Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab
EXPERIMENT. COLLABORATE. CREATE.
Seattle Opera seeks to cultivate the next generation of opera composers and librettists in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho through our Creation Lab. Launched in 2020, the Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab presents new operas by local composers and librettists that tell diverse stories.
Composers, songwriters, librettists, and lyricists of all genres are encouraged to apply to create new operas that tell compelling, resonant stories through vocal music. Selected creators develop 20-minute operas throughout the season that are presented in a concert format for a public audience in Tagney Jones Hall at the Opera Center. Each opera undergoes a development process that includes a table reading, music workshop, and rehearsal prior to the public performance. The creators receive support from professional composers and librettists as they develop their work.
2024/25 creators
Gabriella Garcia (librettist)
Gabriella Garcia is a writer and musician. Based in Seattle, WA, she works in education and holds a degree from Wellesley College. She is also a classically trained vocalist and a lifelong choral singer. A recent writing resident with The Seventh Wave magazine, she spends much of her free time reading, listening to The Concord Sonata on repeat, and baking focaccia (sometimes all at once). You can find her poetry in Rust & Moth and forthcoming from The Westchester Review.
Raya Tuffaha (librettist)
Raya Tuffaha is a Palestinian actor, fight director and writer from Seattle. She’s trained under Philip d’Orléans, Ian Rose, Eli Lynn, & Geof Alm. FD credits include: The Marriage of Figaro, Miss Holmes, Les Misérables, Romeo and Juliet, Heathers. Acting credits include: Henry VI, Eurydice, A View from the Bridge, Hippolytus. Poetry collections: To All the Yellow Flowers (2020), apocalypse blues (2022). Words in Phoebe Journal, Ms. Magazine, Button Poetry. She’s powered by matcha. BA Swarthmore College, add'l British American Drama Academy, School of Amman Ballet.
Ozzy Wagner (librettist)
Ozzy Wagner is a fledgeling playwright from Seattle, and is so excited to be back at Seattle Opera for a second year. They received a BA in Playwriting from Emory University, where they produced the student playwriting festival and received the Lucius Lamar McMullan award for extraordinary promise. Ozzy’s work, often experimental, explores history, labor, and madness, and has been invited to festivals such as KCACTF (2020, 2021), Essential Theater’s Bare Essentials readings, Barter Theater CPF, Horizon Theater’s NSYPF, Theater Emory’s Viral Plays, We Need New Plays, etc.; and has been developed through The Workshop Theater and Silver Glass Productions’ Experimental Playwriting Workshop.
Grace Ward (librettist)

Grace Ward (she/her/hers) is a Boise-based playwright, author, and essayist. Her debut novel, The Apollo, made waves in 2024, following the success of her poetry collection, (boy poems), in 2023. Grace loves to tell stories; from a hyperpop musical about college kids inventing a dating app to a YA novel about Romani immigration to the U.S. in the 1950s, she enjoys exploring the lives of messy women who curse a lot. Transitioning from ghostwriting “sexy billionaire romance” to crafting complex plays and young adult novels, Grace is now dedicated to amplifying the voices of Romani, Eastern European, neurodiverse, and queer rural American communities.
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Her plays have been showcased by Connective Theatre Co., Surel’s Place, and The Minnesota Fringe Festival. As a founding member of Fishmarket Theatre Collaborative in NYC and Haute Nautilus Theatre in Boise, Grace has been instrumental in developing innovative and inclusive theatre projects from Boise to Edinburgh.
Grace is an MFA candidate in Writing for Young People at Antioch University LA. She teaches creative writing at The Braille Institute and supports behaviorally challenged students in Boise as a special educator. Her essays appear in publications such as Clockhouse Press and Antioch Voices.
Outside of writing and teaching, Grace enjoys skiing, mountain biking, and collecting postcards. Thanks to Brandon—her True North—and to her students, colleagues, and cheerleaders for their patience with her bonkers schedule as a writer and educator.
Jeremy Berdin (composer)
Jeremy Berdin (he/him) is a rising songwriter and composer based in Seattle. He aspires to tell stories of joy and belonging, as well as uplift narratives from his AAPI heritage within his creative endeavors. His compositions include the original musical, Buried Deep (Drake University); music for the new operetta, Currents (18th and Union); and contributions to the new musical Paranoia (Harrisburg Fringe Festival); with additional music collections on SoundCloud and Spotify. He’s excited and grateful for the opportunity to be a part of Creation Lab! Updates on his various projects can be found at JeremyBerdin.com.
Nehemiah Jones (composer)

