Season of the Song: Infinitesimal (2 Dates)

THURSDAY 9 & FRIDAY 10 OCTOBER

“an extraordinary new step into chamber opera…”

“The intimate and dream-like sequences highlight universal experiences like love, death, belonging, and the search for meaning, making this oeuvre destined to touch hearts.” Pure.Art Circle, Italy

Forget what you might expect from a typical singer/pianist performance. This is a genre-defying journey that weaves spoken word, memoir and a rich soundscape of voice, piano, and electronics. It’s raw, honest and captivating.

Through a bold blend of storytelling, theatre and music, the duo transform the grandeur of opera into something deeply personal – like it belongs to all of us.  

“We wanted to create a piece of art to try to find a way to bring people together in this time of division and heaviness in the world. As creators, we wanted to bring goodness and light into the world and to show that more things connect us than we might think; finding these shared threads of our humanity.”

In a world shadowed by division and sorrow, this visceral yet unconventional theatre memoir gently reminds us of our shared humanity—illuminating hope, connection and the enduring presence of good. A world where opera feels powerful, intimate and unmistakably current.

This thought-provoking take on chamber opera weaves together science, memoir, theatre and music to explore enduring themes of belonging, humanity and connection – as well as the timeless transition between life and death.

Based on groundbreaking research about near-death experiences, Infinitesimal transmutes chamber opera into an expansive sonic landscape, pushing the expressive limits to reimagine the singer-pianist duo. It showcases gay and female voices through the shared experiences of its central characters and “amplifies the vital interconnection between humans” (Paradiso.Pure Living).

Dancing at the threshold between our existence and what lies beyond it, Infinitesimal is directed by Kevin Newbury and composed and performed by pianist Nicole Brancato and baritone Jeremy Weiss.

About the Artists

Kevin Newbury, director

Kevin Newbury is an opera, theatre & film director. Career highlights: three PBS Great Performances Broadcasts: Bernstein’s MASS (Ravinia Festival), and the world premieres of Doubt (Minnesota Opera) & Bel Canto (Lyric Opera of Chicago); dozens of other world premieres including GRAMMY-Winner The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera), Fellow Travelers (Cincinnati Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Prototype Festival, etc., NY Times: “BEST of 2016”), Castor & Patience (Cincinnati Opera, NY Times: “BEST of 2022”). Kansas City Choir Boy, starring Courtney Love (Prototype Festival & National Tour) The Righteous (Santa Fe Opera), The Good Swimmer (BAM Next Wave Festival) and Candy & Dorothy (GLAAD Media Award Winner: Best Play). Kevin’s work has been nominated four times for “Best World Premiere” at the International Opera Awards.

Nicole Brancato, composer, librettist, & pianist 

Nicole Brancato makes music to unlock wonder. Fascinated with contemporary expressions of our shared human experience, the NYC-based pianist merges curation, composition, and performance in collaborations across the arts. Described as “brilliant” and an “immense talent” (New York Magazine & Connect Savannah), Nicole is “redefining the very notion of classical music” (Atención San Miguel). Her credits range from the Guggenheim Museum (NYC), Rai Italia, and the Banff Centre (Canada), to Lincoln Center, Bellas Artes (Mexico), and HBO. A sought-after guest artist and presenter, Nicole’s extensive experience includes the Gesellschaftshaus Magdeburg (Germany), Lunigiana International Music Festival (Italy), and dozens of universities across the US. She is an awardee of NYFA (multiple years), NYSCA (2024), Pure.Art Circle Italy (2024), IPaT at Georgia Tech (2024), and National Sawdust’s Hildegard Competition (2022 Finalist), and is Director of Seven Hills Chamber Music. Additionally, Nicole is a Yamaha Artist, a current Artist in Residence with the NYC Department of Education, and a voting member of The Recording Academy (GRAMMYS).

Jeremy Weiss, composer, librettist, & baritone 

With a “heart wrenchingly beautiful” (Interludes) voice possessing an “indigo-tinged sensuousness” (Opera News), the career of baritone Jeremy Weiss spans two continents. His recent credits include L’Opéra National de Paris, The Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, L’Opéra-Théâtre de Metz Metropole, and The Brooklyn Academy of Music. Upcoming house debuts include: Seattle Opera, Portland Opera, San Diego Opera, and Cincinnati Opera. Weiss is also on the forefront of developing “innovative, engrossing, and boundary-shattering” (Opera News) multidisciplinary projects that transform the way audiences connect with classical music. The Wandering — a queer, transmedia visual album and immersive audience experience — is based on Schubert’s lieder and it headlined the Innovation in Art Song Summit at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. A vocal chameleon, Weiss has sung Schaunard in La Bohème, Orfeo in Belli’s Orfeo Dolente, Steve Jobs in Mason Bates’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, and Garibaldo in Handel’s Rodelinda. Jeremy was awarded third prize in the Lotte Lenya Competition in 2022, where he was also a prizewinner in 2019 and 2020.

Guest Speakers 

Calista Small (October 10th)

Calista Small is a Research Manager at More in Common, where she leads mixed-methods studies on social connection and belonging in the US. She recently co-authored The Connection Opportunity: Insights for Bringing Americans Together Across Difference (2025), which is now widely used by leaders across sectors to inform national bridge-building efforts. Her work has been cited in The New York Times, USA Today, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Forbes, and The Hill. Before studying social psychology, she spent four years professionally engaged in the arts. She holds a B.A. in Humanities from Yale University and a post-baccalaureate degree in Psychology from Columbia University.