The West is a Land of Infinite Beginnings

She is the Mead Composer-in-Residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and her music has been performed all over the world by the Kronos Quartet, eighth blackbird, pianist Emanuel Ax, Opera Philadelphia, Scottish Opera, LA Opera, Cincinnati Opera, New York City Opera, Chicago Fringe Opera, the Detroit Symphony, the LA Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, JACK Quartet, cellist Maya Beiser, violinist Jennifer Koh, pianist Kathleen Supové, Dublin’s Crash Ensemble, the Sydney Symphony and many others. In 2018 she made history when she became one of the two first women composers (along with Jeanine Tesori) to be commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. That year she was also nominated for a Grammy in the category of “Best Classical Composition” for her work Vespers for Violin, recorded by violinist Olivia De Prato.

Missy Mazzoli has received considerable acclaim for her operatic compositions. Her third opera, Proving Up, written with longtime collaborator Royce Vavrek, was commissioned by Washington National Opera, Opera Omaha and New York’s Miller Theatre. Based on a short story by Karen Russell, Proving Up offers a surreal and disquieting commentary on the American dream through the story of a Nebraskan family homesteading in the late 19th century. Proving Up premiered to critical acclaim in January 2018 at Washington DC’s Kennedy Center, in April 2018 at Opera Omaha, and in September 2018 at Miller Theatre. The Washington Post called it “harrowing…powerful…a true opera of our time”. Mazzoli’s second opera, Breaking the Waves, a collaboration with librettist Royce Vavrek commissioned by Opera Philadelphia and Beth Morrison Projects in 2016, was described as “among the best 21st-century operas yet” (Opera News), “savage, heartbreaking and thoroughly original” (Wall Street Journal), and “dark and daring” (New York Times). Earlier projects include the critically acclaimed sold-out premiere of her first opera, Song from the Uproar, in a Beth Morrison production at New York venue The Kitchen in March 2012. The Wall Street Journal called this work “powerful and new” and the New York Times claimed that “in the electric surge of Ms. Mazzoli’s score you felt the joy, risk, and limitless potential of free sprits unbound.” Time Out New York named Song from the Uproar third on its list of the top ten classical music events of 2012. In October 2012, her operatic work, SALT, a re-telling of the story of Lot’s Wife written for cellist Maya Beiser and vocalist Helga Davis, premiered as part of the BAM Next Wave Festival and at UNC Chapel Hill, directed by Robert Woodruff. This work, including text by Erin Cressida-Wilson, was deemed “a dynamic amalgamation that unapologetically pushes boundaries” by Time Out New York.

Ms. Mazzoli is currently the Mead Composer-in-Residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. From 2012 to 2015 she was composer-in-residence with Opera Philadelphia, Gotham Chamber Opera and Music Theatre Group, and in 2011/12 was composer/educator in residence with the Albany Symphony. She was a visiting professor of music at New York University in 2013, and later that year joined the composition faculty at the Mannes College of Music, a division of the New School. From 2007 to 2011 she was executive director of the MATA Festival in New York, and in 2016, along with composer Ellen Reid and in collaboration with the Kaufman Music Center, she founded Luna Composition Lab, a mentorship program and support network for female-identifying composers ages 13-19.

The 2019/20 season includes performances of her second opera Breaking the Waves at the Edinburgh International Festival, the Adelaide Festival and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, a performance of her opera Proving Up at the Aspen Music Festival, the world premiere of Orpheus Alive, a new ballet score commissioned and premiered by the National Ballet of Canada, the U.S. premiere of her double bass concert Dark with Excessive Bright with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the world premiere of Orpheus Undone, an orchestral work commissioned by the Chicago Symphony, and performances of her work by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Colorado Symphony and the Opera National Bordeaux, among others. Mazzoli will also curate concerts with the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony.

He has been called “the indie Hofmannsthal” (The New Yorker), a “Metastasio of the downtown opera scene” (The Washington Post), “an exemplary creator of operatic prose” (New York Times) and “one of the most celebrated and sought after librettists in the world” (CBC Radio).

His opera Angel’s Bone with composer Du Yun was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music. With composer Missy Mazzoli he wrote Song from the Uproar, premiered by Beth Morrison Projects in 2012, and subsequently seen in multiple presentations around the country, including at REDCAT through LA Opera's Off Grand initiative in 2015. Their second opera, an adaptation of Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves, premiered at Opera Philadelphia to critical acclaim in 2016. The work won the 2017 Music Critics Association of North America award for Best New Opera. Their next opera, an adaptation of Karen Russell’s short story "Proving Up,” was commissioned by Washington National Opera, Opera Omaha and The Miller Theatre, to be presented by the three institutions in 2018. They are currently developing a grand opera for a future season at Opera Philadelphia.

