The Fry Street Quartet and opera duo lead audience to a standing ovation after a moving performance

Kristen Steiner

Audience members left impressed and stunned as they exited the Caine Performance Hall this evening at Utah State University after a stirring and moving performance from the Fry Street Quartet and opera singers, Kelly Markgraf and Blythe Gaissert, in the chamber opera, “As One.”

“It was really cool how they brought everything together,” said Ariel Haubner, a recently graduated USU music student. “It was all about love and acceptance and finding yourself.”

“As One,” a chamber opera written and composed by Laura Kaminsky, Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed, follows Hannah, the young transgender protagonist, as she learns and grows, and through many life experiences, finds out who she truly is.

Viewers walked into the small, but beautiful concert hall to find three of the four quartet members warming up on center stage backed by tiers of white sheets which were to later serve as the back drop screen for the projected visuals to enhance the touching performance.

As the performance started, missing violist Bradley Ottesen joined the rest of quartet and was shortly followed by baritone singer Markgraf as he began to sing the opening piece, “Paperroute.” As videos and images of cycling appeared on the white backdrop, fellow mezzo-soprano singer Gaissert joined Markgraf where they continued to sing about the challenges faced by an adolescent who was trying to discover her identity.

Markgraf, playing Hannah before, and Gaissert, playing Hannah after, shared the part of the transgender protagonist showing the inner conflict and struggles many face during their long years of identity crisis. However, in the end, after many years of uncertainty, self-doubt and ridicule, Hannah finds, through an unexpected trip to Norway, how to achieve happiness and become the woman she has always longed to be.

“As One” premiered on Sept. 4 at BAM Fisher in Brooklyn, New York and is expected to be shown in venues throughout the nation, said Robert Waters, first violinist in the Fry Street Quartet.

“It's been a joy to be part of such a simple, beautiful message,” said Rebecca McFaul, the second violinist in the Fry Street Quartet. “Everyone searches for their own, authentic identity. It manifests more obviously in our protagonist who needs to transition, but the reaching for that authenticity is universal.”

More information on the opera can be found at http://www.operaprojects.org/AsOne