Nehemiah Jones is an engaging vocalist and composer from Bellingham, WA. His passion for music emerged during high school through choir and orchestra, leading him to pursue dual bachelor's degrees in Music Composition and Vocal Performance at Western Washington University (WWU). Currently, he studies under Dr. Richard Hodges and Dr. Charles Halka and is active within both his school and community.
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As a performer, Nehemiah engages with a diverse repertoire. After winning WWU’s annual Concerto Competition, he had the opportunity to perform John Corigliano’s Poem in October with the Western Symphony Orchestra. His other recent endeavors include portraying Valcour in Joseph Bologne’s L’Amant anonyme, serving as a featured tenor soloist in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and performing Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzes.
As a composer, Nehemiah’s works are noted for their novel use of harmony and tone color. A collection of his compositions earned him first place in WWU’s Composition Competition. Nehemiah is continuously composing for his peers at WWU and looks forward to the premiere of his String Quartet No. I, as well as the ongoing collaboration with his fellow musicians. He continues to bridge his passions for performance and composition, enriching his musical journey and connecting with audiences through his artistry.
Max Mabry (composer)

Max Mabry is an American composer and performer born in Oregon. He holds a double major in music composition and performance from the University of Oregon. One of the primary goals of Max’s compositions is to use music as a medium to explore different ways of storytelling, and to take influence from not just the tradition of classical music, but also from a wide range of contemporary art. Max’s primary performing instruments are bass clarinet, clarinet, and saxophone. He believes that through performing, he can help bring to life the music of other people, and mostly chooses to perform works by living and more contemporary composers.
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Since starting his journey as an artist, Max has had opportunities to compose for artists such as Estelí Gomez, Dan Lippell, and the Delgani String Quartet, as well as multiple local ensembles and performers in Oregon. He has also won a prize from the OHEA Storytelling Project for one of his works for piano. Max is active as a performer and composer in the Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble (EDME) and is the assistant director of the IMPULSE New Music Ensemble, both of which are focused on bringing to life new works by living composers.
Carolyn Quick (composer)

Portland-based composer and soprano Carolyn Quick (she/her) is “a composer of great renown” (Dr. Justin Smith) and “one of the most important voices in our community” (Makrokosmos Project). She writes music that is “deeply meaningful,” making a “huge impact on both singers and audiences” (Smith) as she explores interwoven lines, conversational counterpoint, and unique timbral and textural possibilities—particularly those of the human voice. In her work, she strives to set texts that are raw and vulnerable, often gravitating toward lesser-known poetic voices.
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Recent commissions include Cincinnati Song Initiative, Vancouver Opera, Portland Phoenix Chamber Choir (who performed her work Catch at Hope at the NW ACDA Choral Director Conference this year), and the Royal Voices of Charlotte, premiering her work in Greece at the 28th International Choir Competition of Preveza, and receiving the Special Jury Prize for Best Performance of a Contemporary Piece. Carolyn was also a mentee for the National Association of Teachers of Singing Composer Mentorship Program and was a score submission winner for Eugene Opera's Songs for Quarantine and Voices of Concinnity's Choral Composer Amplify Project.
Throughout her work as a composer and vocalist, Carolyn advocates for historically excluded composers and their music and co-founded new music collective Persisting Sound and music distribution collective Raindrop New Music to uplift those voices.
In her spare time, Carolyn enjoys walking the trails of the many Portland parks with her friends, admiring all of the cute dogs she spots on said walks, and spending time with her family.
2024/25 Mentors
Deborah Brevoort (librettist)

Deborah Brevoort is a playwright and librettist from Alaska who now lives in the New York area. She is an alumna of New Dramatists, one of the original company members of Alaska’s Perseverance Theatre, a member of the playwright’s collective at Florida Studio Theatre and a co-founder of Theatre Without Borders, dedicated to international theatre exchange. In 2024 she was appointed as a Fulbright Specialist for theatre, musical theatre and opera for the US State Department.
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After participating in American Lyric Theater’s Composer/Librettist Development Program (ALT CLDP) Deborah has turned most of her attention to writing opera librettos. She was awarded the prestigious Campbell Opera Librettist Prize by Opera America in 2023. She also served as the Librettist Mentor for Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative at the Kennedy Center for 2023/24. She will be a librettist mentor for the ALT CLDP in 2024/25 and a delegate to the World Opera Forum in Los Angeles for Opera America.
Jerre Dye (librettist)
Jerre Dye is the librettist of The Falling and Rising, the first chamber opera performed in Seattle Opera’s new Tagney Jones Hall. He also wrote Taking Up Serpents for Washington National Opera with composer Kamala Sankaram; Parksville, a virtual reality opera for Opera On Tap New York with composer Kamala Sankaram; and Opera 901 and Ghosts of Crosstown for Opera Memphis. New commissions include A Summer Place for Chautauqua Opera, The Transformation of Jane Doe for Chicago Opera Theater with composer Stacy Garrop, and A Pretty Little Room for Opera Memphis with composer Robert G. Patterson.
Laura Kaminsky (composer)

