IN A GROVE

(b. 1984) is internationally acclaimed for compositions characterized by a subtle handling of timbre and resonance, a deep literary fluency, and a flair for multimedia collaborations.

Recent commissions include In a Grove, a new opera co-produced by LA Opera and Pittsburgh Opera, a violin concerto for Jennifer Koh and the Detroit Symphony, an antiphonal brass concerto for the Cincinnati Symphony, a piano concerto for Shai Wosner and the Phoenix and Albany Symphonies; a percussion concerto for Third Coast Percussion; and three works for the LA Philharmonic. His first opera, Invisible Cities, based on Italo Calvino’s novel, was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize and he is the recipient of multiple GRAMMY nominations. He is also the winner of the 2015-2016 Rome Prize.

Christopher Cerrone holds degrees from Yale and the Manhattan School of Music and is published by Schott NY. He is on the composition faculty at Mannes School of Music and lives in Brooklyn with his wife.

is an award-winning librettist and playwright whose texts serve as blueprints for intricate three-dimensional sonic and visual worlds. Her plays and music-theater works have been presented internationally and across the U.S. Opera libretti include Poppaea (music by Michael Hersch, for Wien Modern and Zeiträume Basel), Dido (with Melinda Wagner, for Dawn Upshaw and the Brentano Quartet), The Pigeon Keeper (music by David Hanlon, for Santa Fe Opera), and The Long Walk (music by Jeremy Howard Beck, for Opera Saratoga), as well as numerous operas in development. Her work has been commissioned, presented, or developed by Chicago Lyric, Houston Grand Opera, Utah Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, and West Edge, among others.

An alumni of New Dramatists, she has received fellowships and awards from the Café Royal Cultural and Howard Foundations, MapFund, NEA, NYFA, NYSCA, Opera America, Venturous Theater Fund and more. She taught playwriting at Skidmore College for a decade.

Mary Birnbaum’s November production of Luigi Rossi's L'Orfeo was just named "Best Classical Music of 2021" by the New York Times. In 2019, Mary became the 3rd female director to open the Santa Fe Opera season with a new production of La Bohème as her Dido and Aeneas played Opera Holland Park and Opéra de Versailles. Her work has been seen from Taiwan to Central America, from the Ojai Festival to Seattle Opera and beyond. As a writer, Mary’s English translation of The Barber of Seville, set in the 1990’s in Seville, Florida, premiered at Opera Columbus in February 2020. She has directed films of classical pieces, most recently Obscura Nox, a film of Mozart’s ”Exsultate, Jubilate” with interpolated music by Iman Habbibi.

Currently Associate Director of the post-graduate Artist Diploma in Opera Studies program at Juilliard, Mary has taught acting for singers at Bard College and in the Lindemann Young Artists Program at the Metropolitan Opera. A graduate of Harvard, Mary trained in physical theater at L’Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris.