Composer David T. Little Marks Milestone Anniversaries with WHAT BELONGS TO YOU, DOG DAYS, JFK

Composer David T. Little has announced highlights of his 2026-2027 season, which marks milestone anniversaries for several of his operas, including Soldier Songs (2006), Dog Days (2012), and JFK (2016), alongside the New York premiere of his newer opera What Belongs to You (2021).

A natural musical storyteller with 'a knack for overturning musical conventions' (The New York Times), David T. Little is known for stage, concert, and screen works permeated with eclectic influences and the power of the unexpected. Little readily probes the deep corners of human psychology, invoking political, historical, spiritual, and social themes as pathways for exploring the human condition.

The 2026-2027 season features several major milestones for Little's opera catalog, including the 20th anniversary of Soldier Songs (2006), marked by a release of the film by Opera Philadelphia; the 15th anniversary of Dog Days (2012), receiving its Canadian premiere in a new production by Tapestry Opera and Against the Grain Theatre, directed by Michael Hidetoshi Mori, with new productions to follow in Bremen, Germany, and Melbourne, Australia, as part of the 2027 anniversary, and a special 15th-anniversary concert co-presented by the PROTOTYPE Festival and BRIC Arts Media in NYC; and finally, the 10th anniversary of JFK (2016), which will be performed in its East Coast premiere by Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Odyssey Opera, and subsequently recorded for commercial release. Among his newest works, SIN-EATER (2023) will be performed by The Crossing and JACK Quartet as part of The Crossing's annual Month of Moderns, and What Belongs to You (2021), winner of the 2025 MCANA Award, receives its New York premiere presented by NYU Skirball in spring 2027.

Additional season highlights include Vinkensport (2010) at Boston University, his GRAMMY-nominated Black Lodge (2019) preceded by BARDO (2024) at Carolina Performing Arts, Hellhound (2013) at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, a portrait concert of Canadian premieres by Adam Sherkin with Piano Lunaire in Toronto, Little's complete piano works performed by James Johnston at the Ruckus 412 New Music Festival in Pittsburgh, and the premieres of new film scores for Pentimento (2026) and You Were Never Alone (2026).

Little enters the season following the June release, on Bright Shiny Things, of the world-premiere recording of his award-winning opera What Belongs to You (2021), featuring GRAMMY Award-winning tenor Karim Sulayman and Alarm Will Sound, conducted by Alan Pierson.

On Thursday, September 24, 2026, Yana Mann performed excerpts from Little's Eleven Fragments for the Book of Dreams (2017) at Yamaha Music London, alongside British DJ and producer Betoko, who created a track live from the sounds of her voice. On Monday, September 28, 2026, Amelia Watkins and Mila Henry premiered Little's To A Stranger (2010) in a new version for soprano at the Harvard Club in New York City. Little's work for film took center stage with the premiere of his new score for Hunter Gause's Pentimento (2026) at the Hamptons International Film Festival on October 7 and 9, 2026. The film follows an artist's assistant whose embarrassing mistake forces him to confront his own creative stagnation.

From October 23 to 25, 2026, the Fringe Festival presents Little's Vinkensport (chamber version, 2018) in a new production directed by Lauren Lenz and conducted by Ian Henscheid, with music direction by Allison Voth, at Boston University Studio One. Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera, is among Little's first operatic works and an early example of his many celebrated collaborations with librettist Royce Vavrek. This playful work, about a trivial contest and the revealing light it sheds on its participants, has been described as 'a portrait gallery of quirky, eccentric, and colorful characters' (Musical America) and 'an opportunity to appreciate the lighter comedic style of the industrious Little-Vavrek team' (Classical Voice North America).

Little's new score for You Were Never Alone (2026), an episode from the Final Transmissions found-footage horror anthology, written and directed by Michael J. Epstein and Sophia Cacciola, premiered at the GenreBlast Film Festival in Winchester, Virginia, on Saturday, September 5, 2026, and was screened at the Unnamed Footage Festival on Friday, October 2, 2026. The film will next be featured at the Nightmare in the Ozarks Film Festival in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, on Friday, October 23, 2026.

