American Lyric Theater Offers Free Virtual Opera Writers Symposium

American Lyric Theater is inviting artists from all backgrounds to participate in its free, virtual Opera Writers Symposium as part of the organization's ongoing commitment to mentoring the next generation of operatic writers.

The eight-week series of mini-seminars and online workshops will run from February 27 - April 24, 2021 and will provide practical tools for both first-time and experienced artists with an interest in developing new works for the operatic stage.

The courses will offer artists a glimpse into American Lyric Theater's Composer Librettist Development Program (CLDP) - the country's only full-time mentorship program for emerging opera composers, librettists and dramaturgs - a two-year, tuition-free professional training program for writers interested in creating new operas that includes extensive mentorship and direct financial support.

The CLDP Opera Writers Symposium is free and open to artists from all genres of music and literature including poets, playwrights, novelists, composers, songwriters and rap artists who may be curious about writing for the operatic stage. Artists with no previous experience in the operatic art form are encouraged to attend.

ALT's Founder Lawrence Edelson along with ALT's newly appointed Associate Artistic Director Kelly Kuo will work to shape ALT's mentoring programs for the next generation of artists. Kuo will lead the symposium course, From Erased to Self-Empowered: Celebrating BIPOC Opera Composers and Librettists.

The CLDP Opera Writers Symposium is free and open to artists from all genres of music and literature including poets, playwrights, novelists, composers, songwriters, jazz and hip-hop musicians and any other artists who may be curious about writing for the operatic stage. Artists with no previous experience writing opera are encouraged to attend.

The symposium is part of ALT's recently announced Opera Writers Diversity and Representation Initiative (OWDARI) to address structural inequality and racism in opportunities for operatic writers, and to increase the number of BIPOC artists writing for the opera stage.

Symposium courses will include From Erased to Self-Empowered: Celebrating BIPOC Opera Composers and Librettists - led by ALT's newly appointed Associate Artistic Director Kelly Kuo - which will culminate in a free concert featuring works by BIPOC writers from the 17th century to today.

Dramaturg Cori Ellison will lead Dramatizing History and Opera as Activism with composer Anthony Davis, who won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for his opera The Central Park Five. "A lot of times I've gone to subject matter where there's a collision of culture," says Davis. "I think it's important that we revisit these moments - to think and look deeply into them."

Other course topics include Opera, Technology and Innovation with composers Kamala Sankaram and Jorge Sosa, both alumni of ALT's Composer Librettist Development Program; and The Architecture of Opera led by Composer/Librettist Mark Adamo. Guest speakers include "Brooklyn's post-millennial Mozart" (Time Out New York) Missy Mazzoli, Huang Ruo, Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR), a classically trained composer, violinist and band-leader known for blending classical music with funk, rock and hip-hop; and "Renaissance woman of contemporary British music" (The Observer) composer Errollyn Wallen.

Also among the symposium's speakers are librettists Mark Campbell, GRAMMY Award-winning playwright, journalist, novelist, poet and screenwriter Thulani Davis, Tony Award-winner David Henry Hwang, and Andrea Davis Pinkney, the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of numerous books for children and young adults whose libretto adaptation of Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day recently premiered at Houston Grand Opera. More class information is below and at www.altnyc.org.

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