opera sprouts

Planting the seeds of Opera, one new story at a time. Fresh works created just for kids.

Meet the Operas

bOSSY GIRL SAVES THE WORLD

Ten-year-old Hortense Mortense has big ideas—and an even bigger voice. After overhearing her parents talk about the world’s problems, she sets out to save the planet, starting with her backyard garden. Through comic duets, anxious arias, and vibrant ensemble numbers, Bossy Girl Saves the World explores environmental anxiety, friendship, and the power of collaboration.

hOWL

In this lyrical animal fable, the disappearance of a wolf throws a riverside ecosystem out of balance. Told with humour, suspense, and inventive puppetry, Howl introduces students to the importance of apex predators and the fragility of interconnected systems.

The Tortoise and the Feast in the Sky

A clever tortoise tricks his way into a celestial feast—but learns that greed has consequences. This reimagining of a Nigerian folktale is rich with African rhythms, call-and-response, and powerful lessons about justice, community, and humility.

The Opera Sprouts Initiative develops new operas to be performed for youth (Grades 3-6) through a year–long mentorship program. This mentorship program is focused on working with up–and–coming composers and librettist teams who are interested in writing an opera, for a small core of professional singers and piano, for a school tour on Vancouver Island and the mainland around Vancouver. A public submission process will culminate in two to three teams being selected through a jury process. Successful teams will have submitted new work proposals that demonstrate a readiness to create a full 45–minute work, and an awareness of the BC provincial education guidelines. Selected teams will receive guidance from experienced mentors from Pacific Opera Victoria, Vancouver Opera and will also include knowledgeable industry professionals.  The mentorship culminates in a public presentation of the works in the spring of 2026 and the announcement of the youth opera moving ahead to a full commission. The commissioned team will see their work tour British Columbia schools during the 2025-2026 season.

A Mentorship-Driven Model

Opera Sprouts pairs emerging creators with some of opera’s most celebrated talents and educational leaders:

Program Mentors

Workshop Mentors

In-House Mentors from Vancouver Opera and Pacific Opera Victoria

Leslie Dala

Conductor and pianist, Leslie Dala enjoys a multifaceted career spanning the genres of opera, symphonic music, choral and contemporary works. On the podium, he is known for his passionate, dynamic, and charismatic approach to music making. Named one of the top ten artistic leaders by the Vancouver Sun, Dala is well known nationally with guest conducting appearances with orchestras and opera companies across the country. Internationally, he has performed in France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Ireland, the Czech Republic, China, Taiwan and the US including recently at Carnegie Hall. Currently, he is a member of the music staff at the Santa Fe Opera.Leslie presently holds the positions of Music Director of the Vancouver Bach Choir, the Associate Conductor and Chorus Director of Vancouver Opera, and the Music Director Emeritus of the Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra. Recently he conducted Vancouver Opera’s production of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, the Canadian premiere of George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill produced by Astrolabe Musik Theatre, and the world premiere of Frank Horvat’s Memories of Self Isolation with the Vancouver Bach Choir.Career highlights include conducting the Canadian premiere of John Adams’ Oratorio El Nino, the Canadian premiere of Steve Reich’s You are Variations and Daniel Variations, the world premieres of Brian Current’s River of Light, James Rolfe’s and Morris Panych’s opera The Overcoat, and Neil Weisensel and Shane Koyczan’s opera Stickboy. As a conductor he has collaborated with such notable artists as Gregory Kunde, Richard Margison, Measha Brueggergosman, Adrianne Pieczonka and Etienne Dupuis. Other highlights include concerts with Sarah McLachlan and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in addition to leading the Toronto Symphony Orchestra with guest artists the Indigo Girls.As a pianist, Leslie regularly appears in recital and has partnered with singers, including Russel Braun, Krisztina Szabo, Benjamin Butterfield, Rachel Fenlon, and Asitha Tennekoon. In 2021, Leslie recorded the complete Etudes of Philip Glass which is available on the Redshift label and on all of the major streaming platforms. It was named by CBC Radio as one of the top 21 Classical recordings of 2021. His 2022 recording of Nikolai Korndorf’s The Smile of Maud Lewis also made the CBC list for top 22 Classical recordings in addition to being named one of the Critic’s Choice Favourite Album’s of 2022 by Gramophone Magazine.

