Class of 2018
Eight composers have won a total of $100,000 in the 2018 Discovery Grants round of OA’s Opera Grants for Female Composers program. Funded by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, the program has since 2013 awarded a total of $500,000 in Discovery Grants, which go directly to female composers to develop works in progress, and $300,000 in Commissioning Grants, which provide companies with funds to commission operas by women.
The program’s success stories include Laura Kaminsky’s As One, one of the most-produced contemporary operas in the country. Missy Mazzoli followed up her Breaking the Waves, for which Opera Philadelphia received a 2015 Commissioning Grant, with Proving Up, which garnered a 2017 grant for Opera Omaha and Washington National Opera. A Thousand Splendid Suns earned a 2014 Discovery Grant for its composer, Sheila Silvers, and a 2017 Commissioning Grant for Seattle Opera.
Visit Grants & Awards to learn more.