Paola Prestini
Paola Prestini is a composer and entrepreneur. In 1999, she co-founded VisionIntoArt, an interdisciplinary production company that has created over 50 multimedia productions worldwide and garnered the title “Best of 2009″ in classical and opera performances by Time Out New York. VisionIntoArt has been called “always intriguing and frequently beguiling…” by The New York Times, and its partnership with organizations such as Beth Morrison Projects, Opera on Tap, American Composers Orchestra and Young Audiences has created riveting programs. She was recently appointed the creative director of the Brooklyn-based new venue and nonprofit, Original Music Workshop (OMW). Named by NPR as one of the Top 100 composers in the World under 40, her compositions have been deemed “radiant…[and] amorously evocative” by The New York Times, and praised by composers such as Terry Riley, “music [that] speaks from the heart and inspires…” and by Osvaldo Golijov, “wrenching and tender and luminous and pure and exuberant: always vivid and always generous…” Her Tzadik release Body Maps has been featured on WQXR and Q2 and showcases new music’s great soloists. She has been commissioned and performed by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Carnegie Hall, the Chicago Symphony, the Kronos Quartet, MATA, twice by New York City Opera (VOX) and the Washington Chorus, and performed by soloists such as Helga Davis, Rinde Eckert and Hila Plitmann. Current projects include works at BAM Next Wave Festival, the Kennedy Center, the River to River Festival, the Barbican Centre with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, a collaboration with the Harare International Festival of the Arts and a new residency at the Krannert Center in collaborations with artists such as Maya Beiser, Cornelius Dufallo, Gabriel Kahane and Julian Crouch.

Donna Di Novelli
As a librettist and lyricist, Donna Di Novelli collaborates with composers working in both experimental and traditional genres.  She wrote the libretto for Heart of a Solider, an opera by composer Christopher Theofanidis, commissioned and premiered at San Francisco Opera in 2011. Di Novelli is currently working on the musical Little House on the Prairie with book by Rachel Sheinkin, and music by Rachel Portman. She wrote text for Hildegard: A Measure of Joy, commissioned by Chanticleer. She has collaborated with Randall Eng for many years, most notably on Florida. She is working on a new musical, The Good Swimmer, with composer Heidi Rodewald (Passing Strange) and a new multimedia opera, Oceanic Verses, with Paola Prestini, to premiere in May 2013 at the Barbican in London. In addition, her work has been presented at New York City Opera, the Kennedy Center, the Public Theater, Le Poisson Rouge and Joe’s Pub.

Christopher Burchett
Christopher Burchett — Boston Lyric Opera, Kennedy Center, BBC Orchestra, New York City Opera, The Santa Fe Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Glimmerglass Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Opera Orchestra of New York, Opera Omaha, Virginia Opera, Eugene Opera, Indianapolis Opera and Kentucky Opera. World premieres — title role/Vincent/Bernard Rands/Indiana University, Baritone Soloist/Paul Moravec/Blizzard Voices /Opera Omaha, Orsen/Edwin Penhorwood/Too Many Sopranos /Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre and M. Carré-Lamadon/Stephen Hartke/The Greater Good (available on Naxos records)/Glimmerglass Opera.

Timothy Long
In the coming season, Timothy Long will be conducting Hansel and Gretel at Stony Brook Opera, Die Zauberflöte for Utah Opera, Dream Seminar/Drömseminarium for the Companion Star Ensemble in Stockholm and will be touring with the International Sejong Soloists and Gil Shaham as a harpsichordist for Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Previous engagements have included the Maryland Opera Studio, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Colorado, New York City Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, the Juilliard School, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, the Oregon Bach Festival and the Théâtre Municipal de Castres. As a pianist he has performed at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess Concert Series, Alice Tully Hall, Jordan Hall, the Caramoor Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival and on numerous recital series. Long teaches at SUNY-Stony Brook and the Aspen Music Festival and is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation and Thlopthlocco Tribal Town.