The Old Man and the Sea

From: Trento, Italy. LA Opera: The Hubble Cantata (2017).

Composer Paola Prestini has cultivated a uniquely expansive and humanistic musical voice, through pieces that transcend genre and discipline, and projects whose global impact reverberates beyond the walls of the concert hall. Far more than just notes on a page, Prestini's works give voice to those whom society has silenced, and offer a platform for the causes that are most vital to us all. Prestini has been named one of the Top 35 Female Composers in Classical Music by The Washington Post, one of the top 100 Composers in the World by National Public Radio, and one of the Top 30 Professionals of the Year by Musical America. As co-founder of National Sawdust, she has collaborated with luminaries like poet Robin Coste Lewis, visual artists Julie Mehretu and Nick Cave, and musical legends David Byrne, Philip Glass, and Renée Fleming, and her works have been performed throughout the world with leading institutions like the New York Philharmonic, LA Opera, Dallas Opera, London's Barbican Center, Mexico's Bellas Artes, and many more.

Prestini's 2025/26 season includes a site-specific production of her multidisciplinary work Houses of Zodiac in the Catacombs of Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery. The recording of the piece was lauded by Strings Magazine as "one of the greatest and most ambitious solo cello albums of all time," and the performances will feature Jeffrey Zeigler (formerly of the Kronos Quartet) on solo cello, and dancers Georgina Pazcoguin (former New York City Ballet soloist) and Dai Matsuoka (Butoh dance master of Sankai Juku), with poetry reading by the visionary Maria Popova. The season will also include the Mexico premiere and album release of her acclaimed processional opera Primero Sueño, which The New York Times praised, saying: "Just as the score mixes the devotional with almost rootsy strands, Herrera’s Sor Juana sings in an earthy mezzo that complements the heavenly harmonies of the six nuns in white, performed by the German vocal ensemble Sjaella." Her celebrated operatic re-imagining of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea will be performed at the Wexner Center for the Arts in a co-production by Opera Columbus and Beth Morrision Projects. She will also have two symphonic world premieres: a co-commission by the Tucson Symphony and a commission by the Juilliard School, as well as a performance by Awadagin Pratt and the Dayton Philharmonic of her piano concerto Code, which NPR hailed as "uncanny...a rapturous confluence of strings, voices and Pratt's piano."

Prestini's 2024/25 season contained a staggering four world premieres of major opera and music-theater works across the United States. The premiere of her chamber opera Silent Light opened the 10th anniversary season of National Sawdust, the groundbreaking new music venue which Prestini co-founded, with critics praising the piece as "hypnotic" (The Wall Street Journal), "highly compelling" (The Observer), "spectacular" (Classical Voice North America), "arresting" (Opera Canada), and "at every point dramatically compelling" (Parterre). Her processional opera Primero Sueño, co-composed with Magos Herrera, was premiered to equally effusive reviews at the Met Museum Cloisters, with reviewers calling the work "a beguiling blend of elements drawn from folk, contemporary classical and 18th-century Baroque music" (Opera Magazine), "alternatingly gentle, mystical and joyous" (The Observer), and "timeless and otherworldly and, somehow, boldly, a product of New York City" (Bachtrack). PORT(AL), Prestini's innovative choral theater work co-created with Dianne Berkun Menaker, Jad Abumrad, and Jessica Grindstaff, had its sold-out premiere at the Brooklyn Navy Yard's Agger Fish Building, receiving acclaim for its ability "to tell a new story about not just a building, but also a port, a city, a country at war, a way of life" (Vogue), "to open hidden doorways into the past" (AIRMAIL), and "to display the same unbounded creativity that makes all of [Prestini's] large-scale theatrical works shine" (Oberon's Grove). Lastly, Prestini's expansive, multi-modal opera Sensorium Ex had its premiere at the Common Senses Festival in Omaha, Nebraska, and was the subject of national profiles in PBS NewsHour, NPR All Things Considered, Forbes, Opera Magazine, and more, offering a powerful example of how art can effect meaningful change both within its own industry, and throughout the world at large.

Prestini's compositions have been praised by The New York Times as “otherworldly…outright gorgeous" and "music of candid vulnerability," while NPR stated that her work "bursts open in beauty." The Financial Times proclaimed that “New York retains a remarkable cadre of composers, but chief among these is the singular figure of Paola Prestini,” The Wall Street Journal noted “Ms. Prestini is known for pushing the boundaries of classical music through collaborations with poets, filmmakers and conservationists, among others,” and VAN Magazine stated how "like a public square, each Prestini piece is a meeting place across aesthetic, intellectual, and cultural lines." 21CM Magazine simply posed the rhetorical question: “Is there any one person who’s doing more to reshape contemporary classical music in America than Paola Prestini?”