Kristine Kosolofski

Kristine is a music teacher at Happy Valley Elementary School in School District 62.Born in the Interior of BC, Kristine was smitten by opera shortly after moving to Victoria in 2000. An active music educator in our community, Kristine has helped to connect children to opera for many years by organizing students to attend Pacific Opera performances on its Family Preview evenings.Committed to music and education, Kristine is a Board member of the Kodaly Society of BC, Treasurer of the Sooke Music Teachers’ Association, Membership Chair of the Sooke Teachers Association, and is a proud member of Pacific Opera Victoria’s Board of Directors.

ROYCE VAVREK

Royce Vavrek is a Canada-born, Brooklyn-based librettist and lyricist who has been called “the indie Hofmannsthal” (The New Yorker) a “Metastasio of the downtown opera scene” (The Washington Post), “an exemplary creator of operatic prose” (The New York Times), and “one of the most celebrated and sought after librettists in the world” (CBC Radio). His opera “Angel’s Bone” with composer Du Yun was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music.With composer Missy Mazzoli he wrote “Song from the Uproar,” premiered by Beth Morrison Projects in 2012, and subsequently seen in multiple presentations around the country. Their second opera, an adaptation of Lars von Trier’s “Breaking the Waves,” premiered at Opera Philadelphia, co-commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects, and directed by James Darrah to critical acclaim in September of 2016. The work won the 2017 Music Critics Association of North America award for Best New Opera and was nominated for Best World Premiere at the 2017 International Opera Awards. A new production premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in the summer of 2019, produced by Scottish Opera and Opera Ventures, helmed by Tony Award-winning director Tom Morris and earned star Sydney Mancasola a coveted Herald Angel Award for her performance. Their next opera, an adaptation of Karen Russell’s short story “Proving Up,” was commissioned and presented by Washington National Opera, Opera Omaha and The Miller Theatre in 2018, was a finalist for the MCANA Best New Opera Award of that year. They are currently developing a grand opera for Opera Philadelphia and the Norwegian National Opera based on an original story by two-time Governor General’s Award-winning playwright Jordan Tannahill, as well as an adaptation of George Saunders’ Booker Prize-winning novel “Lincoln in the Bardo” for The Metropolitan Opera.Teaming up with Swedish composer Mikael Karlsson, Royce wrote the story and text for two dance projects, “Crypto,” choreographed by Guillaume Côté for Côté Dance and “Evidence of It All,” choreographed by Drew Jacoby for SFDanceworks, featuring narration by the Academy Award-nominated actress Rosamund Pike. They are currently developing two grand operas: an adaptation of Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia” to premiere at the Royal Swedish Opera in 2023, and “Fanny and Alexander,” working alongside creative partner Ingmar Bergman, Jr. to musicalize his late father’s classic film for La Monnaie de Munt in 2024, in a production to be directed by Ivo van Hove. Both operas are to feature renowned mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, for whom Mikael and Royce wrote the song cycle “So We Will Vanish,” premiered by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra in 2021 to critical acclaim.His collaboration with composer David T. Little led Heidi Waleson of the Wall Street Journal to proclaim them “one of the most exciting composer-librettist teams working in opera today.” In April of 2016 they premiered their first grand opera, “JFK,” at Fort Worth Opera, a co-commission with American Lyric Theater