MARGARET GARNER EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSHIP LAUNCHES UNPRECEDENTED VOCAL COMPETITION

Detroit School of Arts Students Compete for Prize Packages

DETROIT, Michigan, Michigan Opera Theatre, the Detroit School of Arts, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit Public Television, WRCJ 90.9 FM, and the Chamber Music Society of Detroit announced today an unprecedented partnership which will culminate in an intensive vocal competition involving students from the Detroit School of Arts. The final competition will be held on Monday, December 8, 2008 at 4 p.m. at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, and will determine three winners.

Students participating will have the opportunity to win a large prize package, consisting tickets to the Detroit Opera House and the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, a year membership to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, and an interview with a WRCJ host and airtime to present a recording of their choice. Drawing on the themes of Margaret Garner, participants� songs must reflect the period of the Civil War, and may consist of Gospel songs and Spirituals.

Judges for the final competition will include Dr. David DiChiera, General Director, Michigan Opera Theatre, Benjamin Pruitt, Director of Fine Arts Education, Detroit Public Schools, Dave Wagner, Host, WRCJ 90.9 FM, Lois Beznos, President, Chamber Music Society of Detroit, and Norah Duncan, Associate Music Dept. Chair, Wayne State University.

About Margaret Garner
Michigan Opera Theatre recently opened its 2008 fall opera season, made possible by Ford Motor Company, with the triumphant return of Margaret Garner, October 18-25, 2008 at the Detroit Opera House. The product of an unprecedented collaboration between Grammy Award-winning composer Richard Danielpour and Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, the opera made its world premiere at the Detroit Opera House in May 2005 to international critical acclaim and sold-out performances. Based on one of the most significant and controversial fugitive slave stories in pre-Civil War America, the opera recounts the compelling, tragic, and inspiring story of Margaret Garner�s quest for freedom.

Margaret Garner is inspired by the true story of an enslaved family�s quest for freedom. Fleeing Richwood, Kentucky�s Maplewood Farm to Cincinnati Ohio in 1856, Margaret Garner made the horrific decision to sacrifice her own children when capture was at hand, rather than see them returned to the bonds of slavery. Her trial resulted in a major legal debate about whether she should be charged with murder or �destruction of property.� The Garner trial addressed crucial issues in constitutional law and posed key questions at the core of the rift in the Union during the pre-Civil War era.