Prestini's large-scale multimedia compositions have fundamentally changed the landscape of her art form, from the world's first and largest communal virtual reality opera The Hubble Cantata, to the historic performance of her collaborative pandemic project Con Alma, which took place at the United Nations as a statement on the solidarity and resilience of women in the digital age. Her boundary-breaking work Sensorium Ex is the first opera to feature a nonverbal lead, and its casting and creative development process, as well as its purpose-built AI technology, offer a new blueprint for how the performing arts can approach disability and inclusivity.

A tireless advocate for equity across her industry, Prestini has repeatedly shattered the glass ceiling by conceiving and creating programs such as the Hildegard Commission for emerging women and marginalized composers, and the Blueprint Fellowship for emerging composers and women mentors at the Juilliard School. She was also the first woman in the Minnesota Opera’s New Works Initiative with her grand opera Edward Tulane, and was among the 19 leading women composers to participate in the New York Philharmonic's Project 19 — the largest women-only commissioning initiative in history that commemorated American women gaining the right to vote with the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920.

Prestini has received numerous awards for her groundbreaking work. In 2025 alone, she received the inaugural Doris Duke Performing Arts Technologies Lab Award, the Composers Now Visionary Award and a Creative Capital Award, and in previous years she has been honored as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow, a Sundance Institute Film Music Program Fellow, and composer-in-residence at the Park Avenue Armory, MASS MoCA, and the American Academy of Rome. Prestini is also the co-founder of VisionIntoArt, a non-profit new music and interdisciplinary arts production company in New York City that incubates deep process interdisciplinary and impact works, and has received substantial support from the Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and National Endowment for the Arts.

She attended the Peabody School of Music and is a graduate of the Juilliard School, and she resides in Brooklyn with her husband, the acclaimed cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, and their son Tommaso Mareo Zeigler.

Learn more at PaolaPrestini.com.

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From: Grande Prairie, Canada. LA Opera: Dog Days (2015), Song from the Uproar (2015), The Hubble Cantata (2017), Adoration (2025).

Royce Vavrek is a Canada-born, Brooklyn-based librettist and lyricist who has been called “the indie Hofmannsthal” (The New Yorker) a “Metastasio of the downtown opera scene” (The Washington Post), “an exemplary creator of operatic prose” (The New York Times), and “one of the most celebrated and sought after librettists in the world” (CBC Radio). His opera Angel’s Bone with composer Du Yun was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

With composer Missy Mazzoli he wrote Song from the Uproar, premiered by Beth Morrison Projects in 2012, and subsequently seen in multiple presentations around the country. Their second opera, an adaptation of Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves, premiered at Opera Philadelphia, co-commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects, and directed by James Darrah to critical acclaim in September of 2016. The work won the 2017 Music Critics Association of North America award for Best New Opera and was nominated for Best World Premiere at the 2017 International Opera Awards. A new production premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in the summer of 2019, produced by Scottish Opera and Opera Ventures, helmed by Tony Award-winning director Tom Morris and earned star Sydney Mancasola a coveted Herald Angel Award for her performance. Their next opera, an adaptation of Karen Russell’s short story Proving Up, was commissioned and presented by Washington National Opera, Opera Omaha and the Miller Theatre in 2018, was a finalist for the MCANA Best New Opera Award of that year. They are currently developing a grand opera for Opera Philadelphia and the Norwegian National Opera based on an original story by two-time Governor General’s Award-winning playwright Jordan Tannahill, as well as an adaptation of George Saunders’ Booker Prize-winning novel Lincoln in the Bardo for the Metropolitan Opera.

Teaming up with Swedish composer Mikael Karlsson, Royce wrote the story and text for two dance projects, Crypto, choreographed by Guillaume Côté for Côté Dance and Evidence of It All, choreographed by Drew Jacoby for SFDanceworks, featuring narration by the Academy Award-nominated actress Rosamund Pike. They are currently developing two grand operas: an adaptation of Lars von Trier’s Melancholia to premiere at the Royal Swedish Opera in 2023, and Fanny and Alexander, working alongside creative partner Ingmar Bergman, Jr., to musicalize his late father’s classic film for La Monnaie de Munt in 2024, in a production to be directed by Ivo van Hove. Both operas are to feature renowned mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, for whom Mikael and Royce wrote the song cycle So We Will Vanish, premiered by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra in 2021 to critical acclaim.