and Opéra de Montréal that was called “ravishing” (Opera News), earning a ten-star review in Opera Now Magazine. This followed the success of their first opera, “Dog Days,” which received its world premiere in September of 2012 at Peak Performances @ Montclair, in a production co-produced by Beth Morrison Projects and directed by American maverick Robert Woodruff. The work was celebrated as the Classical Music Event of the year by Time Out New York and a standout opera of recent decades by The New York Times. They are currently developing an original work for the Metropolitan Opera through the Met/LCT commissioning program.Royce has also worked extensively with composer Paola Prestini, first on the song cycle "Yoani," inspired by the blog posts of Yoani Sanchez, and then on "The Hubble Cantata," a virtual reality oratorio produced by VisionIntoArt/National Sawdust in association with Beth Morrison Projects. They recently presented the workshop premiere of “Silent Light,” an opera based on the Cannes Jury Prize-winning film by Carlos Reygadas at the Banff Centre for Creativity, a collaboration with the director Thaddeus Strassberger, and are currently working on a new opera inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.” They are also developing "Film Stills," a project for mezzo-soprano Eve Gigliotti that dramatizes four of Cindy Sherman's iconic photographs through musical monologues composed by Paola, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly and Ellen Reid, and directed by R.B. Schlather. Royce and Paola's collaboration can be further heard on the AIDS Quilt Songbook: Sing for Hope recording, where their song "Union," as sung by Isabel Leonard, is featured.In 2014 Royce premiered “27,” his first collaboration with composer Ricky Ian Gordon, at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Created for renowned mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, the work brought to life Gertrude Stein’s famous salon at 27 rue de Fleurus in Paris. Mark Ray Rinaldi of the Denver Post wrote that the opera “tells a great American story, about Gertrude Stein, as well as opera in the 21st century.” The opera was subsequently presented by Pittsburgh Opera, MasterVoices at New York City Center, Michigan Opera Theater, Opéra de Montréal and Opera Las Vegas. In 2017 their adaptation of Gail Rock’s Christmas classic “The House Without a Christmas Tree” for Houston Grand Opera was premiered to critical acclaim.Other recent and upcoming projects include “Strip Mall” with Matt Marks for the Los Angeles Philharmonic; “Epistle Mass” with Julian Wachner for Trinity Wall Street, “Midwestern Gothic” with Josh Schmidt for Signature Theatre, Virginia; “Naamah’s Ark” with Marisa Michelson for MasterVoices; “O Columbia” with Gregory Spears for HGOco; “Knoxville: Summer of 2015” with Ellen Reid for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and National Sawdust; “The Wild Beast of the Bungalow” with Rachel Peters for Oberlin Conservatory; “Jacqueline” with Luna Pearl Woolf for Tapestry New Opera; “Adoration” (based on the film by Atom Egoyan) with Mary Kouyoumdjian for Beth Morrison Projects; “The Cremation of Sam McGee” with Matthew Ricketts, supported by a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts; and “My Family // Cambodia, 1975” with Vivian Fung, which will be given a developmental workshop by the Canadian Opera Company in 2025.Royce is the Artistic Director of Toronto’s experimental opera company Against the Grain Theatre. He holds a BFA in Filmmaking and Creative Writing from Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal and an MFA from the Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program at New York University. He is an alum of American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program.