His collaboration with composer David T. Little led Heidi Waleson of the Wall Street Journal to proclaim them “one of the most exciting composer-librettist teams working in opera today.” In 2016 they premiered their first grand opera, JFK, at Fort Worth Opera, a co-commission with American Lyric Theater and Opéra de Montréal that was called “ravishing” (Opera News), earning a ten-star review in Opera Now magazine. This followed the success of their first opera, Dog Days, which received its world premiere in 2012 at Peak Performances @ Montclair, in a production co-produced by Beth Morrison Projects and directed by Robert Woodruff. The work was celebrated as the Classical Music Event of the year by Time Out New York and a standout opera of recent decades by The New York Times. LA Opera Off Grand presented the West Coast premiere of Dog Days at REDCAT in 2015. Little and Vavrek are currently developing an original work for the Metropolitan Opera through the Met/LCT commissioning program. 

James Darrah's visually and emotionally arresting work at the intersection of theater, opera and film is currently in demand in venues all over the world. His productions of operas, theater, music videos, film and installations are known for their elegance with virtuosic and visceral "striking [work] that injects real drama" (New York Times), merging innovative design with unexpected movement, narrative heft and dance.

He is the newly named artistic director and chief creative officer of Long Beach Opera.

Current projects include debuts and new productions with the Kennedy Center, Theater an der Wien, Santa Fe Opera, Prototype Festival and Theatro Nacional São Paolo in Brazil. In 2020 he also creates an original art installation with composer Ellen Reid, filmmaker Adam Larsen and LA Opera and continues collaborations with Beth Morrison Projects, Opera Omaha/ ONE Festival and Opera Philadelphia as well as Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony where he will direct a new production of The Flying Dutchman with Tilson Thomas conducting and Frank Gehry designing. He is also currently in development for the new opera Dante with composer Patrick Cassidy and film producer Martha De Laurentiis, an expansion of Cassidy’s aria “Vide Cor Meum” originally written for the 2001 film Hannibal.

Recent highlights include developing and directing acclaimed productions of new operas including the world premieres of Reid's Pulitzer Prize-winning prism (premiered by LA Opera Off Grand in 2018) and Missy Mazzoli's Breaking the Waves and Proving Up, the New York premiere of Julian Wachner’s Rev23 in addition to Philip Glass' Les enfants terribles and the lauded West Coast premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain. He has crafted music videos with “enigmatic twists” (NPR) for artists including Joyce DiDonato and Jakub Józef Orlinski on the Warner Music label, and produced a video for Mazzoli’s Grammy-award nominated Vespers.

Mr. Darrah is artistic director of the ONE Festival, where he is "expanding the boundaries of the operatic form" (Wall Street Journal) by framing opera in a context that is both inclusive and relevant while establishing a first of its kind operatic artist residency for myriad artists in the genre. He is also committed to training the next generation of singer and performer, joining the UCLA Faculty of the Herb Alpert School of Music in 2019 and was named the new creative director of Music Academy of the West’s Vocal Institute, where he has brought new productions of works and residences by myriad artists and contemporary composers Higdon, Mazzoli, Reid and Jonathan Dove and Kaija Saariaho.

Following his professional debut with Chicago Opera Theater, he has worked with Boston Lyric Opera, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, The International Handel Festspiele, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Getty Villa Museum in Malibu, Salle Playel in Paris, Barbican Centre, Bard Summerscape and Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Merola/ San Francisco Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood Music Festival, Pacific Musicworks, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, The Union for Contemporary Art, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos in Lisbon. He was co-artistic director/founder of Chromatic, a new collective of artists and production company in Los Angeles from 2014 to 2016, completed an MFA in Theater, Film and Television at UCLA and later continued studies with Stephen Wadsworth at The Juilliard School. He has received the national Princess Grace Award in Theater, the James Pendelton Foundation Grant, was a directing nominee in the 2015 International Opera Awards, has led world premieres of two operas to win “Best New Opera” awards from Music Critics Association of North America and was named Musical America’s New Artist of the Month for December 2015.

He was born in San Antonio, Texas and currently lives in Los Angeles.