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). As One (co-librettists Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed) is the most produced contemporary opera since its 2014 premiere, with 60+ productions to date internationally. Other operas include Some Light Emerges, Today It Rains, Hometown to the World, and Finding Wright.
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She is co-librettist (with novelist Lisa Moore) and composer for February, premiering in Newfoundland in October 2023. With librettist David Cote she is creating Lucidity for On-Site Opera (2024), with poet Elaine Sexton, a chamber opera in poems, The Post Office, for Queen City Opera (2025), and with Crystal Manich, Time to Act for Pittsburgh Opera (2026). She recently completed Vanishing Point for the Carpe Diem String Quartet and Overflow, a string quintet for Sybarite5. 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. Head of composition at Purchase College/SUNY, she has been a composer-mentor for Washington National Opera's American Opera Initiative and Juilliard's Blueprint Fellowship program.
Zach Redler (composer)
Zach Redler is an award winning music theater composer whose work has been performed in concert halls, opera houses, and theaters around the world. Some of his favorite works are: The Memory Show, Loving Leo, Windows, A Song for Susan Smith, ADAM, Movin’ Up In The World, and The Falling and the Rising. Zach is currently working on a one-woman theater piece for Tanya Bird Torres, a chamber opera for Houston Grand Opera, and a new piece with Jerre Dye for the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife.
2024/25 Conductors
Matt Perri
Matt Perri is currently the Resident Music Supervisor for The 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, WA. Perri recently made his Carnegie Hall conducting debut with Austen’s Pride: Live at Carnegie Hall. Broadway credits: Bandstand, Come From Away; Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella; Scandalous; How to Succeed… (2011); Promises, Promises (2010); White Christmas; and The Drowsy Chaperone. The 5th Avenue Theatre: Sweeney Todd, Into The Woods, Afterwords, Austen’s Pride, West Side Story. Off-Broadway: Cagney. Perri also coproduced the original cast recording of Cagney. Television credits: The Sound of Music Live and Peter Pan Live, both on NBC; Late Night with Jimmy Fallon; The Late Show with David Letterman; and The View. In concert, he has served as music director and performed with Bette Midler, Kristin Chenoweth, Jessica Vosk, and Mario Cantone. He lives in Poulsbo, WA with his wife Molly, son Elliot, and daughter Nola.
Instagram: @mattperriconductor
Daren Weissfisch

Daren Weissfisch is a distinguished conductor, oboist, and educator based in Seattle, Washington. He currently serves as the Principal Conductor for the Tacoma Opera and the new Music Director of the Lake Union Civic Orchestra beginning in the 2024-2025 season. He is also Conductor for the Seattle Opera Creation Lab and has worked with local orchestras including the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra, Harmonia Orchestra, and the Issaquah Philharmonic Orchestra.
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Daren has held notable positions such as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Sinaloa Esperanza Azteca Symphony Orchestra and Choir, which was an El Sistema based youth orchestra and choir in Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico. In his seven-year tenure, he positively impacted over 300 young musicians through free music education and performance opportunities. Continuing his love for music education, Daren spent the 2023-2024 academic year as interim band teacher leading the middle and high school bands at the Lakeside School in Seattle.
Daren earned a second Master’s degree at the University of Washington in orchestral conducting—because one Master's degree in oboe just wasn't enough--and he continues to work towards completing his Doctoral degree at UW.
Daren is also an accomplished oboist. He has performed with various ensembles in the United States and Mexico, including a significant tenure with the Sinaloa Symphony Orchestra. He has been a soloist for works by Mozart, Strauss, and Bach, and subbed for many local orchestras in Seattle.
In addition to his professional achievements, Daren enjoys the Pacific Northwest's outdoor activities. He is an avid scuba diver and snowboarder, and when his back is not hurting, he enjoys playing basketball and ultimate frisbee. He also has a passion for animal rescue, having balanced his musical career with a dedication to helping dozens of animals find forever homes while living in Mexico.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Who should apply to Creation Lab?
Creation Lab is open to young composers, songwriters, librettists, and lyricists living in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. To help bring more perspectives to our storytelling, we especially encourage artists of color, female-identifying artists, and LGBTQ+ artists to apply.
Are there age restrictions?
Yes. Applicants must be between the ages of 18 and 30 (inclusive).
I'm still in school. Can I apply?
Yes, as long as your schedule is compatible with the required program dates for Creation Lab and you are between the ages of 18 and 30.
I have never written an opera/libretto before. Should I apply?
Yes! We want to hear from composers and librettists who will use new and varied perspectives to inform their works. Creation Lab's mentors, all working professionals, will provide guidance throughout the process of creating your opera.
I have a writer/composer with whom I regularly work. Can we apply as a team?
Yes! Each of you will need to apply in full to the program. There is a space on the application form to indicate who your creative partner will be. Seattle Opera will consider each member's application and will admit either both applicants or neither.
Do I need to live in the greater Seattle area to participate?
No, only within Washington, Oregon, or Idaho. However, you will need to travel to Seattle four to five times during the duration of the program if you are selected. Seattle Opera will provide transportation and lodging for travel to Seattle.
Still have questions? Email us at creationlab@seattleopera.org with any questions.
Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab Sponsors
The Chisholm Foundation
The Friday Foundation
The Norcliffe Foundation