Music by Daniel Schnyder
Libretto by Bridgette A. Wimberly

Indianapolis Opera
Madame Walker Legacy Center
Indianapolis, IN
March 2024

Director: Jessica Burton
Conductor: Clinton Smith
Lighting Designer: Catherine Sipe
Projections Designer: Jessica Burton
Photos: Denis Ryan Kelly, Jr./Indianapolis Opera

Indianapolis Opera Yardbird website

Tom Alverez review of Indianapolis Opera’s Yardbird

Director’s Notes:

Charlie “Yardbird” Parker had always dreamed of writing a symphony. He idolized classical composers such as Bach, Chopin, Debussy, Beethoven and Stravinsky; studying them as he learned to master his instrument and his style. He was known for quoting their music within his own improvisations. He accomplished many greats in his time: composer, inventor of a new music style, and engaging performer. And yet by the time he died at the young age of 34 he had never written his symphony.

Our Charlie’s journey starts in the club that was named after him: Birdland. He never had any ownership in the business, in fact he was thrown out of the club and told to never return. And yet, here he is, drawn to the place where his legacy is felt deeply. He is visited by visions of his past, interlaced with the grief of those discovering his death. And yet he is still driven to write his symphony. To leave that one last, ultimate shining star of his legacy.

The club still pulses around him. The band is on the stand. Patrons fill the tables, listening to music that he influenced. As he navigates this world between living and death, his memories are distractions. The people he’s known keep pulling him away from his music. And yet, as everyone comes together at the end, he starts to understand, he did write his symphony. It is written in the lives of the people he loved and who loved him. Their grief, written by the memories of time spent with him, interlaces into a swelling melody. His final symphony: Charlie Parker’s “Yardbird”.