2027
Storytellers-in-Residence
Our four “Storytellers-in-Residence” offer unique, expansive takes on opera as a medium.
Sarah-Genevieve Burghardt Rice
Online is IRL
Sarah Genevieve Burghart Rice is an assistant professor of composition and music technology at The Penn State University School of Music where she directs the Gender and Voice Inquiry Lab, and coordinates ROARS (Research of the Arts, Recording, and Sound). Dr. Burghart Rice’s research includes music technology at the intersection of applied music composition through mathematics, and gender-affirming behavioral voice medication.
Ashi Day
The Gorgon and the Oracle
Ashi Day’s vocally driven works explore the intersections between music and theater, the strategic use of humor and absurdity, the experiences of performers, and animal songs. Her operas, art songs, choral pieces, and theatrical works have been commissioned or performed by Renegade Opera, Opera Ithaca, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, The Maryland Opera Studio, Hartford Opera Theater, The Fresh Squeezed Opera Company, and more. Renegade Opera’s production of her one-act immersive opera, Waking the Witch, won Best Opera Production with BroadwayWorld Portland. She is a DC Arts and Humanities Fellow and Opera America Discovery Grants for Women Composers awardee.
Gillian Perry
Night Mares
Gillian Rae Perry (she/they) is a composer and songwriter whose work is dedicated to themes of mental health, vulnerability, and interconnectedness. She grew up on a bird farm in rural Texas, and her first compositions were written for the birds. With degrees in both film and music composition, as well as growing up a theater kid, Perry actively integrates art forms outside of music into their artistic practice. Perry was the Vanguard Emerging Opera Composer with Chicago Opera Theater during the 2022-2024 seasons and is currently an Opera America Discovery Grant Awardee. She recently released a singer-songwriter album titled gilly's garden with support from New Music USA's Creator Fund.
Rachael Smith
Mandrake
Rachael Smith is an American composer from Brockport, NY. She has worked with a wide variety of groups such as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Lunch Bachs Project, A/tonal, SHUFFLE, the SUNY Fredonia Department of Theatre and Dance, and the Performing Arts Company at SUNY Fredonia. She has also been commissioned by the Metropoli Ensemble as a part of the Biophony Project at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. In addition to being a composer, Rachael is also a playwright, librettist, and lyricist. Her text has been performed at SUNY Fredonia, the Bowling Green State University MicroOpera Festival, and the NOW Festival at the Conservatory of Music at Baldwin Wallace University.