Viola! is a new work based on the fate of the Viola Edwards Hospital which opened in 1922 as the first African American-owned hospital in Pensacola, Florida. At the core of this story is the owner, Viola Edwards, and the lives of two women altered in pursuit of the American dream.
Join us for this event song cycle event at the Mattie Kelly Arts Center in Niceville, Florida.
Viola Edwards was a nurse who built, opened and operated a 12-room hospital from 1922 to 1927 in the Historic Belmont DeVilliers neighborhood. For five years, the hospital stood as a place for healing and hope.
On a Monday morning in 1927, a White woman came into the hospital. By Friday, she was dead.
Listen to a clip of the story on WUWF (NPR) Radio by Sandra Averhart here. It aired ahead of the 2019 premiere.
Join us for this song cycle event.
VIOLA! Song Cycle
Friday. November 8, 2019. 7:30 PM
Tickets: $35. $15 Students (with ID) (plus applicable fees)
Mattie Kelly Arts Center on the campus of Northwest Florida State College, 100 College Boulevard East, Niceville, Florida
BUY YOUR TICKETS TODAY.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2020. 7:30 PM
Viola! Song Cycle is an evening of songs and narration from this new American work. Viola! is the story of two women’s lives altered in the pursuit of the American dream. This new work, based on true events, shares events that happened at Pensacola’s first black-owned hospital and its founder, Viola Edwards. The hospital was a place of hopes and dreams for one and a place of life and death for another.
Don’t miss out on this inaugural and historic event at the Mattie Kelly Arts Center on the campus of Northwest Florida State College, on Tuesday, February 11, 2020, with the music of composer and pianist Lois Henry, writer Robin Reshard, and a stellar cast of professional opera singers directed and led by bass-baritone Lloyd Reshard, Jr. Tickets are $35 and $15 for students (with ID).
Viola! is commissioned by the Kukua Institute.
We are grateful for our generous sponsors. Thank you.
