Talk:Sarah Hutchings

Discussion of notability of Hutchings
Page created by musician RogerSchmidt. Non-affiliation.

Page refers to notable composer as defined under Criteria for composers and lyricists. Specifically:

1. Has credit for writing or co-writing either lyrics or music for a notable composition. Rodman in North Korea, ranked as a top five satirical work as per the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Also mentioned by Opera America and The Charlotte Observer newspaper, and Opera Carolina, among others.

2. Has written musical theatre of some sort (includes musicals, operas, etc.) that was performed in a notable theatre that had a reasonable run as such things are judged in their particular situation and time. Twenty Minutes or Less was performed for sold out audiences with major USA opera company Washington National Opera as part of the American Opera Initiative program.(https://dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2015/12/03/washington-national-opera-american-opera-initiative-three-20-minute-operas/)

4. Has written a composition that has won (or in some cases been given a second or other place) in a major music competition not established expressly for newcomers. Twice received national recognition as a finalist in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Art Song Composition Award. This award is not established for newcomers. Hutchings was also a participant in the American Opera Initiative, a selective program created "to stimulate, enrich, and ensure the future of contemporary American opera by providing talented emerging composers [not expressively for newcomers] and librettists with mentorship and opportunities to write for the stage."(https://www.kennedy-center.org/wno/mto/aoiinfo)

6. Appears at reasonable length in standard reference books on his or her genre of music. Featured in several sources at reasonable length in reviews by several prominent publications (newspapers, company websites) and in published books such as the Composer Genealogies: A Compendium of Composers, Their Teachers, and Their Students.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by RogerSchmidt (talk • contribs) 10:26, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

Editing one's own article
Going by the username, it appears that Sarah Hutchings is editing this article. Please note that people are not permitted to edit their own Wikipedia articles as this is considered a conflict of interest. Please read this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons/Help#Editing_the_article_yourself If there is something about the article you want to discuss, you can do that here on the talk page. MurielMary (talk) 18:37, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Seems like a clear case of conflict of interest. The main contributors are user SarahHutchings and RogerSchmidt who seems to have been collaborating with Mr and Mrs Hutchings in the past. See: https://www.abnewswire.com/pressreleases/germany-and-the-united-states-take-home-medals-in-the-american-vocal-arts-2019-international-collegiate-singing-championship_330812.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by OrestesLebt (talk • contribs) 18:49, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

I was unaware that the contribution of media is prohibited. I will remove it. SarahHutchings (talk) 23:50, 2 December 2019 (UTC)SarahHutchings

Content has been edited further enhanced neutral point of view by the user OresesLebt. Minor corrections were made to dates of Art Song. RogerSchmidt (talk) 00:12, 3 December 2019 (UTC)RogerSchmidt


 * I believe the only provided content that remains in the article, unrevised, is the video media depicting a premiere. If this contribution is not viewed as pertinent or permissible, can an editor remove it? Using the talk page rather than provide further direct edits is perhaps the better solution. There are multiple past revisions given, but, upon inspection, one should hopefully discover that these were more than one unsuccessful attempt to accurately post (sizing / placing in the correct section) a photo (deleted) and the same choral premiere (currently live). Thanks in advance.SarahHutchings (talk) 14:37, 4 December 2019 (UTC)SarahHutchings

Neutral point of view, conflict of interest, and notability
I have further revised this article to remove the padding and cherry-picking. Simply listing publications where the subject is mentioned is repetitive puffery, and in the vast majority of those examples "featured" is a gross exaggeration. I have also removed this grossly misleading assertion which implies that an authoritative source ranks the as yet unperformed Rodman in North Korea right up there with The Marriage of Figaro,  The Mikado,  Anti-Formalist Rayok, and Of Thee I Sing. The mention of Rodman in North Korea at the end of the source article was simply a shout-out: "'The opera is still in the works, but creators are pitching it in their crowd-funding campaign as a way to promote free speech through classical music as a response to threats believed to come from North Korea against Sony for its film The Interview. If there are two bizarre and larger-than-life characters alive today who are ripe for satire on the opera stage, it's hard to argue with Rodman and Kim Jong Un.'" See also kickstarter.com.

I have also edited a sentence about Twenty Minutes or Less: [sic]. I've formatted it as a direct quote and explicitly attributed to its source, which incidentally, has no relation whatsoever to the real Musical Times. Also, the quote is cherry-picked. For balance, I have added an assessment from Anne Midgette in the Washington Post.

I am going to remove the COI template after my edits. However, the conflict of interest for the two main contributors to this article is glaringly apparent. I strongly suggest that you both read WP:COI very carefully, follow the guidelines there scrupulously, and refrain from directly editing this article in future. Instead, make requested edits on this talk page for neutral editors to evaluate.

I also have to say that the notability of this subject is extremely marginal. The section above, Discussion of notability of Hutchings, shows a serious misunderstanding of the notability criteria at Notability (music). Not a single independent reliable source devoted specifically to Hutchings's biography and her body of work has been provided. Of all the works mentioned, only two, the short opera Twenty Minutes or Less and the song "Ode to Free Beer", have received any critical mention at all, and the mention of the latter is very marginal. Voceditenore (talk) 16:33, 4 December 2019 (UTC)


 * Update re the 2015 review quote for Twenty Minutes or Less from the blog Musical Times I have removed the quote entirely from the article after discovering that the blog is owned by the subject's husband and is therefore not a reliable independent source. It also appears to have been back-dated. The blog did not come online until May 2019. Voceditenore (talk) 12:56, 19 December 2019 (UTC)