Also on October 23, pianist James Johnston releases a recording of Hang Together (2022), a short solo piano work by Little, inspired by Benjamin Franklin's historic call for solidarity: 'We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.' A longtime friend and collaborator of the composer, and founding member of Little's intrepid ensemble Newspeak, Johnston releases the recording in advance of the November 3 U.S. midterm elections. Hang Together was originally commissioned in 2022 for Lior Willinger's Active Listening project.

On Friday, October 30, 2026, Carolina Performing Arts presents Little's GRAMMY-nominated Black Lodge (2019) as part of a special Halloween event, preceded by Sandra Powers' ghoulish immersive performance installation, BARDO, set to a score by Little and released as an album titled Dark Hymnal (2024) on Cantaloupe Music. Audiences are invited to enter BARDO, a haunting, liminal place between death and rebirth, before the evening culminates in Black Lodge, Little's dark Lynchian goth-rock opera about a tormented writer trapped in the nightmarish Bardo, where he is forced to confront the darkest moment of his life again and again. The performance features vocalist Timur, who starred in the opera film, with his band, Timur and the Dime Museum, and the Isaura String Quartet. Black Lodge has drawn praise for its 'indefatigable goth aplomb' (The New York Times), and Neue Musikzeitung wrote that 'Little's music sets the nightmare to music with virtuosity: it is always thrilling and always disturbing.'

Also in keeping with Halloween, on Friday, October 30, 2026, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music performs Little's Hellhound (2013), his meditation on the myth of Robert Johnson at the crossroads, in a New Music Ensemble concert featuring Shara Nova, conducted by Edwin Outwater. The program also includes a variety of works written in the 20th and 21st centuries, including György Kurtág's A kis csáva, Christopher Cerrone's The Night Mare, and Sarah Kirkland Snider's Unremembered.

Now marking the 20th anniversary of Soldier Songs, Little continues to reflect on one of his most enduring works. Premiered in 2006, the opera drew praise from Musical America for 'the imaginative way he draws on his varied musical interests to produce arresting and coherent works.' Based on extensive interviews with friends and family who served in the military, the work has been presented by Los Angeles Opera, Atlanta Opera, San Diego Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, PROTOTYPE Festival, Beth Morrison Projects, and internationally at the Holland Festival, among others. A film adaptation of Soldier Songs, produced for the Opera Philadelphia Channel, earned a 2022 GRAMMY Award nomination, an International Opera Award nomination, and a 2022 OPERA America Award.

In celebration of the anniversary of Soldier Songs, the film receives a new digital premiere on Wednesday, November 11, 2026. The film, directed by and starring baritone Johnathan McCullough, offers audiences around the world an intimate, cinematic encounter with Little's powerful examination of war, memory, and trauma. Blending opera, theater, and rock-infused concert music, Little's work explores the ways popular culture can shape perceptions of war—and the profound psychological consequences of experiencing it firsthand. 'Soldier Songs remains as urgent and resonant today as when David first created it 20 years ago,' said Anthony Roth Costanzo, General Director & President of Opera Philadelphia. 'Making this extraordinary film available for free gives audiences everywhere a chance to experience this work that weaves a complex narrative about war, the people who fight it, and the ways its effects continue long after the battlefield.'

On Tuesday, November 17, 2026, Piano Lunaire presents a portrait concert of Little's music in Toronto, featuring pianist Adam Sherkin in the Canadian premieres of Hang Together (2022), Accumulation of Purpose (2017), Elegy (monsters are real) (2016), and Hellhound (2013) with violinist Roan Ma.

In eight performances from November 18 to 29, 2026, Tapestry Opera and Against the Grain Theatre co-produce the Canadian premiere of Little's Dog Days (2012), with libretto by Royce Vavrek after the short story by Judy Budnitz, at the Nancy & Ed Jackman Performance Centre. These performances kick off a busy season for the 'groundbreaking American classic' (The New York Times), which celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2027. On Sunday, January 3, 2027, Gather NYC presents Duo Etrange in the world premiere of a new version of Mirror Mirror, an aria from Dog Days, and on Saturday, January 23, 2027, PROTOTYPE Festival presents a special anniversary concert at BRIC Arts Media in NYC with performers from the original production. New productions from Melbourne's Australian Contemporary Opera Company and Theater Bremen in Germany will follow in 2027. The work follows thirteen-year-old Lisa and her family as they struggle to survive in a near-future America unraveling under the pressures of war, hunger, and emotional collapse. As food disappears and hope erodes, each member of the family confronts the limits of their humanity in different ways. Their fragile world is further disrupted by the arrival of Prince, a mysterious man in a dog suit begging for scraps. By turns brutal, darkly funny, and deeply moving, Dog Days is a powerful meditation on survival, morality, and the animal instincts that emerge in times of crisis.

