NEA Awards $20,000 Grant to American Lyric Theater

Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, announced earlier this week that American Lyric Theater has been recommended for a grant of $20,000 to support The Composer Librettist Development Program. American Lyric Theater is one of 1,145 not-for-profit national, regional, state, and local organizations recommended for a grant as part of the federal agency's second round of fiscal year 2011 grants. In total, the Arts Endowment will distribute more than $88 million to support projects nationwide.

An independent agency of the federal government, the National Endowment for the Arts advances artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman said, "NEA research shows that three out of four Americans participate in the arts. The diverse, innovative, and exceptional projects funded in this round will ensure that Americans around the country continue to have the opportunity to experience and participate in the arts."

The Composer Librettist Development Program (CLDP) is a tuition-free initiative for emerging composers and librettists selected through an open, competitive application process. The program includes a core curriculum of classroom training and hands-on workshops with some of the country's leading working artists, including composer/librettist Mark Adamo, composer Anthony Davis, dramaturg Cori Ellison, librettist Michael Korie, and stage director Rhoda Levine. CLDP classes and workshops take place at OPERA America, the national service organization for opera, providing exceptional workshop facilities and additional opportunities for Resident Artists to expand their professional network. The CLDP is designed to provide customized mentorship to artists from a wide variety of backgrounds. ALT's mandate includes mentoring artists with classical training, as well as those with non-traditional / non-classical backgrounds who have a passionate interest in writing for the opera stage. Based on the quality of applicants each year, ALT accepts up to eight artists to participate in year one of the Program. Selected artists are invited to continue their residency with ALT after their first year to receive private mentorship as they work towards developing full-length works.

"No one else is doing this," explained composer and librettist Mark Adamo, Director of Professional Development for ALT. "No masters program offers composers a major in the field. Aspiring librettists can study music-theatre writing on the graduate level, but their work will draw overwhelmingly from the commercial and non-profit theatre, leaving unexamined the substantial differences that remain between the theatre and the opera house. Only ALT is taking new opera as a serious and ongoing concern for writers; which means that only ALT is investing in the really new, as opposed to the merely chic. Only new work - a groundswell of it - can keep opera healthy. Only new writers - skilled new writers - can make new work. ALT wants to grow those writers. That's the Composer Librettist Development Program's goal: and it's as urgent as it is distinctive."

Lawrence Edelson, Founder and Producing Artistic Director of ALT continued, "we are incredibly grateful for the NEA's support of this unique initiative. As the only full time mentorship program for operatic composers and librettists in the country, we take great pride in the services we are able to offer to gifted emerging artists - services that would not be possible without the support of the NEA and our other funders. This season, we were also honored to receive a multi-year grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The generosity of our supporters will have a long term impact on the opera field, not only providing mentorship for talented artists, but providing the opportunity to develop exciting new operas that will be enjoyed by audiences around the country."

Founded in 2005, American Lyric Theater's mission is to build a new body of operatic repertoire for new audiences by nurturing composers and librettists, developing sustainable artistic collaborations, and contributing new works to the national canon. While the traditional opera company model focuses on producing a season, ALT's programs focus on serving the needs of composers and librettists, developing new works, and collaborating with larger producing companies to help usher those works into the repertoire.

In 2006, ALT commissioned its first main stage work: The Golden Ticket, a new opera based on Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by American composer Peter Ash. After Ash and his librettist partner, Donald Sturrock, began independent development of this opera, ALT commissioned its completion with Felicity Dahl, and provided a supportive mentorship environment for three years. Under a new collaborative producing model, ALT developed a partnership with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis to present the world premiere of The Golden Ticket, which took place in June 2010 to tremendous critical and audience acclaim. The European Premiere of The Golden Ticket took place in October 2010 at Ireland's Wexford Festival Opera, and the opera will be presented by The Atlanta Opera in March 2012. In 2009, ALT initiated a second main stage commission, The Poe Project: a trilogy of one-act operas inspired by the fiction of Edgar Allan Poe being written by six Resident Artists from ALT's Composer Librettist Development Program (CLDP). Since launching the CLDP in 2007, ALT has provided intensive personalized mentorship to 17 gifted emerging artists. Currently, ALT is developing 2 additional full-length operas, and welcomed 8 new Resident Artists to the CLDP in the 2010-2011 season.

ALT is currently accepting applications for the 2011-2012 CLDP through June 1st, 2011. Full details of the CLDP curriculum, and application information may be found at http://www.altnyc.org/composer-librettist-development-program/

The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector. To join the discussion on how art works, visit the NEA at arts.gov.