2010-2011 FIRST YEAR RESIDENT ARTISTS
COMPOSERS
CHRISTOPHER CERRONE is a Brooklyn-based composer of orchestral, chamber, vocal, and electronic music. His music, recently described as “inventive” and “most effective” by the New York Times, is made of delicate and intricate sound worlds that often evoke the many writers who have inspired him: Italo Calvino, Louise Glück, Kurt Vonnegut, Jorge Luis Borges. Scenes from his opera in progress, Invisible Cities, were performed as part of New York City Opera’s VOX Festival, at the inaugural Yale Institute for Music Theatre, at the Virginia Arts Festival, and at the New Music New Haven concert series. Cerrone is currently completing Invisible Cities for an anticipated staged premiere in February 2011 with Red Light New Music in New York, directed by Luisa Proske. Other upcoming projects include a commission of a new work for violin and orchestra for the New York Youth Symphony to be premiered at Carnegie Hall, and a new trombone quartet for the New York based Guidonian Hand. Recent performances include Bang on a Can Festival, the Orchestre National de Lorraine and with Red Light New Music, the New York City-based ensemble and concert series that he co-directs, who also recently performed his piece Reading a Wave at the John F. Kennedy Center. Cerrone has been the recipient of awards and grants from the ASCAP (the 2010 Morton Gould Young Composer Award), American Music Center (CAP Grant 2009), and the Yale School of Music (Ezra Laderman Prize), and has worked with composers including Pierre Boulez, Salvatore Sciarrino, Aaron Jay Kernis, Charles Wuorinen, Richard Danielpour, and Julia Wolfe. He has taught music theory at the Manhattan School of Music, lectured on contemporary music at Columbia University and the Berlin University of the Arts, and taught electronic music and composition at Yale College. Cerrone received his undergraduate degree in 2007 from the Manhattan School of Music, studying with Nils Vigeland and Reiko Fueting; and received his M.M. and M.M.A. at the Yale School of Music, where studied with David Lang, Christopher Theofanidis, Martin Bresnick, Ezra Laderman, and Ingram Marshall. Website: www.christophercerrone.com
JUSTINE F. CHEN is a composer and violinist who has been the recipient of many prestigious awards and commissions, including prizes from BMI and ASCAP. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Chen’s work has been commissioned and performed by New York City Ballet,The Juilliard School, New York Festival of Song, New Juilliard Ensemble, Washington Ballet, Brooklyn Philharmonic, FLUX Quartet, Elements Quartet, Concertante, Long Leaf Opera, Capital Opera (Raleigh, NC), Chants Libres (Montréal) and Tapestry New Opera Works (Toronto). She studied violin and composition in the pre-college division of The Juilliard School, and trained at the School of American Ballet. As a dancer, she performed in various productions with New York City Ballet at the New York State Theater. Her acceptance into Juilliard’s College Division marked her the first violin and composition double-major in Juilliard history. Among her principal composition teachers are Robert Beaser, David Diamond, and Andrew Thomas. Because of her unique inter-disciplinary background, Ms. Chen has a keen interest in artistic collaborations. To this end, she has written incidental music for numerous theatrical productions from a young age, including Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In 2002, The Playwright’s Theater in New Jersey produced James Glossman’s award winning adaptation of Jim Lehrer’s novel, The Special Prisoner, with Justine’s incidental music that juxtaposed soundscapes of the modern world with the musical traditions of Noh theater. In 2001, she collaborated with digital artist Yewon Cho on a short animation Trilemma, which was selected for and screened at such prestigious festivals as the Hiroshima Animation Festival, the New York Expo, the Student Academy Awards, Anima Mundi in South America, and broadcast on PBS in “Reel New York” June 2002. In 2000, she held the Robert and Lilian Turchin Chair as Composer-in-Residence of the Appalachian Summer Festival in North Carolina. Since 1999, Chen has been actively studying the intricacies of interactive computer music program MAX/MSP. Her studies, guided by Mari Kimura, cutting-edge violinist and MAX/MSP programmer, has resulted in the composition and performance of several interactive pieces, including a computer-enhanced chamber opera for The Juilliard School. This chamber opera, The Maiden Tower, was also presented as a part of New York City Opera’s VOX: Showcasing American Composers in May 2006. In May 2008, scenes from her