MUSICALI-Tea & WHiMSICALI-Tea
April plus Madison
The Short Story
About April plus Madison
April Lynn James, PhD is the corporeal half of this Wonderland-inspired enterprise that is fueled, in part, by the whimsical rhymes composed and declaimed by her guardian angel,
Madison Hatta, Sonneteer.
April Lynn James, PhD
Dr. April Lynn James is an award-winning soprano and scholar. She is passionate about the connection between creativi-Tea, spirituali-Tea, and wellness. For over a decade, she has been inspiring others through April plus Madison, her latest entrepreneurial venture, for which she is the Designer of Whimsical Things.
She had the distinguished honor of studying abroad in Dresden, Germany courtesy of a DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst/German Academic Exchange Service) Fellowship, where she researched the music and life of Maria Antonia, Electress of Saxony.
Dr. April founded The Maria Antonia Project, an opera company whose mission is to bring operas composed by women out of the archives and onto the stage. A groundbreaking researcher in the area of Women in Music, her exhibitions, In Her Own Hand: Operas Composed by Women 1625-1913 (Harvard Music Library) and Women Composing for Marian Anderson (Penn Libraries), were enthusiastically received, and she is sought after as a speaker on this subject. Her research on Marian Anderson became part of the recent American Masters documentary, Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands, directed by Emmy- and Peabody Award-winner Rita Coburn.
It was the Tim Burton film, Alice in Wonderland (2010), that took Dr. April down the rabbit hole and led to her guardian angel, Madison Hatta, Sonneteer, springing full-blown into her consciousness. Madison’s chapbooks, the Book of Unreasonable Rhymes (2015) and the Book of Unrelenting Rhymes (2016) are available from Philadelphia’s legendary Moonstone Press.
Dr. April holds a PhD in Music from Harvard University, as well as degrees from Queens College of the City University of New York and Drexel University.
Connect with me on LinkedIn!
Madison Hatta, Sonneteer
I did not create Madison; Madison comes through me. Madison first appeared in my consciousness as a childhood desire for a top hat and lifelong appreciation for English literature. It was during my “opera-preneur” years that I developed a conscious awareness of angelic presences in my life, shortly before Madison’s quite vocal appearance in my inner ear during the Tim Burton Alice and beyond. I see Madison as the guardian angel of my sense of humor.
The "Madisonnets" began flowing through me in the summer of 2011. I (plus Madison) now have well over 200 with which to delight the ear, eye, heart, and mind.
Our Indiegogo campaign to fund the publication of Madison Hatta's Book of Unreasonable Rhymes was over 100% successful. Madison’s chapbooks, the Book of Unreasonable Rhymes (2015) and the Book of Unrelenting Rhymes (2016) are available from Philadelphia’s legendary Moonstone Press.
Listen to recitations of individual Madisonnets and an excerpt from our solo (duo) show, The Twinkle Bat Variations, at the April plus Madison's (A)Musings page.
Also, feel free to follow April plus Madison's Facebook page.