IAN CUSSOn

Ian Cusson is a composer of art song, opera and orchestral work. Of Métis (Georgian Bay Métis Community) and French Canadian descent, his work explores Canadian Indigenous experience including the history of the Métis people, the hybridity of mixed-racial identity, and the intersection of Western and Indigenous cultures.He studied composition with Jake Heggie (San Francisco) and Samuel Dolin, and piano with James Anagnoson at the Glenn Gould School. He is the recipient of the Chalmers Professional Development Grant, and grants through the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council.Ian was an inaugural Carrefour Composer-in-Residence with the National Arts Centre Orchestra for 2017-2019 and was Composer-in-Residence for the Canadian Opera Company for 2019-2021. He was a Co-artistic Director of Opera in the 21st Century at the Banff Centre and the recipient of the 2021 Jan V. Matejcek Classical Music Award from SOCAN and the 2021 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize. Ian is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers.He lives in Collingwood with his wife and four children.For more about Ian, see Who I’m From.

Missy Mazzoli

Three-time Grammy® nominee Missy Mazzoli was recently deemed “one of the more consistently inventive, surprising composers now working in New York” (NY Times), “a once-in-a-generation magician of the orchestra” (The New Yorker) and “Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart” (Time Out NY). Her music has been performed by the Kronos Quartet, LA Opera, eighth blackbird, the BBC Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, Scottish Opera and many others. In 2023 she was nominated for two Grammy® Awards, in the categories of “Best Classical Composition” and “Best Classical Compendium”. In 2018 she became, along with Jeanine Tesori, one of the first woman to receive a main stage commission from the Metropolitan Opera, and was nominated for her first Grammy award in the category of “Best Classical Composition”. From 2018-2021 she was Mead Composer-in-Residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and from 2012-2015 was Composer-in-Residence with Opera Philadelphia. Mazzoli has been praised for her many operatic compositions; her latest opera Lincoln in the Bardo, an adaptation of the novel by George Saunders, will premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in 2026, and her opera The Listeners will be performed at Opera Philadelphia, the Essen Opera in Germany, and Lyric Opera of Chicago in the 24/25 season. Her 2016 opera Breaking the Waves, commissioned by Opera Philadelphia and Beth Morrison Projects, was called “one of the best 21st-century American operas yet” by Opera News. Breaking the Waves received its European premiere at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival; future performances are planned at Detroit Opera, Opera Australia and Houston Grand Opera. Mazzoli was named 2022 “Composer of the Year” by Musical America, and in 2024 received the prestigious Kravis Prize for Composition from the New York Philharmonic. In 2016, Missy and composer Ellen Reid founded Luna Composition Lab, a mentorship program for young female, non-binary and gender nonconforming composers. Mazzoli teaches composition at Bard College and her works are published by G. Schirmer. missymazzoli.com

Nicole Lamb

Director of Artistic & Production - Vancouver Opera

Nicole Lamb, Director of Artistic & Production at Vancouver Opera, has been instrumental in shaping the company’s productions for the last three seasons. She oversees every element that brings an opera to life – from season planning, to artist considerations and production logistics. Nicole fosters collaboration across creative teams and staff to produce the best productions possible within time and budgetary constraints.Before her time at Vancouver Opera, she was a seasoned production manager, technical director, lighting designer and technician. She continues to seek relationships with and teach at local post-secondary training institutions in the field and brings her passion for mentoring the next generation into her work at Vancouver Opera. She sits on the BC-CITT board as Vice President. She holds an MBA from SFU, and has a BFA from the University of Victoria, specializing in Theatre and Writing.

Ashley Daniel Foot

Director of Engagement and Civic Practice - Vancouver Opera

Ashley Daniel Foot is the Director of Engagement and Civic Practice at Vancouver Opera, where he shapes innovative programming beyond the mainstage, highlighting opera’s role in community life. A creative force with a deep passion for storytelling, Ashley leads the company’s education, community partnerships, and commitment to justice, equity, reconciliation, and diversity. His recent work includes impactful collaborations with the Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver Art Gallery, and Rumble Theatre. Ashley also serves as co-chair of the City of Vancouver’s Arts and Culture Advisory Committee and is a board member of the BC Alliance for Arts and Culture.

Giuseppe Pietraroia

Giuseppe Pietraroia - Principal Conductor, Pacific Opera Victoria

Giuseppe Pietraroia is Principal Conductor for Pacific Opera Victoria and Associate Conductor of the Victoria Symphony. As a guest conductor he has been engaged by l’Orchestre Métropolitain, Orchestra London, Vancouver Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Hamilton Philharmonic, Okanagan Symphony, Regina Symphony, Kingston Symphony and Thunder Bay Symphony.In his role as Chorus Master the Pacific Opera Chorus has become one of Victoria’s leading choral groups. Highlights from the past few seasons include, Simon Boccanegra, Les Feluettes, La Boheme, Fidelio, La Traviata, and Il Trittico.His extensive opera engagements with Pacific Opera include productions of Il Barbiere Di Siviglia, La Traviata, La Boheme, Lucia di Lammermoor, Norma, Rigoletto, Manon Lescaut, Madama Butterfly, La Cenerentola, Tosca and Let’s Make an Opera/The Little Sweep. In addition, he has conducted productions for, l’Opéra de Montréal, l’Opéra de Québec, Opera Lyra Ottawa, Edmonton Opera, Opera New Brunswick and Calgary Opera’s Emerging Artist Program.

Rebecca Hass

Rebecca Hass, Director of Engagement and New Work, pacific Opera Victoria

Rebecca Hass (Nitaawegiizhigok) is Georgian Bay Metis and a citizen of the Metis Nation of Ontario. Her role at Pacific Opera encompasses building partnerships inside local community, and developing new works, and community and musical initiatives, and she’s the host and creator of the podcast What’s Up with Opera? An alumnae of the Opera America Leadership program she sits on several boards and committees including the Opera America Racial Justice Network, and Indigenous Voices in Circle for the University of Victoria. Her programs and successful work building partnerships has been recognized with the 2019 Arts and Culture Award for Community work in Victoria, and the Creative Builder Award for the City of Victoria for 2021 and in 2022 she was the first recipient for the inaugural Nada Ristich Changemaker Award, from Opera Canada, in acknowledgement of her operatic career and change-making work in the operatic field. Rebecca came to this role in administration after a long professional solo career as a mezzo-soprano, having appearing with just about every opera company and orchestra in Canada.