second opera, Jeanne, based on the life of Joan of Arc, were performed as part of NYCO’s VOX 2008 Showcase. Recent projects include a song cycle, Philomel, for soprano Jennifer Zetlan’s Marilyn Horne Foundation Recital in March 2009; and a song with text by Anna Akhmatova for Elizabeth Futral for a concert performance by New York City Opera. Chen is currently completing a children’s opera based on Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s short story The Dragon for North Carolina Opera in their inaugural 2010-2011 season. In 2005, she completed her doctoral studies in composition at The Juilliard School, where she also earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in violin and composition. Recent studies include computer music studies with the team at IRCAM and Bharatanatyam with Malini Srinivasan. Website: www.justinefchen.com
GERALD COHEN has earned distinction as a composer of both concert and liturgical music, and as a cantor and performer. Cohen’s compositions are published by Oxford University Press, G. Schirmer/AMP and Transcontinental Music Publications. A CD of his compositions, entitled Generations, is on the Composers Recordings, Inc. label, and includes chamber, choral and solo vocal works, including performances by the composer. Cohen recently completed his first opera, Sarah and Hagar, based on the story from the book of Genesis, with a libretto by Charles Kondek. The first act of the opera was performed in concert version in May 2005. Recent honors in composition include the 2008 Copland House Borromeo String Quartet Award, a 2007 Aaron Copland Award, the Westchester Prize for New Work, the American Composers Forum Faith Partners residency, and the Cantors Assembly’s Max Wohlberg Award for distinguished achievement in the field of Jewish composition. Cohen has received commissioning grants from Meet the Composer/National Endowment for the Arts and from the New York State Council on the Arts/Westchester Arts Council; residencies at The MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Yaddo; as well as Yale University’s Sudler Prize for outstanding achievement in the creative arts. Cohen’s music has been commissioned by choruses including the New York Virtuoso Singers, the Canticum Novum Singers, the Syracuse Children’s Chorus, St. Bartholomew’s Church (New York, NY), the Zamir Chorale of Boston, and the Usdan Center Chorus; by chamber ensembles including the Verdehr Trio, the Franciscan String Quartet, Chesapeake Chamber Music, the Degas String Quartet (with trombonist Haim Avitsur), the Wave Hill Trio, the Bronx Arts Ensemble, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic Brass Quintet; by the Cantors Assembly of America, the Westchester Youth Symphony, and by the Battery Dance Company, which performed his Songs of Tagore on tours of India and Eastern Europe. His music has also been performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony, the Westchester Philharmonic, the Riverside Symphony, the Plymouth Music Series Orchestra, the New York Concert Singers, Princeton Pro Musica, and many other ensembles and soloists. Cohen received a B.A in music from Yale University and a D.M.A in composition from Columbia University. He is Cantor at Shaarei Tikvah Congregation in Scarsdale, N.Y. and is on the faculty of the H.L. Miller Cantorial School of The Jewish Theological Seminary. Website: www.geraldcohenmusic.com
NKEIRU OKOYE, a native New Yorker of African American and Nigerian descent, is an award-winning composer whose music has been performed on four continents. Okoye’s penchant for infusing popular and non-Western influences in a ‘classical’ framework shows in her most performed works, Songs of Harriet Tubman (2007, recorded by Louise Toppin and the Prague Radio Orchestra on the CD Heart on a Wall), Phillis Wheatley (2005, commissioned by the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, and recorded by the Moscow Symphony), Voices Shouting Out (2002, commissioned by the Virginia Symphony); Ruth: an Orchestral Choreopoem, (1998, UNYSIS African American Composers Competition); The Genesis (1997, ASCAP Young Composers Award) and African Sketches, (2004-05, published in the Oxford University Press Anthology of Piano Music of the African Diaspora). Okoye’s orchestral works have been performed by the Philadelphia, Detroit, St. Louis, Virginia, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Mississippi, Richmond, New Jersey Chamber, Cambridge Symphony, Western Piedmont, Rutgers University, Central Jersey, Hopkins, and New Horizons Symphony orchestras, amongst others. Okoye has gotten awards, commissions and commendations from Meet the Composer, John Duffy Composer