Learn more at JamesDarrah.com.

Soprano Cree Carrico is “a notably versatile performer” and “sensational actress” who is continuously praised by critics for her “crystal clarity at the center of every note” making it “hard to watch anyone else when she’s on stage.” As a lead interpreter of 20th and 21st century works, Carrico collaborates closely with a number of composers and librettists and performs in many premières of contemporary pieces, including the New York première of Jake Heggie’s monodrama At the Statue of Venus.  Since then, Carrico has sang Lisa in Little and Vavrek’s Dog Days at the Opera America New Works Forum and has also performed on Royce Vavrek and Lauren Worsham’s 21st century downtown salon, The Coterie. Additionally, during BAM’s Next Wave Festival, Cree appeared on both nights of Beth Morrison’s 21c Liederabend, op. 3, singing Julian Wachner’s Come My Dark Eyed One, and sang the world première of Marie Incontrera and Royce Vavrek’s Albert, Bound or Unbound.  More recently she has created the roles of Zegner Daughter, Littler in the world première of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Proving Up with Opera Omaha and subsequently at The Miller Theater in New York, and made her Fort Worth Opera début as Rosemary Kennedy in the world première of David T. Little and Royce Vavrek’s JFK, with subsequent performances with Montreal Opera.

This season, Carrico performs as Anna in Tintypes with Artistree’s Music Theater Festival, Younger Alyce in Glory Denied with Kentucky Opera and Urban Arias at the Keegan Theater in DC and as Mabel in Pirates of Penzance with Opera Tampa.  Last season, Carrico reprised the role of Beatrice in Three Decembers with Nashville Opera, sang Adele in Die Fledermaus with Opera Tampa, the role La Fee in Cendrillon with Opera Company of Middlebury, Musetta in La bohèmewith Union Avenue Opera, and performed My Fair Lady: in Concert with the Utah Symphony.

Additionally, Carrico performed as a soloist Carmina Burana with Trinity Wall Street, in a recital with Boonville Missouri River Festival, in Manhattan School of Music’s Centennial Celebrations Recital Series, performed as a soloist in Stray Bird with the New Chamber Ballet, performed as a soloist in a concert celebrating The Muny’s 100th season with St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Women in Opera’s Backstage Brunch with Opera America, and in American Lyric Theater’s workshop of Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant.  She also performed in Morning Star with On Site Opera and Younger Alyce in Memphis Opera’s production of Glory Denied. Other engagements included the role of Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire with Opera Company of Middlebury and Beatrice in Three Decembers with Opera Memphis.

Additional operatic engagements include Gilda in Rigoletto with Syracuse Opera, Adele in Die Fledermaus with Finger Lakes Opera, Diana in Orpheus in the Underworld with New Orleans Opera, Amour in Orphée et Eurydice and Sagredo/Eos in Galileo Galilei with Des Moines Metro Opera.

A member of Actor’s Equity, Cree earned her union card as an ensemble member in the New York Philharmonic’s performance of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, sharing the stage with Nathan Gunn, Kelli O’Hara, and Stephanie Blythe. She was also seen in Carnegie Hall’s one-night-only performance of Guys & Dolls, starring Nathan Lane and Megan Mullally. Previous musical theatre roles include both Fraulein Kost and Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret, Celeste I/Harriett in Sunday in the Park with George, and the ensembles of Ragtime and Jesus Christ Superstar. During her final semester at Oberlin, Cree played Comrade Charlotte in Flora, the Red Menace, working closely with the legendary John Kander on a new version of the musical.

Carrico added the demanding title role in Douglas Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe, in her performance with Chautauqua Opera, to her growing repertoire of 20th and 21st centuries leading ladies. She made her New York début as Marie Antoinette in Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles while earning her Master’s degree at Manhattan School of Music. For her performance as the anti-heroine Jenny Smith in Weill’s Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, The New York Times extolled her “wounded smoothness.”

Unphased by the intimacy of solo performance, Cree created The Ophelia Project, a daring and ever-evolving program of songs, arias and monologues that bends the boundaries of a traditional recital to explore the psychology of Shakespeare’s tragic heroine. The Ophelia Project was chosen to inaugurate Opera America’s Emerging Artist Recital Series at the National Opera Center in October 2013.