On Saturday, March 13, 2027, Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and Odyssey Opera present the East Coast premiere of Little's JFK (2016), conducted by Gil Rose at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall. With a libretto by Royce Vavrek, the work centers on John and Jacqueline Kennedy during their final night in Fort Worth, tracing the mix of public pressure and private reflection that defined the moment. The opera moves between memory, conversation, and the looming demands of the next day, offering a close look at two people navigating history as it closes in around them. BMOP will subsequently record the work for commercial release.

On Saturday, April 3, 2027, pianist James Johnston performs Little's complete piano works at the Ruckus 412 New Music Festival at Chatham University in Pittsburgh. The program features the world premiere of Little's In Pieces (2027) for solo piano, as well as Hang Together (2022), Accumulation of Purpose (2017), and Elegy (monsters are real) (2016).

NYU Skirball presents the New York premiere of Little's What Belongs to You (2021) on Thursday, April 15, 2027, and Saturday, April 17, 2027, featuring GRAMMY Award-winning tenor Karim Sulayman in a role written for him, joined by Alarm Will Sound under Alan Pierson, with direction by Mark Morris. Drawn from Garth Greenwell's celebrated debut novel, Little's opera for solo tenor and chamber orchestra follows an American teacher in Bulgaria and Mitko, the young man with whom he becomes entangled, through desire, shame, and the distance between two people who continue to return to one another. The opera premiered in September 2024 at the Modlin Center for the Arts in Richmond, Virginia, where the world-premiere recording was captured ahead of its June 2026 release on Bright Shiny Things, with liner notes by Alex Ross. Limelight, which named the album an Editor's Choice, wrote, 'Tender and confronting, it roughs you up while giving you a lesson in music-theatre.' BBC Music Magazine praised Sulayman's 'finely concentrated performance… with an unflinching focus on the narrator's vulnerability'; Opera Magazine wrote that, with his 'exquisite tenor in rapturous form, and seemingly tireless despite the huge demands placed upon it in this live recording of the premiere, he sings with formidable conviction and consummate control of expressive line,' and Gramophone observed that Pierson's Alarm Will Sound 'seems to be able to handle anything. And they do.' Parterre Box described the music as 'tender, lyric, and full of heartbreak without being maudlin,' calling the album 'a rare recording that gives a nearly complete impression of the experience of a work.' Musical America proclaimed that 'this is a major work by a composer at the top of his game' and described the recording as 'thrillingly immediate.'

On Saturday, June 19, 2027, The Crossing presents Little's SIN-EATER at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia, PA, as part of its annual Month of Moderns festival, performing alongside the JACK Quartet. In SIN-EATER, Little holds a mirror up to modern society through the ancient practice of paying the poor to ritualistically 'eat' the sins of the rich. Upon a privileged person's death, a loaf of bread would be placed atop the corpse and then consumed by a humbler member of the community, thus taking on the deceased person's guilty deeds while he or she passed on to the next life unburdened. In this 'ritual grotesquerie,' Little draws parallels to modern-day 'sin-eaters'—soldiers, first responders, essential workers, social media content moderators—who absorb the ills of society, enabling others to lead safer, healthier, and more oblivious lives. Over the course of the 70-minute choral work, Little weaves together texts from a wide range of eras to illuminate the connections across time: Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (French, 1755-1826), Stephen Crane (American, 1871-1900), Wilfred Owen (English, 1893-1918), Harold McGee (American, b. 1951), Claude McKay (Jamaican-American, 1890-1948), Anne Elizabeth Moore (American, b. 1971), Jonathan Swift (Irish, 1667-1745), and others. The work will be recorded for future release.

