Stephen Kennedy Murphy’s modern adaptation of Franz Schubert’s The Millers Daughter is a one-hour series of video vignettes that reimagine the classic musical story through the lens of global warming and climate disasters. The story follows a steel worker's pursuit of his boss' "green-movement" daughter against the backdrop of the mill towns of Pennsylvania.

The Steel Miller's Daughter features lyrics and vocals by Mr. Murphy, with Natalie Tyson-Multhaup in the title role. An introduction will be given by Teresa Ghilarducci, Director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), Willi Semmler, Director of SCEPA's Economics of Climate Change project, and Stefania de Kenessey, a former New School faculty member and renowned composer.

Following the performance, Stefania de Kenessey will lead a discussion with an interdisciplinary panel of artists and academics including Willi Semmler, Marie-Claire Giraud, Dimitri Nikulin, and Natalie Tyson-Multhaup.

Speakers:

Willli Semmler
Arnhold Professor of International Cooperation and Development

Willi Semmler's recent work and teaching focuses on the economics of climate change. For decades, Semmler has pioneered research in many subjects, including financial economics, macroeconomics, and applied econometrics.

Stephen Kennedy Murphy
Stage Director

Stephen Kennedy Murphy is a stage director of theater and opera. He is the founding artistic director of the Eugene O'Neill Studio at Yale and the artistic director of The Playwrights Theater of New York. He has also performed as a singer-pianist in New York, London, Paris, Nice, Monaco and Rome. In New York, Stephen has directed at Carnegie Hall, On and Off-Broadway and at Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall and The Juilliard School.

Marie-Claire Giraud

Singer

Marie-Claire Giraud is a 2016 NYC Caribbean Heritage Award recipient, and a 2015 NAACP Image Award recipient for teaching inner city kids in her neighborhood of the South Bronx about the joys of classical music. Sha has also received citations from NYS Senate, City Hall, and the UN. Marie-Claire Giraud was born on the island of Dominica and raised in The Bronx. She is a soprano and has performed at the Barclays Center, MSG, City Hall and Carniege Hall to name a few.

Stefania de Kenessey

Professor Emeritus of the Arts and Contemporary Music

Stefania de Kenessey is a leading figure in contemporary classical music and her music has been performed nationally at venues including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, as well as throughout the world. Her output ranges from choral, vocal and operatic pieces to chamber and orchestral work, as well as scores for documentary films, theater and dance companies.

Natalie Tyson-Multhaup

Classical Singer
Natalie Tyson-Multhaup is a graduate from New York University with a Masters degree in Classical Voice Performance. She continues to perform having been most recently seen at the Irish Repertory Theater in Chelsea Manhattan performing Sean, Women, and Song: A Musical Tribute lyrics by Sean O’Casey and has sung roles such as ‘Papagena’, ‘Susana’, and ‘Gretel’ in opera scenes at Carnegie Hall with New York Lyric Opera.

Dmitri Nikulin

Professor of Philosophy
Dmitri Nikulin is professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research. He is the author of a number of books including Critique of Bored Reason: On the Confinement of the Modern Condition (2022) and Facets of Modernity: Reflections on Fractured Subjectivity (2021). His other books include Dialectic and Dialogue (2010), Comedy, Seriously (2014), The Concept of History (2017), and Neoplatonism in Late Antiquity (2019).

Presented by the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at The New School for Social Research. 

SCEPA would like to thank the Thyssen Foundation for its continued financial support of the Economics of Climate Change project.