Institute, Black Women’s Leadership Caucus, Composer’s Collaborative, Inc., Detroit Symphony’s Emerging African American Composer Competition, Yvar Mikhashov Trust for New Music; and numerous awards by the NAACP. She has been in residence with the University City Orchestra, St. Louis, MO, (2010), Festival of African and African American Music (2009, 2001), Rocky Ridge Festival, (2008, 2006), the Harry T. Burleigh Festival (2007) and the Gateways Festival (2005). Okoye is a frequent guest lecturer and panelist having been featured at conferences of Chamber Music America National Conference, The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Newark Museum Celebration, and the National Parks Service Harriet Tubman Celebration. In 2005, Okoye was a composer mentor at the University of Ghana for the International Society of Contemporary Music’s World New Music Days. In 2006, she was named a British American Project Fellow. In 2007, Okoye was honored at Nigeria’s 40under40 ceremony, in Lagos. Okoye received piano training as a teen at Manhattan School of Music’s preparatory division. She has BM in composition from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and an MA and a Ph.D. in theory and composition from Rutgers University. In addition to being a composer, Okoye is a soft sculpture artist/creator of the “Canbie Collection” of multicultural dolls, which may be found in private collections and museums, including the Smithsonian. Website: www.nkeiruokoye.com
LIBRETTISTS
TONY ASARO has found success in writing both lyrics and music for the stage. Asaro’s new musical Our Country (with Dan Collins) received its world premiere in June of 2009 through the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. Our Country won four Planet Connections awards, including Outstanding Overall Production of a Musical, and Outstanding Book, Music & Lyrics of a Musical, and will be published in the “2010: Plays and Playwrights” anthology of new plays by NYTE Small Press. He wrote the libretto for Such Beautiful Things, a new oratorio based on the Brothers Grimm fable The Traveling Musician (Jeff Parola, composer). Such Beautiful Things was performed by the NYC based choir, Choral Chameleon, in April 2010. Asaro’s first musical, Family, a collaboration with Dr. Barbara Means Fraser for which he wrote music and co-wrote lyrics, has enjoyed two productions: one at SCU in 1999 and one at the Ryan Repertory Theatre in New York City in 2000. His other musicals include Women of Colors (various collaborators), Broken (with Kevin Cummines) and Going Nowhere. His songs have been heard in cabarets at Barrington Stages, Goodspeed Opera House, and various venues in New York City and across the country. He also served as Assistant Music Director for TheatreWorks’ production of Pacific Overtures, and as Vocal Director for Santa Clara University’s production of Kiss Me Kate in 2004. Asaro received his undergraduate degree from Santa Clara University in Theatre and Music where he composition with Lynn Shurtleff. He received his MFA in Musical Theatre Writing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2007, and shortly after receiving his Masters, was the recipient of the Anna Sosenko Assist Trust Award for songwriting. Asaro is currently guest lecturer at New York University in the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, teaches voice at Front and Center Studio in Springfield, NJ, and teaches lyric writing workshops in New York City public schools through the Johnny Mercer Foundation. Website: www.unrelentingmonkey.com
ROCHELLE BRIGHT is a playwright and librettist originally from Aotearoa (New Zealand) now based in New York City. Bright is co-founder of Toi Trade Theatre Co, a collective of New Zealand artists working in both New York and Auckland. Works include: December Rose with Pär Hagström, currently in the ‘Watch This Space’ program with the Auckland International Arts Festival; @emgirl for Petrena Miller’s 2007 Air New Zealand Fashion Week catwalk; Generator, commissioned for the Young and Hungry Season at Bats theatre; Stark Night, Jazz cabaret at the 2005 Auckland International Arts Festival and A Long Walk in the Rain, aired nationally by Radio New Zealand. Grants and awards include: the Cameron Mackintosh Foundation, Creative New Zealand, Nescafe Big Break, AMP Young Achievers, Rotary Jubilee and the Aotea Performing Arts Scholarship. Ms. Bright attended the World Interplay Playwrights conference in Australia, the International Women’s playwright Conference in Manila and was a selected playwright at the Aotearoa Playwrights Conference in Hamilton. She holds a MFA from New York University, an M.C.P.A from the University of Auckland.
