RIC artist-in-residence nets top prize for a Holocaust-inspired video

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Congratulations to Rhode Island College (RIC) artist in residence Judith Lynn Stillman for winning accolades while in lockdown due to COVID-19.

 Her production, “Beneath A Silent Blue Sky,” brought together a team of opera singers virtually in an interfaith Holocaust commemoration set to the words of Elie Wiesel. It won the 2020 Artisan Festival International World Peace Initiative Cannes, and also received the Karl Bardosh Humanitarian Award from the World Peace and Tolerance Institute.

In addition, she received first place in a global competition, sponsored by OperaVision, the digital platform for the international opera organization Opera Europa. The winning production is a gospel/jazz-crossover opera called “Essential Business.” Stillman collaborated with Chicago-based Metropolitan Opera baritone Will Liverman and partners from the United Kingdom.

Also, she worked as the lyricist and director for the timely get out the vote rap musical film, “A Woman’s Place Is in the House.” The joint venture with a Caribbean singer-rap artist, Liberian rappers, an Armenian opera singer, and Rhode Island College students and alumni picked up the Anaheim International Film Festival’s gold award for Best Political Issue Film. It netted Silver in the Global Music Awards for Outstanding Achievement and Listener Impact.