Friday, May 30 and Saturday May 31 2025, 7:30 PM
South Oxford Space Great Room
138 South Oxford Street
Brooklyn, NY 11217

Composers & the Voice Department Heads:

Steven Osgood, C&V Artistic Director
Mila Henry, C&V Head of Music
Matt Gray, C&V Head of Drama

Stage Directors — Diego Alejandro González and Kate Pitt

Music Directors — Mila Henry, Kelly Horsted, Emma Luyendijk and Kyle P. Walker

Stage Managers — W. Wilson Jones and Katie Cherven

Guest Panelists — Randall Eng and Kate Pitt

Special thanks to Brian Jeffers, Hans Tashjian, Kavita Shah

THE SWITCH
Music by Joy Redmond
Text by Aiden K. Feltkamp
Singers: Natalie Trumm, Ilene Pabon and Phillip Bullock
Music Director: Kelly Horsted

The Switch, an experimental micro opera, plays with power and gender dynamics as the performers swap between three roles: the doctor, the medical resident, and the doctor's spouse. When the doctor initiates an affair with the young medical resident and the spouse discovers it, long-concealed emotions burst to the surface.

BRATHWAITE'S MECCA
Music by Josh Brown
Text by Anita Gonzalez
Singers: MaKayla McDonald, Robert Mack and Phillip Bullock
Music Director: Emma Luyendijk

Brathwaite’s Mecca takes place at the beginning of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem. Clara, a university student, meets Kwame Brathwaite, a photographer, who then photographs her in his studio. Brathwaite works with his brother Elombe producing the music and art that become a foundation for the "Black is Beautiful" movement. In the last scene, Clara reflects upon what she has learned about herself through her experiences with the brothers and their photo studio.

UNDONE
Music by JL Marlor
Text by Melisa Tien
Singers: Natalie Trumm, Ilene Pabon and Tyler Putnam
Music Director: Mila Henry

Before our eyes, a woman is cajoled, seduced, and emboldened by two mysterious and uncanny voices to commit the unthinkable.

FOREVER ENTWINED
Music by Kervy Delcy
Text by Anita Gonzalez
Singers: Natalie Trumm, Ilene Pabon and Phillip Bullock
Music Director: Kyle P. Walker

In Forever Entwined, a French-Caribbean love triangle, Beatrice, a lighthouse keeper, discovers her husband Gideon has fallen in love with a woman named Naomi who mends nets on the beach. When the lovers try to escape the island in a small fishing boat, the wife takes her revenge.

THE ASTROCAT
Music by LJ White
Text by Andi Lee Carter
Singers: MaKayla McDonald, Robert Mack and Tyler Putnam
Music Director: Kelly Horsted

Set in 1963, The AstroCat follows Félicette, a resourceful street cat selected for a groundbreaking space mission in France. Alongside her fellow feline hopeful space explorers, the posh Sophie and bohemian Béatrice, Félicette embarks on a journey to prove that cats, not just dogs, can be heroes. This quirky, heartwarming "opurra" features humor, feline camaraderie, and the indomitable spirit of cats inspired by the true story of the first (and only) cat in space.

C&V fellows

**Joshua Brown** (he/they) is a queer experience designer and opera composer whose work poeticizes the everyday. As both a sound designer and dramaturg in a past life, they approach the relationship of sound, language, body, and context from a variety of angles. They can routinely be found making inanimate objects cry, mining innate musics from found/verbatim text, and double-fisting books of poetry and gossip rags in equal measure. Their work has been lovingly developed with Thompson Street Opera, Boston Opera Collaborative, the International Computer Music Conference, Fresh Inc, La Jolla Playhouse + Blindspot Collective, Charlotte New Music, New Opera West, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Strange Trace, and the Pittsburgh Opera. Joshua holds a BHA in Technical Writing & Music Technology and a Graduate Certificate in Music Composition from Carnegie Mellon and an MS in Experience Design from Northeastern.