MAGGIE-KATE COLEMAN recently wrote the book and lyrics for POP! (Yale Rep 2009, music by Anna K. Jacobs), which was the winner of three Connecticut Critics Circle Awards, including Outstanding Production of a Musical; as well as From a Childhood (Montclair 2009; music by Erato Kremmyda). Her work has been featured at The York Theatre Company, Joe’s Pub, Barrington Stage, The Laurie Beechman Theatre, Prospect Theater Company, Goodspeed Musicals, The Darlinghurst Theatre (Sydney, Australia), New York Theatre Barn, Lincoln Center, and NAMT’s Songwriter’s Showcase. Current projects for the New York City based writer include Sugarjuice, a songwriting endeavor with composer/lyricist Sean Mahoney; the book for Factory Girls (Irons/Mahoney); and an untitled project with composer Michael Starobin. Coleman is a founding co-conspirator of Three Track Mind, a dance theatre collective, and is currently at work on Drown Me Down, an evening length piece about water. She is Artistic Director of RiFRAC Theater Collective, and a member of New York City Opera’s Librettists Project: “Words First?” Coleman received her BA from Ithaca College, and her MFA from New York University. She is also a proud member of Dramatists Guild of America, and is an alumna of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Theater Institute.
DAVID SIMPATICO, playwright, has been presented at major theatres around the globe, including Lincoln Center, NYC Town Hall, the Hammersmith Apollo (London), Williamstown Theatre Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the New York Shakespeare Festival, and the New York Theatre Workshop. Using the safety net of comedy to explore life-and-death issues, his work examines man’s struggle to claim his place in a chaotic universe. Simpatico’s most recent work was the solo musical Whida Peru: Resurrection Tangle with a score by Josh Schmidt (The Adding Machine), directed by Jonathan Butterell (Giant), and commissioned by Paulette Haupt, as part of the INNER VOICES festival. He has adapted both High School Musical 1 and 2 for the Disney national tour and international productions. He also worked with Franco Dragone and composer David Yazbek (The Full Monty) developing a circus/Dr. Seuss project. Simpatico has just finished Cruel Shoes, a new XXX backstage musical comedy with a score by Ross Patterson. His screenplay Mike’s Makover has been optioned by PicturePlay Films; Marylin Agrello (Mad Hot Ballroom) is set to direct. His music drama The Screams of Kitty Genovese, with music by Will Todd, completed a sold-out run at the New York Music Theatre Festival, and will next be seen at the Tete a Tete New Opera Festival in London, and the Edinburgh Fringe Fest. Simpatico also received the Jonathan Larson Award for the Kitty libretto. Recent commissions include: the stage adaptation of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, Alice in Wonderland for the Disney Company, Antonya Nelson’s novel Nobody’s Girl for film, Ernst Lubitsch’s Trouble in Paradise with the Hourglass Group. David is a Featured Interview in the documentary Out in the City by George Hickenlooper. He was recently an Artist in Residence at Pace University, where he taught and led a staged reading workshop of his play Bad Blood. David graduated Northwestern University with a BS in Theater. He lives in NYC with his husband and muse, Robert Strickstein.
RETURNING ARTISTS
COMPOSERS
JAY ANTHONY GACH’S instrumental concert music has been critically acclaimed internationally. His compositions have been performed, recorded and broadcast internationally by ensembles including the Millenium Symphony Orch./Robert Ian Winstin, St. Paul Chamber Orch./Enrique Diemecke, Brooklyn Philharmonic/Lukas Foss, American Composers Orchestra/Paul Dunkel, National Italian Youth Orchestra/Vinko Globokar, City of London Sinfonia, Haydn Chamber Orchestra of London, the Britten Sinfonia Soloists, Vox Juventus Poland, the Gregg Smith Singers, and by solo artists including British pianist Ronan Magill, American clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, Canadian cellist Soo Bae and the soprano and tenor duo Grace Hart & Enzo Citarelli. He has received commissions and awards in over thirty national and international competitions including the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, Astral Foundation (Pew-Bandy) of New York and Philadelphia, Frederick P. Rose Prize, Valentino Bucchi Concorsi Internazionale, Third British Contemporary Piano Music Competition, Delta Omicron Composition Prize, Dr. J. Howland Auchincloss Society for New Music Composition Prize, New York Foundation for the Arts, MacDowell Colony, Tanglewood Music Center (Bruno Maderna Fellowship), National Endowment for the Arts, et al. Between 1981 and 1999 he resided and worked throughout Europe returning to New York in 2000. In the summer of 2005 