Creative Team
Laura Kaminsky
With “an ear for the new and interesting” (The New York Times), Laura Kaminsky frequently addresses social and political issues in her work with a distinct musical language that is "full of fire as well as ice, contrasting dissonance and violence with tonal beauty and meditative reflection." (American Record Guide). Her first opera, As One (2014; co-librettists Mark Campbell & Kimberly Reed) is the most produced 21st century opera with 65+ productions internationally to date. Other operas: Some Light Emerges and Today It Rains (Campbell & Reed); Hometown to the World (Reed); Finding Wright and Song of the Lark (Andrea Fellows Fineberg); February (Lisa Moore); Lucidity (David Cote); The Post Office (Elaine Sexton); and Time To Act (Crystal Manich). Recent instrumental works include Arboreal (Fry Street Quartet); Vanishing Point (Carpe Diem String Quartet); and Threnody...October 2024 (pianist Mackenzie Melemed), and The Blue Bottle (for Poetry in America.) Kaminsky is on the faculties at SUNY Purchase and Boston Conservatory/Berklee.
Mark Campbell
The Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning operas of librettist and lyricist Mark Campbell are among the most successful in the contemporary canon. Mark has written 45 opera librettos, lyrics for 7 musicals, text for 10 song cycles and 6 oratorios. His works include Silent Night, The Shining, Sanctuary Road, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, Stonewall, Elizabeth Cree, The Cook-Off, Later the Same Evening, A Thousand Acres, Edward Tulane, Unruly Sun, A Nation of Others and Songs from an Unmade Bed. To support future generations of librettists, Mark created and funds the only award in the history of opera for librettists: the Campbell Opera Librettist Prize, administered by OPERA America. He received the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Opera Association
and was inducted into the OPERA America Hall of Fame in 2025.
Kimberly Reed
Kimberly Reed has written the libretti for four commissioned operas, including As One (American Opera Projects, 2014, co-written with Mark Campbell, composer Laura Kaminsky), which remains the most frequently produced new opera in North America. The creative team joined again for Some Light Emerges (Houston Grand Opera, 2017) and Today It Rains (Opera Parallèle, 2019). Kim’s libretto for Hometown to the World (Laura Kaminsky, composer; Santa Fe Opera, 2021) also played NYC’s The Town Hall. Ms. Reed’s song cycle Fierce Grace: Jeannette Rankin premiered at the U.S. Library of Congress in 2017. She was the Librettist Mentor for the 2022-3 cycle of Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative. As a filmmaker, Kim’s films have been Oscar-shortlisted twice.her film projections for opera have been called “worthy of Fellini or Bergman” (SF Classical Voice). Her nonfiction writing was published in “The Moth,” a New York Times best-seller.