**Andi Lee Carter** (he/they) is a writer, librettist, director, and filmmaker. He is a graduate of NYU’s Musical Theater Writing Program in 2019. His first original full-length musical, Rent A White Guy was dubbed “often very funny” by The New York Times. Their work has been seen at many of New York's finest cabaret venues including Under St. Marks, the Duplex, Joe's Pub, and Feinstein's 54 Below. Recent works include: OPPY: A Mars Rover Story, Pompeii Rising, S.T.E.M. GRLZ!, 14 DAYS, Rejected!, CryOvaries, and Disconnected: The Musical! Follow them on all the social: @andileecarter website: www.andilee-carter.com

Kervy Delcy (Lady K) is a Haitian-American composer, conductor, producer, and educator dedicated to elevating underrepresented voices in classical music. She is the founder of Vox Feminarum, an international nonprofit that champions the work of women composers and conductors through world-class performances, educational initiatives, and artistic collaborations. Lady K also leads Echelon Press, a media platform spotlighting excellence in the performing arts, and the Kervy Delcy Performing Arts School, where she mentors and trains young artists. Lady K is a Composers & the Voice Fellow with the American Opera Project (2023–2025), currently developing new operatic works alongside renowned mentors and performers. Her productions have been presented at Carnegie Hall, The National Opera Center, and internationally. A Presidential Scholar at the Manhattan School of Music, she studied counterpoint at EAMA in Paris and holds degrees from Brooklyn College, Queens College, The City College of New York, and Rockland Community College. Fluent in five languages, Lady K serves as the visionary behind Lady K Maison des Arts, a global hub for creative excellence.

Aiden K. Feltkamp (they/he) began their artistic life at the age of 5 in Hicksville, NY playing a quarter-size cello and now they’re "upending preconceptions about voice and gender" (New York Times) as a disabled and trans nonbinary creator. As a creative writer, librettist, poet, opera performer, and producer, their work centers stories from marginalized communities and spans the serious and the ridiculous, the real and the surreal. Most recently, they wrote the libretto for an opera about Emily Dickinson’s queerness that premiered at her historical home (Emily & Sue) and curated New Music Shelf’s award-winning New Music Anthology for Trans & Nonbinary Voices, Vol. 1. They’ve been published in PBS’s American Masters series and OPERA America Magazine, and presented at the national conferences for the League of American Orchestras and Chamber Music America. They live in Jersey City with their partner, Aumna, and their pets, both organic and robotic. AidenFeltkamp.com

**Anita Gonzalez** (she/her) advocates for beautiful art crafted for social activism and consciousness raising. Musicals: Kumanana (Gala Hispanic Theater), Ybor City (Latiné Musical Theater Lab), Zora on My Mind (The Woodshed), Ayanna Kelly. Plays & Librettos: Framing Faces (Atlanta Opera) Courthouse Bells (Boston Opera Collaborative), Finding the Light (Louise Toppin and Marquita Lister), Sunset Dreams (The Vagrancy), Home of My Ancestors (HGOCo). Books: Performance, Dance and Political Economy, Black Performance Theory, Afro-Mexico. Gonzalez is a Professor at Georgetown University and Co-Founding Lead of the Racial Justice Institute. She is a member of the National Theatre Conference, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab and sits on the Board of Directors of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. Gonzalez believes the art of storytelling connects people to their cultures. Over 40,000 students have taken her massive open online courses Storytelling for Social Change and Black Performance as Social Protest. www.anitagonzalez.com

**JL Marlor** (she/they) is a composer, electric guitarist, performer, and educator living in Brooklyn, NY. JL is known for her narrative-driven multi-genre works drawing from the worlds of riot grrrl punk and DIY punk, Slavic choral music, plainchant, and American protest music. Last year, JL was named a Toulmin Creator in collaboration with National Sawdust. She is a frequent performer in her own works, as an electric guitarist and an indie rock vocalist. In 2017, JL collaborated on a riot-grrl musical written by SeonJae Kim and inspired by Sophocles tragedy Riot Antigone, which received its premiere at La Mama and has subsequently been performed at Ars Nova as part of ANT Festival. Beyond her work as a composer, JL fronts her indie rock band Tenderheart Bitches, which was hailed as “arriving on the indie rock scene with something serious to say” by The Wild Honeypie and was listed in Them’s list of best new songs written by queer artists. In addition to her work as a composer and songwriter, JL is a passionate educator teaching composition with the New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers and is a founding member of American Composer’s Orchestra’s genre-defying educational initiative Sonic Spark Lab.