his music was featured at the Dubrovnik Music Festival, the Edinburgh Arts Festival, the Crested Butte Music Festival, and the Adirondack Music Festival. Mr Gach has written and conducted many arrangements and original scores for the educational and commercial media, including: The Selfish Giant, a children’s musical; A lot a’ Nerve Naomi Grubenstein, a ‘parve’ musical comedy; Nora at the Altar Rail, a one-act opera developed as a Resident Artist at American Lyric Theater; Legends from Bodmin Moor, a film; British Rail’s “Mind the Doors”, an advertisement; and The Hurlers, an animation film. In 2006 he was honored at an induction ceremony as a National Patron of the Delta Omicron Music Fraternity. Gach received his Ph.D in Music from State University of New York at Stony Brook, and was a Fellow London College of Music FLCM. His biography has appeared in Marquis ‘Who’s Who in America’ since 2006. Jay is currently writing Of the Flesh, with CLDP Resident Artist Librettist Royce Vavrek, as part of The Poe Project for American Lyric Theater. Website
JEFF MYERS draws inspiration from a wide variety of musical works, styles and genres, as well as visual art and natural phenomena, including Filipino kulintang music, works by M.C. Escher, overtone music, folk music and geographical narrative. By placing these diverse elements on a continuum, Myers is able to connect seemingly unrelated ideas into a single, expressive musical work with its own identity. His music has been played ensembles such as by L’Orchestre National de Lorraine, American Composers Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony, New York Youth Symphony, members of New World Symphony, University of Michigan Symphony Band, American Lyric Theater, Center City Opera, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Transit, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, and the JACK Quartet. Myers has received awards from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, BMI, as well as fellowships from the Aspen Festival, Tanglewood, Festival Acanthes, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and grants from institutions and private funds including the Jerome Foundation, American Music Center, Puffin Foundation, the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust, the Anna Sosenko Trust, and The Fromm Foundation. His music has been heard at Carnegie Hall, Library of Congress, Kimmel Center, Darmstadt, Gaudeamus, Symphony Space, Arsenal, Le Poisson Rouge, and the Tenri Cultural Institute. Myers holds degrees from San Jose State University, the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan. He has studied with numerous composition teachers, including William Bolcom, Martin Bresnick, Michael Daugherty, Betsy Jolas, Bright Sheng, and Allen Strange. Jeff currently resides in New York City where he works as a freelance composer, orchestrator and copyist. His operatic collaboration with fellow CLDP Resident Artist Librettist Royce Vavrek yielded the one-act opera The Hunger Art, based on Kafka’s Hunger Artist and the Adam and Eve story. Jeff is currently writing Buried Alive, with CLDP Resident Artist Librettist Quincy Long, as part of The Poe Project for American Lyric Theater. Website: www.jeffmyers.info
PATRICK SOLURI is a composer based in New York City whose love of telling stories through music is evident in his large body of work for the stage, screen and concert hall. Career highlights include commissions for several orchestral ballet scores, film scores, and many orchestral and chamber concert works. His ballet scores Madame X, What Do We Do About Mother and Murder at the Masque: Casebook of Edgar Allan Poe were commissioned and by Dances Patrelle, choreographed by Francis Patrelle, and have featured dancers from American Ballet Theater and New York City Ballet. Recent ballet scores include a work for the Staatsballett Berlin, choreographed by dancer Xenia Wiest, which premiered in Berlin, Germany, in January 2010, as part of their program Shut Up and Dance: Reloaded. His children’s ballet, Fancy Nancy, commissioned by the Cuyahoga Valley Youth Ballet, premiered in March 2010 in Akron, Ohio, selling 7,000 tickets for only 3 performances, becoming this company’s most successful production in their 35 year history. Soluri’s work as an emerging operatic writer includes The Inferno of Dante: Canto V, showcased by New York City Opera as part of VOX 2003: Showcasing American Composers, and a commissioned scene for the Manhattan School of Music Opera Studio. During his residency as part of the Composer Librettist Development Program at American Lyric Theater, he composed the short opera Adam & Eve. His 10-minute comic opera Figaro’s Last Hangover was featured in a performance at Weill-Carnegie Hall by the Remarkable Theater Brigade. Soluri has produced and released 3 CDs through