Brenna Corner

Artistic Director, pacific Opera Victoria

Brenna Corner is an international opera stage director who has worked across Canada, the United States and Europe. She is the former Artistic Director of Manitoba Underground Opera, which produces a festival of new operatic experiences each August in Winnipeg. She has also worked as a dramatic coach for training programs such as The Washington National Opera Cafritz Young Artist Program in Washington D.C.Ms. Corner made her directorial main stage debut in 2016 with a new production of Hansel and Gretel designed by the Old Trout Puppet Workshop for Vancouver Opera. This production has since then begun to travel, mostly recently to San Diego Opera for their 2019-20 season. She made her American debut in February of 2017 with New Orleans Opera, creating a new production of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Since the COVID-19 pandemic Brenna has been creating new opera experiences through film including Don Giovanni (Seattle Opera), Carmen: Up-close and Personal (Vancouver Opera), Dear Mom: a web series (Kentucky Opera) and Green Envelopes (Manitoba Underground Opera).Some of Ms. Corner’s select directing projects include: Il trovatore (Washington National Opera), Don Giovanni (Seattle Opera); Sweeney Todd (New Orleans Opera); Tenor Overboard (Glimmerglass Opera); Der fliegende Höllander (Cincinnati Opera & Houston Grand Opera ); L’Elisir d’amore (Vancouver Opera); Dead Man Walking (The Israeli Opera); and Carmen (The Atlanta Opera). Upcoming productions include Lucia di Lammermoor (New Orleans Opera); Pagliacci (The Glimmerglass Festival).Ms. Corner has been a member of the Yulanda M. Faris Young Artist Program with Vancouver Opera and spent two years as the resident director for The Atlanta Opera Studio Artist Program. She is a certified member of Fight Directors Canada and has choreographed many fights for both opera and theatre. Brenna has a degree in classical music from The University of Manitoba, and theatre diplomas from Grant MacEwan College in Alberta and The British American Drama Academy in the United Kingdom.

Gwenna Fairchild-Taylor

Education Consultant

Canadian soprano and teaching artist Gwenna Fairchild-Taylor believes in the power of music as a catalyst for community building and social change and strives to make sure everyone has access to creative experiences. Recent performance highlights include the Vaughan-Williams Sea Symphony (Hart House Symphony), Sieglinde in a scene from die Walkure (Boston Wagner Institute) Mozart Requiem (Dalhousie Collegium Cantorum), premieres with the Artsong Collaborative Project, and workshops with Fawn Chamber Creative and Good Mess Opera Theatre.Gwenna regularly conducts choirs, adjudicates at music festivals, runs teaching artistry and community engagement workshops, and consults on curriculum and programming for universities, opera companies, and other nonprofits. As a teaching artist, Gwenna has written and facilitated community music programming for over 30 organizations across Canada and the United States.She wrote the curriculum and continues to consult for and teach “Learning English Through Song,” a program run by The Corporation of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall that facilitates language learning and community building for newcomers through singing. Gwenna is on faculty at Community Music Schools of Toronto and is the Associate Conductor of the Surrey Place Chorus.Gwenna is a graduate of the Opera Omaha Holland Community Opera Fellowship and a recipient of an Encouragement Award at the 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (Nebraska District). She holds an M.Mus in Opera (University of Toronto) and a B.Mus in Voice Performance (Western University). Learn more about Gwenna and her work at gwennafairchildtaylor.com

Bossy girl saves the world

Composer: Mishelle Cuttler
Librettist: Scott ButtonTen-year-old Hortense Mortense has big ideas—and an even bigger voice. After overhearing her parents talk about the world’s problems, she sets out to save the planet, starting with her backyard garden. Through comic duets, anxious arias, and vibrant ensemble numbers, Bossy Girl Saves the World explores environmental anxiety, friendship, and the power of collaboration.“Saving the world is a group project. So is making opera.” – Button & Cuttler