Composer and pianist Joy Redmond (she/her) was born in California in 1999 and grew up in Yonkers, New York. She earned both her master’s and bachelor’s degrees at The Juilliard School, where she studied with Matthias Pintscher. Currently, Joy’s musical pursuits include composing and producing for concert, stage, film, and multimedia works, collaborating with other artists as an arranger, and performing on keyboards in a variety of genres.
Currently, Joy is working on a chamber opera for the American Opera Initiative with librettist Sam Norman. Recent projects include a chamber opera commissioned by Concordia Conservatory, an orchestra piece premiered by the Juilliard Orchestra, a choral work for The New York Virtuoso Singers, a wind nonet for Imani Winds and the Kenari Saxophone Quartet commissioned by Chamber Music Northwest, and several chamber and solo works for friends and colleagues. In the media music scene, Joy has scored short films produced by students and young professionals worldwide and created an installation for Juilliard’s Future Stages production with acoustic instruments, live electronics, and visuals projections.

**Melisa Tien** (she/her) is a playwright, lyricist, and librettist invested in making formally unconventional, socially relevant, and emotionally evocative work. A resident of New the Dramatists, she is co-author of operas The Big Swim (Asia Society Texas Center/Houston Grand Opera, 2024), Forever (Washington National Opera, 2024), Family Heirloom (Experiments in Opera, 2024), Song of the Nightingale (On Site Opera/Arts Brookfield, 2023), and The Beehive (University of Northern Iowa, 2023); co-author of music-theater works Swell (HERE, 2021) and Daylight Saving; and author of plays Best Life (JACK, 2022), Yellow Card Red Card (Ice Factory, 2017), The Boyd Show, and Familium Vulgare. She is a member of Washington National Opera’s 2023-2024 American Opera Initiative, and was a member of Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s 2022 Ground Floor Residency Lab, Experiments in Opera’s 2022 Writers’ Room, The Assembly Theater Project’s 2021 Deceleration Lab, and a recipient of a 2020-2021 grant from the NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music, and Theatre.

**LJ White** (he/him) is a composer and singer inspired by the physical voice, popular culture, gender and queerness, and sociopolitical conditions. His recent collaborators include The Crossing, Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Dal Niente, Steven Schick, Sleeping Giant, Third Angle Ensemble, Transient Canvas, the Spektral Quartet, the rapper Mvstermind, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Third Coast Percussion, Post:Ballet, and the St. Louis, San Francisco, and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. LJ also writes for his own voice, challenging standard conceptions of the vocal instrument and expectations for transmasculine singers on testosterone. He is currently creating a self-recorded album of his vocal ensemble work The Best Place for This, originally commissioned by the Quince Ensemble, supported by a MacDowell fellowship and grants from the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission and the Puffin Foundation.
LJ earned a doctorate at Northwestern University and has taught at Washington University in St. Louis and the New College of Florida.

C&V performers

Praised by Opera News for his “appealingly suave baritone”, Phillip K. Bullock, a native of Washington DC, has been featured in operas, recitals and concerts throughout the United States and Europe. Phillip had the pleasure of performing the role of Jake, in Porgy & Bess, at the Sächsische Staatsoper in Dresden, Germany and he has covered the same role in The Royal Danish Opera’s new production in Copenhagen, Denmark. Recently, Phillip made his debut with the Atlanta Opera and Cincinnati Opera in their productions of Gounod’s Romeo & Juilet and Puccini’s Tosca respectively. In addition to standard opera, Phillip has extensive experience performing other genres of music and the had pleasure of premièring many new works of opera and masterworks that celebrate the fusion of styles; most recently including Deep Blue Sea, a new production from the famed Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, and the critically acclaimed Castor & Patience, the latest opera from composer Gregory Spears and poet Tracy K. Smith. This coming summer Phillip will appear in Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha with Opera Theatre St. Lous, a production that has be reimagined by Damian Sneed and Karen Chilton with Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