Soluri Music: Fancy Nancy (2010), Murder at the Masque: Casebook of Edgar Allan Poe (2009) and Pas de Deux – Two Ballets by Patrick Soluri (2007) which comprises Madame X and What Do We Do About Mother and was recorded by the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra. All releases are available online at iTunes among other online retailers. In addition to his classical work, Soluri has written several film scores, and has composed, produced and orchestrated hundreds of tracks for film and TV in multiple genres ranging from orchestral, jazz and industrial to rock and world music. In 2000 he was selected to participate in the ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop in Los Angeles, where he composed, recorded and conducted a cue on the Newman Scoring Stage at the 20th Century Fox Studio. Much of his music has been licensed (non-exclusive) to various Film & TV music libraries and has been used on numerous shows on TLC, LOGO and DISCOVERY HEALTH. In addition to composing, his versatility has enabled him to work fluidly as an orchestrator, arranger and music producer in numerous styles of music. He received an official 2009 Certificate of Recognition from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for his work as an Orchestrator and MIDI Synthesist on the 3rd season of the hit children’s show, The Wonderpets, which won 2009 and 2010 Emmy Awards for best music. Patrick also founded and runs the NY chapter of the film and TV networking group THE TABLE, based on the original LA group formed by Hollywood insider Marc Zicree. Though classically trained, Patrick grew up as a drummer, and he currently plays in an indie rock band in NYC. They have played CBGBs, Galapagos, and Sine, among many others. Soluri received a BM in Composition from the Manhattan School of Music, followed by a MM in Composition and Theory from the University of Louisville as a recipient of the Moritz von Bomhard Fellowship (for dramatic vocal composition). His teachers have included Aaron Jay Kernis, Tobias Picker, Nils Vigeland, Giampaolo Bracali, Allen Shawn, Marc Satterwhite and Peter Golub. Patrick is currently writing Embedded, with CLDP Resident Artist Librettist Deborah Brevoort, as part of The Poe Project for American Lyric Theater. Website: www.patricksoluri.com
JORGE SOSA is a Mexican born composer who currently resides in the United States, splitting his time between New York City and Elmhurst, Illinois where he is an Assistant Professor teaching music theory and composition. Sosa received a Doctor in Musical Arts degree from the University of Missouri at Kansas City, a Masters of Music in Composition from Mannes College of Music and a licentiate diploma from the Centro de Investigacion y Estudios de la Musica (C.I.E.M) in Mexico City. Sosa’s works, which are strongly influenced by ancient music, electro-acoustic music, and Latin American folk music, have been performed in Mexico, the United States and Europe. He was one of the winners of the Chanticleer Student Composers Competition in 2006 with his choral work The Fly. His piece Capricho for Solo Violin was selected for the Washington Composer’s Forum Transport Concert Series in Seattle. Capricho has also enjoyed successful performances in Dublin, Paris, Boston, Philadelphia, Kansas City, New York and Mexico City. In 2007, Sosa was the winner of the ‘Tonoi Ensemble’ Composition Competition with his piece Oak, Ivory and Silver.; and his piece Bounce for solo sax was performed at Carnegie Hall. His electro-acoustic opera The Calling has been performed in Mexico City and was also staged at the H&R Block Theater in Kansas City, along with his opera/oratorio Tonatzin, which tells the story of the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe. His Refraction I was performed at the New York Electronic Music Festival in 2009 and is scheduled for performance at the 2010 ClarinetFest in Texas. Plastic Time was performed at the 2010 Foro de Música Nueva Manuel Enriquez at the Fine Arts Palace in Mexico City, and Ariel was premiered in London by the group Rarescale, followed by performances at the 2010 New York Electronic Music Festival. Jorge is currently developing a bilingual (Spanish/English) opera for electronic and acoustic performing forces under the auspices of American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program. Website: www.jorgesosa.com
LIBRETTISTS