Mishelle Cuttler

Composer, Sound Designer, Music Director

Mishelle is a Vancouver based composer whose work is centred around the integration of sound, music, and storytelling. Since 2011 she has worked in the live performance sector with projects ranging from new music to theatre to audio installation.
Mishelle’s early music training was based in classical piano, and she later pursued education in theatrical composition and sound design through an MFA in Musical Theatre Composition at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Some significant compositional works include Made in Canada, a song cycle written using all verbatim text gathered from and about migrant farm workers in BC; Sounding the Sophia, a chamber work commissioned by Little Chamber Music; Here Here: songs we sing for home – a song anthology featuring text commissioned from 8 writers; and the in-development musical project Believing Dr. Bell.She has composed theatrical scores for professional theatre across Canada, with companies such as the Stratford Festival, Tarragon Theatre, Arts Club Theatre, Bard on the Beach, Citadel Theatre, Neworld Theatre, and more. She won the Jessie Richardson award for Outstanding Composition for her first musical, Stationary: a recession-era musical.In May, 2025, Mishelle will be traveling to Melbourne, Australia where her sound design for Lisa C. Ravensbergen’s The Seventh Fire will have its international premiere at the Yirramboi festival.

Scott Button

Librettist

Scott Button is an award-winning writer working in TV and theatre. He recently returned to the writer’s room for season 4 of FAMILY LAW (Global/CW). Since participating in the Pacific Screenwriting Program in 2022, he’s had multiple projects optioned by Canadian production companies and has worked in development on several documentaries. Theatre credits include FOR NOW (Green Thumb Theatre – Tom Hendry Award nomination) and NIGHT PASSING (Arts Club Theatre Company – audio play), among others. Scott has a BFA from the UBC and is represented by Meridian Artists. www.scottbutton.ca

Howl

Composer: Chris Thornborrow
Librettist: Sarah HenstraIn this lyrical animal fable, the disappearance of a wolf throws a riverside ecosystem out of balance. Told with humour, suspense, and inventive puppetry, Howl introduces students to the importance of apex predators and the fragility of interconnected systems.“Like the echo of a distant howl, this opera lingers—asking questions about balance, fear, and belonging.” – Thornborrow & Henstra

Chris Thornborrow

composer

Chris Thornborrow is a versatile composer for fi lm, theatre, and concerts. His work has been described as “urgent, masterful” (NOW Magazine) and “elegiac music that casts a spell” (Hollywood Reporter). Recognition for his work includes the Karen Kieser Prize in Canadian Music, multiple SOCAN Awards for Audio Visual Composers, and two DORA Award nominations.His opera, Hook Up, premiered in 2019 with critical acclaim. Produced by Tapestry Opera, it was lauded as “beautiful, gut-wrenching, and riveting” (Mooney Theatre). Established as a leading facilitator in opera for young people, Chris works regularly with the Toronto District School Board, Gryphon Trio, the Canadian Opera Company, and the Canadian Children’s Opera Company and has collaborated with thousands of students, presenting over sixty staged productions. He was recognized in 2020 for his work with youth with a nomination for the Louis Appelbaum Composition Award.Chris composed the score for Sleeping Giant, which was nominated for the Critics Week Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, won Best Canadian First Feature Award at the Toronto International Film Festival and broadcast in forty countries. His instrumental music has been performed, recorded, and commissioned by esteemed music organizations, including the Bicycle Opera Project, Esprit Orchestra, Hamilton Philharmonic, The National Arts Centre, and The Toy Piano Composers, of which he was the Co-Founder and Artistic Director for eight seasons.Chris is currently co-creating a play with David Yee, commissioned by the National Arts Centre English Theatre and Orchestra, based on their 2024 radio drama, cicadas.