Robert Mack has a distinguished career as a vocalist ranging from Broadway to Opera. Recently Mr. Mack performed the role of Bartell D’Arcy in James Joyce’s The Dead, at the Irish Repertory Theater where theater critics called his vocal performance “sublime and exquisite.” He has performed on the stages of The Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, Houston Grand Opera, The Royal Danish Opera, Opera Carolina, Greensboro Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Indianapolis Opera, former New York City Opera Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, Opera Grand Rapids, Alvin Ailey American Dance Company, and American Opera Project. Mr. Mack is the General Director/Co-Founder of Opera Noire International.

Soprano **MaKayla McDonald** is an active performer of opera, art song, and new work. This summer MaKayla will join Fresh Squeezed Opera for the American premiere of the sci-fi opera *When He Was Good*. Additional summer and fall engagements to be announced soon!

Originally from Waterloo, Iowa, MaKayla grew up surrounded by various genres of music and found her voice through show choir and musical theatre. MaKayla holds both a Master of Music and Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from the University of Northern Iowa.

MaKayla currently resides in Brooklyn, NY and is an Adjunct Lecturer of Voice for the Borough of Manhattan Community College Music and Art Department (BMCC-CUNY). Offstage, you can usually find MaKayla in the kitchen trying a new recipe, cozied up reading a book, or enjoying the sights and foods of the city!

**Ilene Pabon** is a Puerto Rican mezzo-soprano known for her work in opera and musical theater. A committed advocate for new music, she is the mezzo-soprano for the 2023–2025 Composers & the Voice program at American Opera Projects. She originated the role of Nadia in *The Night Falls*, a dance-driven opera by Karen Russell and Ellis Ludwig-Leone, named one of *The New York Times*’ best dance performances of 2023. She also premiered the role of Andromache in *The Trojan Women* by Sarah Taylor Ellis. Favorite opera and concert credits include Nicklausse/Muse (*The Tales of Hoffmann*), Laura (*Iolanta*), Mercedes (*Carmen*), and a featured performance on the soundtrack for Christian Siriano’s NY Fashion Week show inspired by Russian opera. Her musical theater work includes *Gershwin’s Real Magic*, *West Side Story*, *Into the Woods*, and the national tour of *Cirque Dreams Holidaze*. She holds a Master of Music from the Maryland Opera Studio.

Possessing a voice described as “robust and resonant” by TheatreMania and deemed a “standout” by Opera Magazine, bass-baritone **Tyler Putnam** is in demand in a variety of repertoire. Upcoming engagements include The Pirate King in *The Pirates of Penzance* with Salt Marsh Opera, a role debut as Escamillo in *Carmen* with Gulfshore Opera and a return to Opera Tampa as Banquo in *Macbeth.*

Recent performances include Morales in *Carmen* with the Sioux City Symphony, a return to Opera på Skäret in Sweden to sing Oroveso in *Norma*, Vodnik the water-gnome in *Rusalka* with Gulfshore Opera and Don Alfonso in *Così fan tutte* with Opera Ithaca.

Acclaimed for her “nice dark lyric instrument”, shimmering coloratura, and winning stage presence, soprano **Natalie Trumm**’s versatility ranges from musical theater to opera. This summer, Ms. Trumm will return to The American Gothic Performing Arts Festival to perform the role of Nella in *Gianni Schicchi* and Irene Molloy in *Hello, Dolly!* As a two-year returning Studio Artist with the Chautauqua Opera Company, Ms. Trumm performed the roles of Florestine in *The Ghosts of Versailles* and Barbara in *¡Figaro! (90210)*. Most recent performances include Papagena in *The Magic Flute* with The Norwalk Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jonathan Yates. Other past appearances include Cunegonde in *Candide*, a show-stopping performance conducted by James Bagwell with The Orchestra Now. Ms. Trumm holds a Master of Music in Vocal Arts from the Bard College Graduate Vocal Arts Program and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

