Peter Wing Healey
PETER WING HEALEY, composer, writer, director, choreographer, and founder of The Mesopotamian Opera Company, Inc., attended Haverford College and The Boston Conservatory of Music. He began classical piano training at 6. At 13 he sang professionally with Christ Church Cathedral Choir in Vancouver, B.C. He continued his keyboard studies in Springfield, Mass. with Dorothy Guion, a protégé of Dame Myra Hess, and sang choral and operatic music under the direction of Alfredo Carbonell at Longmeadow Highschool. He studied music theory in Salzburg on a summer trip. At 18 he studied baroque keyboard with Agi Jambor, head of the Music Department at Bryn Mawr College, famous concert pianist and student of Edwin Fischer. In college he turned to dance. In New York he studied with Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, David Howard, and Sara Sugihara. He studied classical ballet with Janet Panetta, soloist at American Ballet Theater and protege of Margaret Craske, the great student of Maestro Ceccetti, who had trained Anna Pavlova.
Mr. Wing Healey danced professionally in New York City, from 1976 to 1996, with Daniel Lewis from the José Limón Dance Company, with Anna Sokolow, with Hannah Kahn, with Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians and with the Mark Morris Dance Group. He performed all over the world. He danced as a soloist in Mark Morris's The Hard Nut at the Théâtre Royale de la Monnaie in Brussels, Belgium, filmed for PBS's Great Performances. He worked as rehearsal director on the White Oak Dance Project with Mikhail Baryshnikov and was balletmaster on the John Adams/Peter Sellars opera Nixon in China from its inception in 1987 at the Houston Grand Opera through re-stagings for the Los Angeles Opera, The English National Opera, The Greek National Opera and The Metropolitan Opera.
Mr. Wing Healey's original plays, operas and operettas have been performed in New York at P.S. 122, The Judson Memorial Church, The Vineyard Theater, The Middle Collegiate Church, R.A.P.P. Arts Center, H.E.R.E., The Greenwich House, and in Los Angeles at LATC, Highways, 2100 Square Feet, The Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, The Highland Park Ebell Club and The Whitmore-Lindley Theater Center. His play Thyestes's Feast was published in the online journal Papotage after winning their writer's competition and was later hailed by critics as "riveting", "interesting and potent theater". His opera The Tree was awarded a $25,000 grant from the James Irvine Foundation through The Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, Jenny Krusoe, director with significant additional support from the Department of Cultural Affairs of Los Angeles. He has received support for his work from American Opera Projects, TWEED Productions, The Howard Gilman Foundation, The Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, The Noah Wyle Foundation and The James Irvine Foundation.
Mr. Wing Healey danced professionally in New York City, from 1976 to 1996, with Daniel Lewis from the José Limón Dance Company, with Anna Sokolow, with Hannah Kahn, with Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians and with the Mark Morris Dance Group. He performed all over the world. He danced as a soloist in Mark Morris's The Hard Nut at the Théâtre Royale de la Monnaie in Brussels, Belgium, filmed for PBS's Great Performances. He worked as rehearsal director on the White Oak Dance Project with Mikhail Baryshnikov and was balletmaster on the John Adams/Peter Sellars opera Nixon in China from its inception in 1987 at the Houston Grand Opera through re-stagings for the Los Angeles Opera, The English National Opera, The Greek National Opera and The Metropolitan Opera.
Mr. Wing Healey's original plays, operas and operettas have been performed in New York at P.S. 122, The Judson Memorial Church, The Vineyard Theater, The Middle Collegiate Church, R.A.P.P. Arts Center, H.E.R.E., The Greenwich House, and in Los Angeles at LATC, Highways, 2100 Square Feet, The Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, The Highland Park Ebell Club and The Whitmore-Lindley Theater Center. His play Thyestes's Feast was published in the online journal Papotage after winning their writer's competition and was later hailed by critics as "riveting", "interesting and potent theater". His opera The Tree was awarded a $25,000 grant from the James Irvine Foundation through The Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, Jenny Krusoe, director with significant additional support from the Department of Cultural Affairs of Los Angeles. He has received support for his work from American Opera Projects, TWEED Productions, The Howard Gilman Foundation, The Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, The Noah Wyle Foundation and The James Irvine Foundation.