His collaboration with composer David T. Little led Heidi Waleson of the Wall Street Journal to proclaim them “one of the most exciting composer-librettist teams working in opera today.” In April of 2016 they premiered their first grand opera, JFK, at Fort Worth Opera, a co-commission with American Lyric Theater and Opéra de Montréal that was called “ravishing” (Opera News), earning a ten-star review in Opera Now Magazine. This followed the success of their first opera, Dog Days, which received its world premiere in September of 2012 at Peak Performances @ Montclair, in a production co-produced by Beth Morrison Projects and directed by American maverick Robert Woodruff. The work was celebrated as the Classical Music Event of the year by Time Out New York and a standout opera of recent decades by The New York Times. They are currently developing an original work for the Metropolitan Opera through the Met/LCT commissioning program.

Royce has also worked extensively with composer Paola Prestini, first on the song cycle Yoani, inspired by the blog posts of Yoani Sanchez, and then on The Hubble Cantata, a virtual reality oratorio produced by VisionIntoArt/National Sawdust in association with Beth Morrison Projects. They recently presented the workshop premiere of Silent Light, an opera based on the Cannes Jury Prize-winning film by Carlos Reygadas at the Banff Centre for Creativity, a collaboration with the director Thaddeus Strassberger, and are currently working on a new opera inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. They are also developing Film Stills, a project for mezzo-soprano Eve Gigliotti that dramatizes four of Cindy Sherman's iconic photographs through musical monologues composed by Paola, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly and Ellen Reid, and directed by R.B. Schlather. Royce and Paola's collaboration can be further heard on the AIDS Quilt Songbook: Sing for Hope recording, where their song "Union," as sung by Isabel Leonard, is featured.

In 2014 Royce premiered 27, his first collaboration with composer Ricky Ian Gordon, at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Created for renowned mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, the work brought to life Gertrude Stein’s famous salon at 27 rue de Fleurus in Paris. Mark Ray Rinaldi of the Denver Post wrote that the opera “tells a great American story, about Gertrude Stein, as well as opera in the 21st century.” The opera was subsequently presented by Pittsburgh Opera, MasterVoices at New York City Center, Michigan Opera Theater, Opéra de Montréal and Opera Las Vegas. In 2017 their adaptation of Gail Rock’s Christmas classic The House Without a Christmas Tree for Houston Grand Opera was premiered to critical acclaim.

Other recent and upcoming projects include Strip Mall with Matt Marks for the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Epistle Mass with Julian Wachner for Trinity Wall Street, Midwestern Gothic with Josh Schmidt for Signature Theatre, Virginia; Naamah’s Ark with Marisa Michelson for MasterVoices; O Columbia with Gregory Spears for HGOco; Knoxville: Summer of 2015 with Ellen Reid for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and National Sawdust; The Wild Beast of the Bungalow with Rachel Peters for Oberlin Conservatory; Jacqueline with Luna Pearl Woolf for Tapestry New Opera; Adoration (based on the film by Atom Egoyan) with Mary Kouyoumdjian for Beth Morrison Projects; The Cremation of Sam McGee with Matthew Ricketts, supported by a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts; and Agnes with Daníel Bjarnason for the Icelandic Opera.

Royce is co-artistic director of The Coterie, an opera-theater company founded with Tony-nominee Lauren Worsham. He holds a BFA in filmmaking and creative writing from Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal and an MFA from the Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program at New York University. He is an alum of American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program.

Learn more at RoyceVavrek.com.

Beth Morrison is the creative producer of Beth Morrison Projects. Her long collaboration with LA Opera began with Dog Days in 2015. The 2025 presentation of Adoration marks BMP's 16th collaboration with the company.

She is an opera and theater producer, singer, and voice teacher with bachelor and master of music degrees and a master of fine arts in theater management/producing from the Yale School of Drama, as well as many years of experience in the development of new opera and theater works. She first cultivated her extensive experience in arts administration at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute where she served as administrative director for four years. Beth served a founding tenure as the Producer for the Yale Institute for Music Theatre from 2009-2011, as well as Producer for New York City Opera’s VOX: Contemporary American Opera Lab from 2010-2011.