C&V Music Directors

**Mila Henry** is a conductor, pianist and music director who maintains a versatile career, spanning folk operas to rock musicals to reimagined classics. Hailed “a stalwart contributor to the contemporary opera scene” (Opera Ithaca), she has collaborated with AOP (Artistic Director, 2019-2023), Beth Morrison Projects, Experiments in Opera, HERE, OPERA America, Opera Philadelphia, Opera on Tap, PROTOTYPE and VisionIntoArt. She has performed at venues such as The Apollo, BAM, Circle in the Square, Dutch National Opera, LA Opera, Library of Congress, Lincoln Center, McCarter Theatre Center and Pittsburgh CLO, with recital work taking her to Brooklyn Art Song Society (New Music Advisory Board, 2021-present), Kaufman Music Center, Library of Congress, New York Festival of Song, Feinstein’s/54 Below and Café Sabarsky. Mila holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and Elizabethtown College, and was nicknamed a “Jill of all trades” (Sullivan County Democrat) for her multi-instrumentalist work with The Opera Cowgirls. milahenry.com

**Kelly Horsted** enjoys an active career in NYC as an accompanist and vocal coach. Kelly’s long relationship with AOP most recently included participating as a music director for The Stonewall Operas, a joint collaboration with the Tisch GMTWP’s advanced Opera Lab. Other favorite AOP projects include Herschel Garfein’s *Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead*, directed by Mark Morris, Tarik O’Regan’s *Heart of Darkness*, and Paula Kimper’s *Patience & Sarah* for the Lincoln Center Festival. He has also collaborated with Chelsea Opera, Center for Contemporary Opera, Madison Lyric Stage, Wintergreen Festival, New Jersey Opera Theater, Friends and Enemies of New Music, and Five Words in a Line. He has taught at Mannes College of Music, The Hartt School, Hunter College, Intermezzo, Five Towns College, OperaWorks, and the Usdan Summer Camp for the Arts. His Bachelor and Master of Music degrees are from the Eastman School of Music where he was a fellowship recipient and a 1st place Kneisel Competition winner. Kelly has been a music director for Composers & the Voice since 2006.

C&V associate Music Directors

**Emma Luyendijk** is at-home in a multitude of collaborative settings – from traditional art song, to interdisciplinary projects, to contemporary opera – and has collaborated with numerous cultural institutions both in New York City and abroad, including The Boston Art Song Society, The Berlin Umculo Opera Incubator, City Lyric Opera, Opera on Tap, and more.
Emma has been privilege worked with some of the world’s greatest musicians in the field: from Elly Ameling and Helmet Deutsch, to Kobie van Rensburg and Yo-Yo Ma. In 2017 she served as *Community Engagement Coordinator* of The Boston Art Song Society, and has participated in the prestigious Franz-Schubert Institut in Vienna. Her collaborative piano work extends into other artistic fields, such as dance, where she’s worked with the New York City Ballet, and dance-first workshops with Grammy award-winning conductor/soprano, Barbara Hannigan.
Emma's commitment to community engagement through music has led her to work alongside the international music organization El Sistema in Japan, and in 2016 she was certified by Musicians Without Borders through the School for International Training’s Graduate Institute’s Peacebuilding Program.

**Kyle P. Walker**, a renowned pianist known for his passionate dedication to using music as a tool for addressing societal concerns, stands at the forefront of a musical movement. His career has garnered critical acclaim, with notable performances featured on prestigious media outlets like NPR, WQXR, and PBS. He has graced renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, The Apollo Theater, and international stages from Australia's Tantaloona Cave to the Adelaide Town Hall.

