to conduct Charlie Parker’s Yardbird for Seattle Opera.
This new opera, with music by Daniel Schnyder and libretto by Bridgette A. Wimberly, revisits composer Charlie Parker’s dream of bringing classical and jazz together – and Kuo finds this combination exciting. “Even more than working on a piece focused on real people,” Kuo said, “I love working on a piece written by a living composer!”