Beth Morrison Projects is the realization of Beth‘s vision, which stems from a deep commitment to nurturing composers and other artists and fostering the development of new opera and other new music-theater works. Established in 2006, Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) identifies and supports the work of emerging and established living composers and their multi-media collaborators through the commission, development, production and touring of their works, which take the form of contemporary music-theater, opera-theater, and multi-media concert works. BMP has established itself as a composers’ producer and the New York Times said, “The production of new [opera] works in the city still falls mostly to the tireless Beth Morrison and her Beth Morrison Projects…”

Learn more at BethMorrisonProjects.org.

Karmina Šilec is a multidisciplinary artist. As a director, author, writer, conductor, composer, set and costume designer, she executes projects with theaters, opera houses, festivals and ensembles worldwide. Her projects have been granted with major international awards in the fields including Music Theatre Now awards for Threnos (for the Throat) and From Time Immemorial... 

Her work has been seen at the Festival d'Automne á Paris, Ruhrtriennale (Germany), Prototype Festival NYC, Holland Festival, Moscow Easter Festival, Dresdner Musikfestspiele, Melbourne Festival, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall (Russia),  Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Teresa Carreño Theater (Venezuela), and Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, among others.

Her work demonstrates a broad range of thematic concerns that are driven by the need to respond to current social and political transformations. She is drawn to issues that are disturbing, that stir emotions and rile audiences rather than placate them. Her works are loci for debate, contestation and provocation. They intentionally put at risk ideas that are insufficiently interrogated. 

Karmina takes a creative approach to several critical political issues of our time, using a research-informed approach. She foregrounds stories, situations and issues that are all too often overlooked, suppressed, or ignored and tries to contribute to the acceptance of the Otherness, to integrate the marginalized, transform and heal. She has critiqued the murderous violence behind religions; populism and radicalization; the abuse of church and state with their political doctrines and corrupt practices; and challenges facing societies in transition. In her projects she often puts music in a self-reflective frame by examining the complex relation between music and trauma. Her work posits that music becomes a universal symbol in suffering, and the ultimate sanctuary in despair. 

Karmina Šilec is artistic director of Carmina Slovenica, New Music Theatre Choregie and Ensemble !Kebataola!.

Learn more at KarminaSilec.com.

Dorian Šilec Petek is a theater artist working in the fields of direction and scenography. His work centers around the critique of late capitalism and its manifestations in society. Petek’s theater is interested in recontextualizing history, where his projects delve into the legacy of our understanding of structures of power, emotional disorders, narratives of adulthood, and solitude. His upcoming theater works are centered around the understanding of a more-than-human world. His work has been commissioned by various Slovenian theaters, including the Slovenian National Theatre Drama Ljubljana, the Ljubljana City Theatre, and the Prešeren Theat Kranj; presented at various international venues such as Z Space in San Francisco, Theater Basel, ASU Gammage in Arizona, and Watermill Center in New York; and shown at festivals around the world.

Learn more at DorianSilecPetek.com.

Mila Henry is a music director and pianist who maintains an active and versatile career leading works that defy genre, from rock musicals to folk operas to reimagined classics. She has worked with Lileana Blain-Cruz, Heather Christian, Bill T. Jones, George Lewis, Missy Mazzoli, Wayne Shorter, and esperanza spalding. Recent and upcoming projects include conductor for The Old Man and the Sea (Opera Columbus); music director/pianist for Precipice (Prototype Festival); and associate music director for Black Swan (American Repertory Theater).

Hailed as “a stalwart contributor to the contemporary opera scene” (Opera Ithaca), Mila frequently collaborates with Beth Morrison Projects and the Prototype Festival. She was conductor for Magdalene; music director/pianist for Eat the Document; pianist for Mata Hari and Thumbprint; and répétiteur for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Angel’s Bone and prism, among others. Other notable collaborations include conductor for The Old Man and the Sea (BMP, VisionIntoArt); music director for The Hunt (Miller Theatre); associate music director for The Comet / Poppea (AMOC* Festival, Lincoln Center); pianist for We Shall Not Be Moved (Opera Philadelphia, The Apollo, Dutch National Opera) and Looking at You (HERE); and répétiteur for Iphigenia (Real Magic, Octopus Theatricals). She has also worked with American Opera Projects, Death of Classical, Experiments in Opera, and Opera on Tap, and has played at venues ranging from The Stone to the Library of Congress.

A strong advocate for mentorship, Mila is an active Maestra member, serving as co-program head (with Rebecca Steinberg) for their First Takes program and previously participating as both a mentor and mentee. She has participated on grant panels for Loghaven, New Music USA, and OPERA America, and in 2025, was one of nine honorees for OPERA America's Marineau Opera Grants for Women Opera Directors and Conductors. .