In a pivotal moment, Walker's 2023 solo performance marked the debut of classical piano music at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, TX, making waves in the industry. He is also the pianist of Dara + Kyle, a groundbreaking piano/cello duo recognized with the 2021 Chamber Music America "Ensemble Forward" career grant, devoted to championing underrepresented composers. Kyle is an integral part of The Harlem Chamber Players, bringing classical music to diverse communities, and a founding member of The Dream Unfinished, an activist orchestra supporting NYC-based civil rights organizations.

C&V Stage Directors

**DIEGO ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ** (he/they/any) is a theater-maker from México/Texas and the Co-Founding Artistic Director of **BORDERLANDS**, a new experimental arts company. He is excited to collaborate with AOP once again, following his work as a director for the 2024 APO/NYU Opera Lab. Recent credits include Associate Director for *In the Heights* at TUTS (Houston), Co-Director/Choreographer for Great Comet (NYU Tisch), Director/Choreographer for *The Baker’s Wife* (VLOG), and Choreographer/Assoc. Director for *¡DESPIERTA!* (Arts For Everybody). As a playwright, his work includes *David & The Apocalypse* and *Guadalupe: un recuerdo*. Diego is a Fall 2024 & Spring 2025 Mercury Store Director, a 2024 Brodway's *Hadestown* SDCF Shadow, a 2023 Drama League Fellow, and an alum of The TEAM’s Petri Projects. **diegogzz.com** | **theborderlands.co** | @diego.on.my.mind | @borderlands.co

**Kate Pitt** Associate and assistant directing credits include *Richard II, Henry IV,* and *Henry V* at the Guthrie Theater (dir. Joe Haj), *Dig* with Primary Stages (dir. Theresa Rebeck), *King Lear* with Shakespeare Theatre Company (dir. Simon Godwin), *Romeo and Juliet* (dir. Leah C. Gardiner) and *The Three Musketeers* (dir. Kent Gash) with The Acting Company, and *The Way of the World* with Folger Theatre (dir. Theresa Rebeck). Recent: *Henry V* at MIT. Upcoming: The Acting Company 2025-2026 National Tour. Opera dramaturgy: *American Apollo* with Des Moines Metro Opera, Resident Dramaturg for the Vanguard Initiative at Chicago Opera Theater, and Resident Artist in the Composer Librettist Development Program at American Lyric Theater. Other: *The Comedy of Hamlet! (a prequel)* with the Reduced Shakespeare Company and *Hamlet* with the comic “Good Tickle Brain.” Wingspace Theatrical Design member, SDC Associate. B.A., Yale. www.katepitt.com.

C&V Department Heads

**Steven Osgood** has conducted the world premieres of over two dozen operas, most recently *Intimate Apparel* by Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage, which received 100 performances at Lincoln Center Theater and was broadcast in September 2022 on PBS Great Performances. Other notable premieres include *Breaking the Waves* (Mazzoli/Vavrek), *Song From the Uproar* (Mazzoli/Vavrek), *Thumbprint* (Sankaram/Yankowitz), *As One* (Kaminsky/Campbell/Reed), *The Long Walk* (Beck/Fleischmann), and *JFK* (Little/Vavrek). He has been the Conductor Mentor for Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative on two occasions, leading the premieres of six of their commissioned works. He made his conducting debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 2023 with *Dead Man Walking*, after having been a member of the music staff since 2006. As Artistic Director of American Opera Projects from 2001 to 2008 he created the Composers & the Voice fellowship program, which is now in its 12th cycle. Osgood has been General and Artistic Director of the Chautauqua Opera Company since 2016, during which time the work of living composers has flourished through the creation of an annual Composer-in-Residence and regular mainstage productions of contemporary American works.

