I'm beyond honored to be part of the cohort of amazing female composers receiving Discovery Grants from Opera America! The grant will go to support a workshop of REB+VoDKa+ME, to happen in the first half of 2019.  From the Opera America press release:

Opera Grants for Female Composers seek to promote the development of works by women, as well as raise the visibility of women writing for the operatic medium and increase diversity across the field. The program consists of two granting components: Discovery Grants of up to $15,000 that are awarded directly to female composers to advance new works; and Commissioning Grants of up to $50,000 that are awarded to opera companies for commissions by female composers. Since its inception, the program has awarded a total of $800,000 to opera companies and composers.

The most recent round of Discovery Grants attracted 47 applicants, and an independent adjudication panel selected eight composers to receive a total of $100,000 to support operas in development. The recipients are:

· Lisa DeSpain for That Hell-Bound Train
· Alexa Dexa for Be a Doll
· Germaine Franco for ¡La Capitana!
· Elizabeth Kelly for Losing Her Voice
· Leanna Kirchoff for Friday After Friday
· Veronika Krausas for Ghost Opera
· Julia Meinwald for REB+VoDKa+ME
· Liza Seigido for Cyborgs Are Dancing

These grants, the only ones awarded by OPERA America directly to individual artists, provide the composers with financial assistance to advance and promote their operas. 

On the heels of our REB+VoDKa+ME workshop at NYU, Gordon and I went into the recording studio with our NYU cast to record more demos for the show! We were engineered and mixed by the wonderful Chris Gilroy, adding to the the work of the wonderful Andy Zinsmeister, who engineered and mixed our first set of demos for the show. You can now hear the show in its full 89 minutes of glory here! 

I'm joining forces with the inimitable Sam Heldt to make a podcast! It's an interview podcast where we talk with theatre people, especially those involved in making new work. So, if you like musical theatre and you like talking, this might be just the thing for you.  New episodes will be released every other Monday, and you can listen (and subscribe! And rate us five stars! And write a review saying our voices sound like smooth melted butter!) here!