In addition to her contemporary repertoire, Cree performed the soprano solos in Messiah with New Mexico Philharmonic, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater with The Brearley Singers at Alice Tully Hall, and Orff’s Carmina Burana with Great Lakes Symphony Orchestra. Additional roles include Haydn’s Mariazeller Messe for Mid-America Productions at Carnegie Hall and the title role of Evangeline in Concert with Longfellow Chorus.

Cree received a Bachelor’s of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory and a Master’s of Music from Manhattan School of Music. She was a finalist in the Ades Competition, the Lotte Lenya Competition and the Houston Grand Opera Studio.

Learn more at CreeCarrico.com.

Mezzo-soprano Abigail Nims is renowned as a musician of integrity and versatility for her performances of repertoire spanning from Bach, Handel, and Mozart to Crumb, Ligeti, and premieres of contemporary works.

On opera stages her past successes include Melanto in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria with Boston Baroque; Veruca Salt in Peter Ash’s The Golden Ticket at the Wexford Opera Festival and Atlanta Opera; Lazuli in L’Étoile with New York City Opera; Despina in Così fan tutte with Palm Beach Opera and Opera Grand Rapids; Nancy in Albert Herring with Florentine Opera; Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus with Virginia Opera; Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Opera New Jersey and Opera Grand Rapids; Zefka in “Scenes of Gypsy Life” (Janácek/Dvorák) with New York’s Gotham Chamber Opera; Milena in the world premiere of Martin Bresnick’s My Friend’s Story at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas; Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Princeton Festival; Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti with Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi; Meg in Little Women and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera Delaware; and Tessa in The Gondoliers with Opera North.

Abigail Nims is particularly praised for her expressive interpretations and tonal beauty in the concert repertoire. Recent performances include Bach’s Mass in B-minor with the San Francisco Symphony; de Falla’s Three Cornered Hat at the Colorado Music Festival; Bach’s St. John Passion with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico; Stravinky’s Pulcinella, Haydn’s Harmoniemesse, and Crumb’s Night of the Four Moons with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; Mahler’s Rückert Lieder at the Colorado MahlerFest; Bach’s Magnificat with the São Paulo Symphony; Handel’s Messiah with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, the Masterwork Chorus at Carnegie Hall, and the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra; Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été with the Adrian Symphony Orchestra; Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with Teatro Municipal (Chile); Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with Yale Philharmonia; Mozart’s Requiem and Octavianin selections from Der Rosenkavalier with the Quad City Symphony; George Benjamin’s Upon Silence and Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater with the New England String Ensemble; Ligeti’s Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel with the Yale Percussion Group; Brahms’ Liebeslieder Walzer at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival; and J.C.F. Bach’s solo cantata Ach, dass ich Wassers gnug hätte with Westminster Kantorei.

Ms. Nims has presented recitals at Trinity Church Wall Street, New York City; Wexford Festival Opera; the University of Colorado, Boulder; and as guest alumna at Ohio Wesleyan University. In recital she has performed repertoire by Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Berlioz, Schubert, Schumann, Grieg, Brahms, Mahler, Wolf, Debussy, Berg, Bridge, Ives, Ginastera, Argento, and Harbison.

Ms. Nims’ recordings include her performances of Martin Bresnick’s song cycle “Falling,” featured on the composer’s compilation album Every Thing Must Go (Albany Records, 2010) and Veruca Salt in Peter Ash’s The Golden Ticket (Albany Records, 2012). Her awards include second prize in the 2007 Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation Competition, the Anna Case MacKay Memorial Award from Santa Fe Opera, an honorable mention in the 2006 American Bach Society Competition, the 2007 Dean’s Prize from Yale School of Music, and finalist in the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation.

Abigail Nims holds degrees from Yale School of Music, Westminster Choir College, and Ohio Wesleyan University. She was a Virginia Adams Fellow at the Carmel Bach Festival in 2009, an Apprentice Artist at Santa Fe Opera in 2007 and 2008, and a Young Artist with Opera North in 2005. Additionally, she has participated in the Spoleto Festival USA, AIMS in Graz (Austria), the Austrian-American Mozart Academy, and the Austria-Illinois Exchange Program in Vienna. Ms. Nims is currently a member of the voice faculty at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

Tenor Michael Slattery is renowned among singers for his interpretive originality and his voice of purity and power, described by the New York Times as “the balance of the elemental and ethereal.” He made his New York Philharmonic debut singing the Britten Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings on Benjamin Britten’s 100th birthday. His new English translation of Bach's St. John Passion (commissioned by MasterVoices) was performed at Carnegie Hall for the 75th anniversary celebration of Robert Shaw's Collegiate Chorale. Solo recordings include The Irish Heart, Secret and Divine Signs, Dowland in Dublin, Mortality Mansions and The People’s Purcell, and he can be heard on full recordings of Handel’s Saul with Rene Jacobs, Acis and Galatea, Atalanta, Samson and Solomon with Nicholas McGegan. Recent projects include the world premieres of two roles expressly written for him, Miles in Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Proving Up, and Daft Jamie in Julian Grant and Mark Campbell’s Burke & Hare.

