Creative Team
Laura Kaminsky
Possessing “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). In addition to As One (2014; co-librettists Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed), other operas include Some Light Emerges, Today It Rains, Hometown to the World, and Finding Wright. She is co-librettist (with novelist Lisa Moore) and composer for February (2023). Her seventh opera, with a libretto by David Cote, Lucidity, premieres in 2024. Awarded the 2016 Polish Gold Cross of Merit (Zloty Krzyż Zasługi RP) by the President of Poland for exemplary public service/ humanitarian work, Kaminsky has been recognized by the NEA, Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Opera America, Chamber Music America, and USArtists International, among others. On the Purchase College/SUNY faculty, she is a composer-mentor for Juilliard School's Blueprint Fellowship program.
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 41 opera librettos, lyrics for 7 musicals, text for 9 song cycles and 5 oratorios. His works include Silent Night, The Shining, Sanctuary Road, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, Stonewall, Elizabeth Cree, Bastianello/Lucrezia, 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 recently received the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Opera Association.
Kimberly Reed
Writer and filmmaker Kimberly Reed co-wrote with Mark Campbell the libretti for Today It Rains (Opera Parallèle, 2019), Some Light Emerges (Houston Grand Opera, 2017), and As One (the American Opera Project, 2014), which is the most frequently produced new opera in North America. Her film projections for opera have been called “worthy of Fellini or Bergman” (SF Classical Voice). 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 cycle of Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative. Her nonfiction writing was published in “The Moth,” a New York Times best-seller. Kim’s documentary Prodigal Sons won 14 awards and was released in theaters and broadcast worldwide, and her Sundance award-winning 2018 documentary Dark Money was promptly named by Vogue magazine as one of the 66 Best Documentaries of All Time and shortlisted for the Academy Awards.