American Opera Projects Announces Composers & Librettists for 'Composers & the Voice'

American Opera Projects (AOP) is proud to announce its selection of composers and librettists for the 2011-2012 season of its popular Composers & the Voice program. Chosen by Composers & the Voice Artistic Director Steven Osgood, the 2011-2012 season will include composers Mikael Karlsson, Robert Paterson, Rachel Peters, and Ronnie Reshef and composer/librettist teams Zach Redler/Sara Cooper and Sidney Marquez Boquiren/Daniel Neer. The primary focus of Composers & the Voice is to give composers and librettists experience working collaboratively with singers on writing for the voice and contemporary opera stage.

The composers and librettists will begin their year-long fellowship in September, working with the company's Resident Ensemble of Singers - sopranos Amy Shoremount-Obra and Andrea Arias Martin, mezzo-soprano Rebecca Ringle, tenor Brandon Snook, baritone Jorell Williams, and bass-baritone Justin Hopkins - and an Artistic Team of music directors, guest composers, and a new partnership with Irondale Ensemble Project for training in drama and improv. All sessions will be in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, home of AOP and Irondale.

At the end of the program, American Opera Projects will present the results of the participants' work in public performances - First Glimpse, a concert of songs in Spring 2012, and Six Scenes, an evening of short opera scenes in Fall 2012. One of these operas-in-progress will be selected to receive a staged reading at Manhattan School of Music in Spring 2013. Additional information can be found at AOP's website www.operaprojects.org.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is supporting AOP's Composer & the Voice program through 2014 as part of a two hundred thousand ($200,000) grant award, which also covers artistic personnel and other program activities. AOP General Director Charles Jarden writes, "The Mellon Foundation's input and perspective was invaluable in expanding on AOP's first five years of Composers & the Voice, now easily making it one of the strongest opera artist training programs in the country. We eagerly await the innovative works that will emerge from our upcoming seasons of composers."