American Lyric Theater (ALT) has been
selected as a recipient of a three-year grant from The Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation in the amount of $90,000. The grant will provide multi-year
program support for the Composer Librettist Development Program (CLDP),
ALT's core initiative to provide professional mentorship to gifted
emerging operatic writers, as well as capacity-building support, which
will enable ALT to improve its infrastructure and provide the foundation
for a sustainable future as a long-term contributor to the opera field.
Historically, the Mellon Foundation's support for
opera has focused on a small number of companies demonstrating a longstanding
commitment to advancing the art form through the presentation of ambitious
new works or those rarely heard. Recently, the Foundation has expanded
its support to companies at the forefront of finding ways to improve the
developmental process for creating, producing, revising, and reviving new
operas; developing collaborative partnerships with their peers and with
other community and cultural institutions; and exploring new uses of technology
in opera production and in audience engagement.
"American Lyric Theater provides
a unique and invaluable service to composers, librettists and their works
in the very early stages of development. The creation of a new opera is
a long process that benefits from support at every phase. I am delighted
that ALT's important role in that process has been affirmed by this grant
from the Mellon Foundation," said Marc A. Scorca, President and CEO
of OPERA America.
Lawrence Edelson, American Lyric Theater's founder and
Producing Artistic Director explained, "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 emerging 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."
The 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 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."
Current First Year Resident Artists in the CLDP include
librettists Tony Asaro, Rochelle Bright, and David Simpatico;
and composers Clint Borzoni, Christopher Cerrone, Gerald Cohen,
and Justine F. Chen. Returning artists include composer Jorge
Sosa, who is working on La Reina, a bilingual (Spanish/English)
opera for acoustic and electronic performing forces; as well as composers
Jeff Myers, Jay Anthony Gach, and Patrick Soluri,
and librettists Quincy Long, Royce Vavrek, and Deborah
Brevoort, who are working on The Poe Project, a trilogy of one-act
operas recently commissioned by ALT, inspired by the fiction of Edgar Allan
Poe.
Applications for the 2011-2012 CLDP are being accepted
by ALT from March 1 to June 1, 2011. Application information is available
online at http://www.altnyc.org.
Applications are welcome from any emerging composer or
librettist 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 a professional opera company in the United States. 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.
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 http://www.altnyc.org. |