**Matt Gray** is a Brooklyn-based director, producer, and writer and served as AOP's General Director from 2019-2022. He began at AOP in 2003 never having seen an opera, but used his background in film and theatre as AOP’s resident dramaturg, stage director, and Producing Director to workshop AOP projects from the point of view of an audience member familiar with pop culture, but new to opera. He oversaw the development and premiere of dozens of operas including *The Summer King*, for which he was co-dramaturg (2017, Sonenberg /Nestor / Campbell), *Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom* (2014, Okoye), and *As One* (2014, Kaminsky / Reed / Campbell), which went on to become one of the most produced operas written in the 21st Century. Gray directed *As One* at Opera Columbus and New York City Opera (2019), Chautauqua Opera (2018) and its European premiere in Berlin (2016). Outside of opera, he has continued to work as a writer and director for numerous concerts, cabarets, and plays around NYC. He was the co-writer and co-director of the 12-part serialized play *Penny Dreadful* which ran at the Brick Theater in Brooklyn for two years, and was also one of five directors on the award-winning indie horror anthology film *The Moose Head Over the Mantel*, which is currently on Blu-Ray and streaming. Gray has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film Directing from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

W. Wilson Jones (Production Stage Manager) has staged managed the world premieres of AOP developed operas - AS ONE, HARRIET TUBMAN: WHEN I CROSSED THAT LINE TO FREEDOM, OUT COLD, PATIENCE & SARAH, ROMULUS and more than three dozen operas created in the NYU/Tisch opera lab since 2016, as well as AOP workshops of HEART OF DARKNESS, SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON, BEFORE NIGHT FALLS, DARKLING, TONE TEST, PAUL’S CASE, and SUMMER KING, among many others. Among the over 100 productions stage managed with the AVA Opera Theater, Opera Company of Philadelphia, and other Philadelphia area companies, are several PBS telecasts. Mr. Jones is a lifetime member of the Stage Managers' Association and a retired Associate Curator on the faculty of the New York University Libraries.

Katie Cherven (Assistant Stage Manager) is happy to be here! Select Off-Broadway: Amerikin (ASM, Primary Stages), Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes/Creditors (PA), Cafe Utopia (PSM, Notch Theater Company), Short Stack Playfest (PSM, Ma-Yi Theater Company), A Class Act (ASM, J2 Musical Theatre Company) Broadway: Mary Jane (PA, MTC), Prayer for the French Republic (PA, MTC). Barnard College ’23. Love to my friends and family.

About Composers & the Voice

AOP's Composers & the Voice is a two-year, tuition-free fellowship for composers and librettists that provides experience writing for the voice and opera stage. Created and led by Composers & the Voice Artistic Director Steven Osgood, the two-year fellowship includes a year of working with the company’s Resident Ensemble of Singers and professional instructors followed by a year of continued promotion and career development through AOP and its strategic partnerships. Since launching in 2002, and this year in Cycle 12, C&V has fostered the development of over 84 composers & librettists.

Composers & the Voice is made possible in part by a generous multi-year award from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the New York Community Trust Witherspoon Fund, and a Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts. AOP’s programs are made possible in part by the Howard Gilman Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., the Amphion Foundation, BMI, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor, and the New York State Legislature and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

About american opera projects

Founded in 1988, American Opera Projects (AOP) has been at the forefront of contemporary opera for over 30 years. The Brooklyn-based producing organization commissions, develops and produces lyric theater projects, trains emerging composers and librettists, and creates personal connections within its community. Its works have received critical acclaim at opera companies and venues around the world, establishing a new musical canon that recognizes the operatic story in every life. AOP further expands the operatic field through its training programs The NYU Opera Lab, in partnership with NYU and for students and alumni in The NYU/Tisch Opera Lab; and Composers & the Voice, AOP’s in-house, two-year fellowship program for emerging composers and librettists.

AOP Staff:
Charles Jarden – Interim General Director
Joel Kalow – General Manager
W. Wilson Jones – Resident Stage Manager
Ziyan Yang – Program Associate
Steven Osgood – Composers & the Voice Artistic Director
Naomi Ramirez – Accounting Consultant
Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP – Legal Counsel

AOP Board:
Anthony Roth Costanzo
Sarah Moulton Faux
David Gordon
J. David Jackson
Charles Jarden
W. Wilson Jones
Cassondra E. Joseph
Mark Kalow
Norman Ryan

Composers & the Voice is made possible in part by a generous multi-year award from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, a Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

AOP’s programs are made possible in part by the Howard Gilman Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Amphion Foundation, BMI, and the contributions of many individuals.