My mother was in the very first opera I saw. She was a graduate student at the University of Cin­cinnati College-Conservatory of Music in the early 1980s, and they did a Star Wars-themed ver­sion of The Magic Flute.

I was a very young child — probably three years old — so mostly what I remember is scanning the stage just looking for my mom. She was one of the people wearing an astronaut suit and helmet. It didn't take me long to find her because she was such an animated singer. I remember being so excited that my mom was on the stage, but I also remember the production itself being exciting because there was so much happening. My brother was also in the opera, and he had on this monk uniform and was playing ring around the rosy. The people playing Papageno and Papagena had on chicken costumes.

Obviously, I didn’t know I was going to be an opera composer at the time, but it was one of many expe­riences I had with my family that prepared me to compose my first opera. My parents were both musicians. My dad plays the saxophone, and my mother, who passed away very unexpectedly in 2020, was a violinist and singer. She also taught elementary school for a long time and started us on strings at a young age. I played the violin in kindergarten, but in the first grade, I switched to the cello because I saw that cellists got to sit down. We always had a piano in the house, so the piano was a “for fun” instrument.

Mom had all kinds of instru­ments in the house and at school, so I learned to improvise on anything I could get my hands on. My parents always sent me to art school, which allowed me to focus on music.

I started composing when I was eight years old because my mom got rid of the televisions in our house. She thought they were too much of a distraction. I was mad about it at first. After a month’s time, I didn’t miss it and filled that time with various things, one of which was writing music. I always make sure to tell that story, because had it not been for her getting rid of the TVs, I wouldn’t have discovered my pas­sion for writing music.

I had a lot of roles as a com­poser before I was commissioned for my first opera, Fierce, about four teenage girls telling their sto­ries at a writing workshop. It was completely different from other compositions in many ways, including a lot of meet­ings and prep work prior to writing my first note. It is the longest piece I’ve ever written, and it was a lot of work. But I loved the process. It was a constant learn­ing experience. I grew a lot and learned a lot about myself.

That first performance at Cincinnati Opera was different, too. It was very surreal to be sitting in the audience. I’m used to being on stage or in the orches­tra pit, but being in the audience, I was able to feel the energy in a completely different way. It was awesome to experience. People were very gracious and very kind. It’s funny, I was giving a talk right before the premiere, and I told the story about my first opera, and somebody came up to me afterward and told me they were at that show. It was nearly 40 years ago at this point, so it was incredible that somebody else remembered it.

William Menefield is a musician and composer known for his work in jazz, soul, R&B, and clas­sical music. Fierce, with a libretto by Sheila Williams, premiered at Cincinnati Opera’s Summer Festival.