Career highlights include the title role in Bernstein’s Candide in London, Rome and Warsaw, and concerts with New York Philharmonic, New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia Orchestra, French National Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, and leading roles at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the Staatsoper in Berlin, the Opéra de Lyon, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, and the Edinburgh, Spoleto, Holland, Athens and Aspen Music Festivals.

Learn more at MichaelSlattery.com.

Conductor, composer, and curator Christopher Rountree has distinguished himself as one of classical music’s most forward-thinking innovators in programming, conducting, and community building. Whether presenting his beloved chamber group wild Up in a museum bathroom or leading the country’s most renowned ensembles through new music’s most exciting works at the world’s greatest concert halls, Rountree is the linchpin between orchestral music and the future of performance.

With a commitment to cultivating a more curious and engaged society through music, the International Contemporary Ensemble – as a commissioner and performer at the highest level – amplifies creators whose work propels and challenges how music is made and experienced.

“America’s foremost new-music group”
Alex Ross, New Yorker

Learn more at ICEorg.org.

Kendall Teague was raised in the mountains of western North Carolina and attended the South Carolina Governors School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville, South Carolina. He started his professional career in the Bay Area in 2008 as a corps de ballet member at San Francisco Ballet. He has since worked with North Carolina Dance Theatre, Complexions Contemporary Ballet under Dwight Rhoden, Ballet San Jose, Alonzo King Lines Ballet and the San Francisco-based company ODC/Dance.

Sam Shapiro hails from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He began his ballet training at Wake Forest University under the direction of his mother, Brantly Shapiro. At age 11, he entered the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he studied with the entire faculty including Duncan Noble, Nina Danilova and Gyula Pandi. At age 17 he joined The Royal Ballet’s Upper School where he danced for three years, graduating with commendation. Sam danced in the Royal Ballet’s productions of Cinderella, La Fille Mal Gardee, Firebird, La Valse and Manon. He spent two years in Boston Ballet II and performed with Boston Ballet in many ballets such as Giselle and Romeo and Juliet. After Boston he spent two years with The North Carolina Dance Theater performing classical and contemporary repertoire. Favorite roles included Dwight Rhoden’s Broken Fantasies and Mark Godden’s Dracula. The next year was spent touring, performing freelance with Tulsa Ballet, Fort Wayne Ballet and Ballet National de Panamá. He joined the Royal New Zealand Ballet for the 2011-2012 season, and is now currently performing as a freelance artist and teacher.

Faith Fidgeon is a third-year contemporary dance major at University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where they have performed staged works by José Limón, Robert Battle, and Ming Lung Yang. Faith has worked on multiple collaborative projects with Film and Design and Production majors at school. They have also performed work by Chris Yon and Taryn Griggs at The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. With Faith’s love for many art forms, they hope to be involved in more artistic, collaborative projects in the future.

Lindsey Matheis recently performed as a principal dancer for Les Enfants Terribles by Philip Glass with Opera Omaha and a principal dancer and associate choreographer for Handel's Semele with Opera Philadelphia.

In 2018, she appeared in the roles of Lady Macbeth, Lady Macduff and the Second Mrs. De Winter in Punchdrunk's immersive theater production of Sleep No More in New York. She has been a company dancer with Northwest Dance Project (Portland, Oregon) and Bodytraffic (Los Angeles).

She began dancing under Kirstie Tice Spadie at the NC Dance Institute and later the North Carolina School of the Arts. She trained for a year at the Alonzo King Lines Ballet School in San Francisco. In addition, she has studied at the Alvin Ailey School, the American Dance Festival and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet.

Photo by Paul Thacker

An actor, writer and director, Zachary Dushenko has a BA in Acting and a minor in Philosophy from UCLA. He has worked on Troilus and Cressida with director Rob Clare, Me, Myself, and the Apocalypse with director Jeff Maynard, and written the play Bad Trip. He has recently begun to perform voiceovers for books, video games, and cartoons.

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