American Lyric Theater Receives $40,000 NEA Grant

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $82 million to fund local arts projects and partnerships in the NEA's second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2016. Included in this announcement is an Art Works award of $40,000 to American Lyric Theater (ALT) in support of the Composer Librettist Development Program. The Art Works category supports the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing work, lifelong learning in the arts, and public engagement with the arts through 13 arts disciplines or fields.

"The arts are all around us, enhancing our lives in ways both subtle and obvious, expected and unexpected," said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. "Supporting projects like the one from American Lyric Theater offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day."

This award marks the seventh consecutive grant that ALT has received from the NEA for the Composer Librettist Development Program (CLDP). ALT's flagship initiative, the CLDP is a multi-year, tuition free program providing unprecedented professional instruction and guidance to gifted emerging operatic writers nationally. The CLDP faculty includes some of the country's foremost artists, including composer/librettist Mark Adamo, composer Paul Moravec, librettists Mark Campbell and Michael Korie, and dramaturg Cori Ellison. Recent guest teachers and lecturers have included composers Kaija Saariaho, Nico Muhly, Stewart Wallace, Christopher Theofanidis, Ricky Ian Gordon, John Musto, and Anthony Davis, and librettists Donna DiNovelli, Stephen Karam, and Gene Scheer.

Lawrence Edelson, Founder and Producing Artistic Director of ALT commented on the grant, stating, "We are deeply honored by the ongoing support we continue to receive from the NEA. Since we launched the CLDP in 2007, the program has become a model of innovation for the field, inspiring many opera companies to increase their investment in the development of operatic writers. Thanks to the support of the NEA and our other funders, over the past eight years, we have been able to provide personalized, intensive mentorship to 38 composers and librettists."

"Over the past year, two works developed at ALT have received critically acclaimed world premieres: The Long Walk, by Jeremy Howard Beck and Stephanie Fleischmann, commissioned by ALT under the auspices of the CLDP, premiered at Opera Saratoga and will be seen next at Utah Opera; and JFK, co-commissioned with Fort Worth Opera from David T. Little and Royce Vavrek (a CLDP alumus), premiered in Fort Worth and will be seen next at Opéra de Montréal," continued Edelson. "I am thrilled that the artists who have participated in our program are contributing important new works to the 21st century operatic repertoire, and we are deeply honored that the NEA continues to play such a vital role in making that possible."

Other works written by alumni of the CLDP have been presented at prestigious organizations in the past year include: Epiphany with a libretto by alumna Niloufar Talebi (music by Paola Prestini, Netsayi and Sarah Kirkland Snider) at BAM's Next Wave Festival; Buried Alive, music by Jeff Myers, libretto by Quincy Long, and Embedded music by Patrick Soluri, libretto by Deborah Brevoort, commissioned by ALT and presented by Fort Worth Opera; and four works, including Dog Days and Angel's Bone with libretti by alumnus Royce Vavrek (music by David T. Little and Du Yun, respectively), La Reina (commissioned by ALT) written by alumni Jorge Sosa and Laura Sosa Pedroza, and an opera-cabaret with Bombay Rickey led by alumna Kamala Sankaram, were included in the 2016 PROTOTYPE Festival. Upcoming productions of note include the world premiere of After the Storm with a libretto by alumna Stephanie Fleischmann (music by David Hanlon) at Houston Grand Opera, HGOco, in May 2016, and Breaking the Waves with libretto by alumnus Royce Vavrek (music by Missy Mazzoli) at Opera Philadelphia in September 2016.