Sarah Henstra

Author

Sarah Henstra, PhD (she/her) is the author of five books, including the 2018 Governor General’s Award – winning novel The Red Word. She is an Associate Professor of English at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Henstra’s most recent novel, The Lost Tarot (Doubleday, 2024), was an instant Canadian bestseller. We Contain Multitudes (Little, Brown, 2019) was selected as the 2022 “Vermont Reads” title by the Vermont Humanities Council and shortlisted for the Ontario Library Association’s White Pine Award. Booklist called it “an absolutely extraordinary work of fiction that proves the epistolary novel is an art form.”The Red Word (Grove/ECW/Tramp, 2018) won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and was nominated for the Dublin International Literary Award and the Republic of Consciousness Award. The GG jury cited it as “an astonishing evisceration of the clichés of sexual politics” and “an utterly effing good read.” Henstra’s YA historical adventure novel Mad Miss Mimic (Penguin, 2015) made several best-of-the-year lists and was shortlisted for awards by the Canadian Library Association and the Canadian Children’s Book Centre. NOW magazine named it “a very entertaining thriller with a feminist twist.”Henstra earned a PhD at the University of Toronto, and her scholarly monograph The Counter-Memorial Impulse in Twentieth-Century English Fiction (2009) was published by Palgrave Macmillan. She is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada, Massey College, the Siena Art Institute, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

The Tortoise and the Feast in the Sky

Composer: Tawnie Olson
Librettist: Blessing O. NwodoA clever tortoise tricks his way into a celestial feast—but learns that greed has consequences. This reimagining of a Nigerian folktale is rich with African rhythms, call-and-response, and powerful lessons about justice, community, and humility.“We wanted to create a story that invites children to think deeply—while singing, dancing, and laughing.” – Tawnie Olson

tawnie olson

composer

Described as “taut, focused… colourful” by Gramophone, “mesmerizing,” by critic Tim Smith, and “especially glorious… ethereal” by Whole Note, the music of Canadian composer Tawnie Olson draws inspiration from politics, spirituality, the natural world,
and the musicians for whom she composes. Her opera Sanctuary and Storm (libretto by Roberta Barker) is the winner of the 2021-2023 National Opera Association Dominick Argento Chamber Opera Competition, and was premiered by Vancouver Opera and re:Naissance Opera in November, 2023. Olson is also the winner of the 2018 Barlow Prize, a consortium commission for the BYU Singers, The Crossing, and Seraphic Fire, and of a 2019 Copland House Residency Award. She was the Composer-in-Residence of the 2018 Women Composers Festival of Hartford.Olson’s music is performed on five continents; it can also be heard on recordings by The Crossing, percussionist Ian David Rosenbaum, oboist Mélanie Harel, Parthenia viol consort (with bass-baritone Dashon Burton), the Yale Schola Cantorum and Elm City Girls Choir, bassoonist Rachael Elliott, the Canadian Chamber Choir, Chronos Vocal Ensemble, soprano Magali Simard-Galdès, clarinetist Shawn Earle, oboist Catherine Lee, and Shawn Mativetsky, McGill University professor of tabla and percussion. Her scores are available from the Canadian Music Centre, E.C. Schirmer, Galaxy Music, Hal Leonard’s BandQuest and Mark Foster series, and Oxford University Press.

Blessing O. Nwodo

Librettist

Blessing O. Nwodo is a Toronto-based, multidisciplinary storyteller and feminist activist. Her work spans a diverse range of mediums, including immersive art exhibitions, documentaries, films, sonic storytelling, and published fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she also holds an MFA from the University of Guelph, and has served as Editor of Held Magazine. An alumna of the University of Nigeria, she was honored as Best Female Writer in 2017. Her stories have won the 2016 Nigerian Travel Story, been shortlisted for the 2021 Toyin Fálọlá Prize, the 2021 African Writers Awards, the 2018 Igby Prize for Nonfiction, and the 2019 Lost Balloon Pushcart Prize for Speculative Fiction. She has been published in This Magazine, ArtsEverywhere, Humber Literary Review, The Common, Brittle Paper, FBOMB, Kalahari Review, and others. Her work has been supported by Lambda, the Toronto Arts Council, and the Ontario Arts Council. Her Netflix-presented documentary, Dreaming In The West, has received widespread acclaim, earning prominent placements at numerous film festivals across Canada. It is forthcoming on CBC Gem. When she’s not relishing fashion, she can often be found pulverizing the patriarchy. She is working on a collection of speculative fiction, and a novel. You can check out her work on blessingnwodo.com.