ALT Accepts Applications for Composer Librettist Development Program

American Lyric Theater (ALT) has announced that the application period for the 2011-2012 Composer Librettist Development Program (CLDP) is now open to eligible composers, librettists and playwrights. Program information and application details may be found online at www.altnyc.org. The application deadline is June 1, 2011.

The CLDP is a tuition-free initiative for emerging composers and librettists/playwrights selected through an open, competitive application process. The first full-time mentorship initiative for operatic writers in the United States, the CLDP runs from September to June annually, and 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 Daniel Catán, composer Anthony Davis, dramaturg Cori Ellison, librettist Michael Korie, and stage director Rhoda Levine. In addition to ongoing classes and workshops, artists in the program take part in residency observerships at New York City Opera. Through this partnership, the CLDP is able to provide writers the opportunity to explore the process of mounting fully staged operatic productions. 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, American Lyric Theater's founder and Producing Artistic Director added, "in developing ALT's programs, we took a hard look at what already exists in the field. We identified a real absence of integrated programs that provide an extended period of time for composers and librettists to collaborate and be immersed in an environment dedicated solely to their artistic development - to focus on skills and process as opposed to solely the end product - and, that also help to bridge the gap between training, workshops, and the realities of writing an opera for production at a professional producing company."

Applications are welcome from any emerging composer or librettist/playwright who is a U.S. Citizen or legal resident. Artists may apply individually to the program or as a member of a writing team. ALT defines an emerging opera Composer or Librettist as someone who has acquired significant skills as a composer and/or librettist (or playwright) through academic study, practice, and professional experience; who demonstrates a unique and important musical and/or theatrical perspective that could benefit from intense mentorship as part of the CLDP; and who has not yet had a work commissioned or performed by an OPERA America professional producing company. Their work in other genres may have been performed professionally, as ALT's definition of emerging applies specifically to an artist's development as a writer for the opera stage. Students of degree granting institutions are not eligible for consideration. There are no age restrictions for participation. The CLDP takes place in New York City, and residency in the metropolitan New York City area is required for the entire duration of the program.

ABOUT AMERICAN LYRIC THEATER
Founded in 2005 by Lawrence Edelson, 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 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 two additional full-length operas, and welcomed seven new Resident Artists to the CLDP in the 2010-11 season.

The Composer Librettist Development Program is made possible by generous support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, The ASCAP Foundation - Joseph and Rosalie Meyer Fund and The Dorothy Loudon Foundation.

For more information, visit www.altnyc.org.

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