DWB is the rueful shorthand for “Driving While Black,” and it’s also the title of a new “chamber opera project” featuring the work of three University of Kansas School of Music teachers that has its initial staged reading at 7:30 p.m. today, March 5, in Swarthout Recital Hall.
Roberta Gumbel, lecturer in voice and opera; Hannah Collins, assistant professor of cello, and Michael Compitello, assistant professor of percussion, will perform the 45-minute work with music composed by Susan Kander and lyrics, or libretto, written by Gumbel, based on her own personal experience with the issue. Kander will be visiting from New York for the performance.