Floating Opera started in the early 1990s as a recording project with the participation of many of the best musicians in Lincoln, Nebraska, including many who have recorded for major labels. We released a self-titled cassette in 1993, which had limited distribution, but received strong reviews. That was followed by the CD Everybody's Somebody's Monster (1996), the EP It's Not Easy Listening Anymore (1999), and the full length CD's Burning Lighthouse (2003) and Pony Up A Go Go (2009).
In recent years the band has transitioned from being a recording collective that only occasionally played live to a live band whose focus was on being able to really do justice to the excellent recordings in a live setting. The band is consists of Richard Rebarber, (Keyboards & Songwriting), Meg Mahannah (Lead Vocals), Sarah Korf (Keyboards, Trumpet & Vocals), Scott Stanfield (Acoustic Guitar & Vocals ), Alyssa Storey (Cello), Tery Daly (Bass & Vocals), Jon Korf (Electric Guitar), Thad Miller (Violin), and Douglas Allyn (Drums). Most Floating Opera songs are written by Charles Lieurance and Richard Rebarber.
NETV photos by Larry W. Sheffield
There have been the over 50 musicians who have recorded and played in Floating Opera; for a list click here . The list of these musicians reads like a Who's who of the cream of Lincoln Music scene for the past 2 decades, including members of: Mercy Rule, The Millions, The Liars, For Against, The Black Dahlias, The Boys, The Honey Hush, Prairie Psycho, The Static Octopus, Loup River Band & Street Choir, Witch's Hat, and Tangelo.
Most of the Floating Opera songs are written by Charles Lieurance and Richard Rebarber. Charles is a writer and poet, was lead singer for the bands The Black Dahlias, and The Honey Hush. Richard writes the music for Charles Lieurance's lyrics, and produces, engineers and plays keyboards on the recordings. Richard has also arranged for other musicians, including two songs on Mercy Rule's Providence CD (Relativity Records). Richard studied composition, music theory and electronic music technology at Oberlin College, and pays the bills with his job as Professor of Mathematics at the University of Nebraska. (If for some perverse reason you'd like to download some of his research papers in infinite dimensional control theory or mathematical ecology, go to www.math.unl.edu/~rrebarber1.)