On Tuesday, June 29, 2027, the Berlin Academy of American Music (BAAM), lead commissioner of the work, presents the world premiere of Little's Imagine Utopia at the Konzerthaus Berlin. Co-commissioned by the Aspen Music Festival, American Composers Orchestra, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, and Mid-Atlantic Symphony, the work is a centerpiece of the inaugural Berlin Transatlantic Music Festival, which celebrates American music and transatlantic relations between Germany and the U.S. Garrett Keast conducts the BAAM Orchestra in the premiere. This new orchestral work starts from the idea that, since George Orwell's 1984 captured our imaginations, we have collectively been stuck in a dystopian mindset. Imagine Utopia will seek to push back on these dystopian visions, terrain well-explored in Little's prior works, imagining a brighter future rather than a darker one, because if you can't imagine it, you can't build it.

David T. Little 2026-2027 Season Calendar

Saturday, September 5, 2026 — You Were Never Alone [Film Score World Premiere] — GenreBlast Film Festival | Winchester, VA — www.genreblast.com

Thursday, September 24, 2026 — Yana Mann Performs Excerpts from Eleven Fragments for the Book of Dreams — Yamaha Music London | London, UK

Monday, September 28, 2026 — Amelia Watkins and Mila Henry Premiere To A Stranger [Version for Soprano] — Harvard Club | New York, NY

Friday, October 2, 2026 — You Were Never Alone — Unnamed Footage Festival | Virtual — unnamedfootagefestival.com

Wednesday, October 7, 2026 at 5:30 pm / Friday, October 9, 2026 at 2:30 pm — Pentimento [World Premiere] — Hamptons International Film Festival — www.hamptonsfilmfest.org

Friday, October 23, 2026 at 7:30 pm / Saturday, October 24, 2026 at 2:00 pm / Saturday, October 24, 2026 at 7:30 pm / Sunday, October 25, 2026 at 2:00 pm — Fringe Festival Presents Vinkensport — Boston University Studio One | Boston, MA — www.bu.edu/cfa/music/opera/fringe-festival/

Friday, October 23, 2026 at 10:20 pm — You Were Never Alone — Nightmare in the Ozarks Film Festival — City Auditorium | Eureka Springs, AR — www.nightmareintheozarks.com

Friday, October 23, 2026 — Hang Together [Recording Release] — James Johnston, piano — www.jamesjohnstonkeys.com

Friday, October 30, 2026 at 7:00 pm — Carolina Performing Arts Presents Black Lodge and BARDO — Memorial Hall | Chapel Hill, NC — www.carolinaperformingarts.org/events/blacklodgeandbardo/

Friday, October 30, 2026 at 7:00 pm — San Francisco Conservatory of Music New Music Ensemble Presents Hellhound — Osher Salon | San Francisco, CA — www.sfcm.edu/experience/performances/sfcm-new-music-ensemble-concert/20261030

Sunday, November 1, 2026 at 12:00 pm — Rhythms in the Garden with the Iris Percussion Quartet, performing Speak Softly: for four percussionists playing sticks of varying bigness — Arnold Arboretum | Boston, MA — arboretum.harvard.edu/event/rhythms-in-the-garden-with-the-iris-percussion-quartet/

Tuesday, November 3, 2026 at 7:30 pm — Conservatory Wind Symphony Concert performing East Coast Attitude — White Recital Hall, University of Missouri-Kansas City | Kansas City, MO — calendar.umkc.edu/conservatory/event/50327-conservatory-wind-symphony-concert

Wednesday, November 11, 2026 — Opera Philadelphia — Soldier Songs [Film Release] — https://www.youtube.com/operaphila

Tuesday, November 17, 2026 at 7:30 pm — Pianist Adam Sherkin Performs Hang Together, Accumulation of Purpose, Elegy (monsters are real), and Hellhound (with Roan Ma, violin) [Canadian Premieres] — Piano Lunaire | Toronto, ON — www.pianolunaire.org/alittleportrait

Wednesday, November 18, 2026 at 7:30 pm / Thursday, November 19, 2026 at 7:30 pm / Saturday, November 21, 2026 at 4:00 pm / Sunday, November 22, 2026 at 2:00 pm / Wednesday, November 25, 2026 at 7:30 pm / Thursday, November 26, 2026 at 7:30 pm / Saturday, November 28, 2026 at 4:00 pm / Sunday, November 29, 2026 at 2:00 pm — Tapestry Opera and Against the Grain Theatre Present Dog Days [Canadian Premiere] — Nancy