Beckemeyer joins The Thirteen for the first time for their presentation and recording of the choral opera The Outer Edge of Youth.

The Outer Edge of Youth is a major, semi-staged, new choral opera from acclaimed composer-writer-director Scott Ordway commissioned by The Thirteen. Called “exquisite” and “a marvel” by critics, even “an American response to Sibelius” (The Boston Globe), the composer has conceived a look at how boys and young men interact with one another and toward the natural world. Finding inspiration in the natural world and in the story of St. Francis talking to the birds, Ordway’s concept bends the boundaries between opera and choral music to riveting effect. His dreamlike work, featuring projected images of the natural world, two soloists, two choirs, and four string instruments promises a celebration of friendship, youth, landscape, and memory, and of connections with people we love, places we feel at home, and the living earth surrounding us all.