DEBORAH BREVOORT is the author of numerous plays and musicals, including The Women of Lockerbie, which won the silver medal in the Onassis International Playwriting competition and the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award. It was produced off-Broadway, in London at the Orange Tree Theatre and at the Actor’s Gang in Los Angeles and is currently being produced and published in numerous languages around the world. Other plays include Blue Moon Over Memphis, a Noh Drama about Elvis Presley, The Poetry of Pizza, (produced at Purple Rose, Mixed Blood, Virginia Stage, Theatre in the Square, Centenary Stage, and Cal Rep) The Blue-Sky Boys, (commissioned by the EST/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Science and Technology project; produced at the Barter Theatre) The Velvet Weapon, (written with a grant from CEC ArtsLink), Signs of Life and Into the Fire both published by Samuel French. She is a two-time winner of the Frederick Loewe Award in Musical Theatre, for King Island Christmas, written with composer David Friedman, and Coyote Goes Salmon Fishing, with composer Scott Richards. Current writing projects include: The Comfort Team, a new play about military families, commissioned by the Virginia Stage Company; and Crossing Over, a hip-hop musical set in Amish country with composer Stephanie Salzman. Her work has been published by Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French, Applause Books and others. Deborah was one of the original company members with Perseverance Theatre in Alaska, an alumus of New Dramatists and is a founding member of Theatre Without Borders. Deborah is currently writing Embedded, with CLDP Resident Artist Composer Patrick Soluri, as part of The Poe Project for American Lyric Theater. Website: www.deborahbrevoort.com
QUINCY LONG’s critically acclaimed plays include People Be Heard, Playwrights Horizons; The Only Child, South Coast Rep, Costa Mesa, CA; Wedding Pictures, Ensemble Studio Theater; The Lively Lad, New York Stage and Film and The Actors Theatre of Louisville; The Virgin Molly, The Atlantic Theatre Company and Berkeley Rep; The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite, the Atlantic Theatre Company (directed by William H. Macy and starring Felicity Huffman) and the Mark Taper Forum. Joy was optioned by Icon Films, and Joy, People Be Heard and The Lively Lad were published by Dramatists Play Service. The Virgin Molly was published by Playscripts. Long’s new play, The Huntsmen, recently won a Sundance Time Warner Storyteller’s Award, was workshopped at Playwrights Horizons and read at New York Theatre Workshop and Ensemble Studio Theatre. Long is also currently developing Loulou, a musical commissioned by Ginger Cat Productions in Toronto, and The Gospel According to Trains, a new play at New York Theatre Workshop’s 2010 summer retreat at Dartmouth College. Long is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and a member of New Dramatists and Ensemble Studio Theater. Originally from Warren, Ohio, he lives and works in New York City. Quincy is currently writing Buried Alive, with CLDP Resident Artist Composer Jeff Myers, as part of The Poe Project for American Lyric Theater.
ROYCE VAVREK is a multi-disciplinary narrative artist originally from Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada, who now calls New York City home. His work has been hailed as “wildly dramatic and… exhilarating” by the New York Times and “smart, crisp, [and] witty” by See Magazine. Opera/Music Theater libretti include Dog Days (Zankel Hall, New York City Opera VOX); Bully Pulpit (Metropolis Opera Project); Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera (Bard Conservatory); The Hunger Art (American Lyric Theater, Center City Opera Theater, Burning Bayreuth); and Nora at the Altar-Rail (American Lyric Theater). A founding member of The New Ensemble, he contributed lyrics to nonplay: shadows of a dream and Black Snow in collaboration with composer Andrew Gerle. As a filmmaker, Royce wrote and directed From Sky and Soil (Corus Young Filmmakers Initiative), I Will Not Be Sad Anymore (Quebec Cooperative Filmmakers Initiative), Pig and Bear (Frigid Fest NY) and Good Woman, a collaboration with American fashion designer Marc Bouwer. Upcoming projects include The Bear Dance with Nick Martin, 1882 with Mark Baechle, The Wild Beast of the Bungalow with Rachel Peters, Ordet and Stockholm with Josh Schmidt, Angel’s Bone with Du Yun, and a triptych of one-act real (sex) doll operas with Matt Marks. Vavrek is the Artistic Director of opera-theater company The Coterie, which he founded with soprano Lauren Worsham. He received his B.F.A from Concordia University in Montreal; and his M.F.A. from New York University. Royce is currently writing Of the Flesh, with CLDP Resident Artist Composer Jay Anthony Gach, as part of The Poe Project for American Lyric Theater. Website
ALUMNI
CRISTIAN AMIGO – COMPOSER: www.cristianamigo.com
CLINT BORZONI – COMPOSER: www.clintborzoni.com
JOSHUA H. COHEN – LIBRETTIST: www.joshuahcohen.com
EMILY CONBERE – LIBRETTIST
PETER FOLEY – COMPOSER / LIBRETTIST: www.hellagoodmusic.com
JULIA MEINWALD – COMPOSER: www.juliameinwald.com
ALEKSANDRA VREBALOV – COMPOSER: www.aleksandravrebalov.com
DERRICK WANG – COMPOSER / LIBRETTIST: www.derrickwang.com