Mila holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music (Master of Music, Collaborative Piano) and Elizabethtown College (Bachelor of Arts in Music, Piano). She is based in New York and plays accordion, melodica, ukulele, and an assortment of other tiny instruments with the alt-country band the Opera Cowgirls.

Learn more at MilaHenry.com.

Andrej Hajdinjak has designed lighting for more than 200 productions spanning theater, dance, ballet, opera, concerts, and exhibitions, collaborating with renowned directors, choreographers, and institutions across Europe and beyond. His credits include Tosca (G. H. Seebach), Lakmé, The Tales of Hoffmann, Prince Igor (Plamen Kartaloff), Carmen (Charles Roubaud), Faust (Alessia Pizzech), Don Quixote (Thomas Schulte Michels), and Julie (Manfred Schweigkofler). With choreographer Edward Clug, he created designs for Architecture of Silence, Radio and Juliet, and Pret-a-Porter. He also lit Tomaž Pandur’s Medea and Vito Taufer’s Three Oranges, as well as major cultural events including the Slovenian National Day celebrations and the National Prešeren Awards.

He has worked with leading companies such as the National Opera and Ballet Ljubljana, SNG Maribor, Ljubljana City Theatre, Slovenian Youth Theatre, Croatian National Theatre Zagreb and Rijeka, Yugoslav Drama Theatre, and the National Opera and Ballet Sofia. His designs have toured internationally to the Paphos Aphrodite Festival (Cyprus), Osaka Festival Hall and Tokyo Bunka Kaikan (Japan), Singapore Arts Festival, St. Pölten, Winterthur, Bolzano, and beyond. Winner of the Borštnik Award for lighting design, Hajdinjak has worked professionally since 1994. Formerly head of stage lighting at Cankarjev Dom, he now focuses on original projects, education, and consulting in stage lighting.

From: New York City, New York. LA Opera: The Old Man and the Sea (2027).

Sidra Bell was commissioned as the first Black female choreographer to make works for New York City Ballet in the fall of 2020 (Fall Digital Season) and 2021 (Fall Fashion Gala/Innovators & Icons Program). Recent features of her historical work at NYCB include Essence Magazine, NY1, News12, Cero Magazine, and Amsterdam News. She was the choreographer of ARENA in collaboration with acclaimed visual artist Derek Fordjour for his feature solo show at Petzel Gallery in Fall 2023 (New York Times Critic Pick). She was nominated for Outstanding Choreographer at the Bessies in 2022 and 2023. She was featured on air for a special segment on The Today Show: “How choreographer Sidra Bell is blazing a trail for next generation: Groundbreaking dancer and choreographer Sidra Bell talks making history at the New York City Ballet and blazing a trail for future generations”

Her career has spanned over 20 years and her choreography has been seen throughout the United States and in Denmark, France, Austria, Bulgaria, Turkey, Slovenia, Sweden, Germany, China, Canada, Aruba, Korea, Brazil, and Greece. Bell has created over 100 works notably for BODYTRAFFIC, Ailey II, the Juilliard School (live music collaborations with Dennis Bell and Jacob Cooper), Whim W’Him, Nevada Ballet Theater, Nashville Ballet, Boston Conservatory at Berklee College, Point Park University, River North Dance Chicago, Big Muddy Dance Company, Ohio State University, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Sacramento Ballet, Boulder Ballet, New Dance Partners Kansas City, Ballet Austin, Springboard Danse Montréal, Boston Dance Theater, St. Louis Dance Theatre (Big Muddy Dance Company), GroundWorks Dance Cleveland, Robert Moses' KIN San Francisco, University of North Carolina School of the Arts (live music collaboration with Nia Imani Franklin), Mutual Dance Theater Cincinnati, Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet Schools, Robert Moses' Kin, University of Texas at Austin among many others. 

Sidra Bell Dance New York (SBDNY, Inc.), her nonprofit dance troupe, celebrated its 20th anniversary in December 2021. The company tours internationally collaborating with cutting edge institutions in dance, theater, and design. Its body of work has been presented in venues across the globe including the critically acclaimed evening length works ReVUE, STELLA and MÖNSTER OUTSIDE (National Dance Project Award Winner and collaboration with Swedish band New Tide Orquesta). The company received a 2023 Creative Capital Award in collaboration with composer Immanuel Wilkiins (New York Times Best Jazz Albums 2020). Mainstage presentations of her company include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Met Breuer, Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, Aronoff Center Cincinnati, Manship Theatre Baton Rouge, Cape Fear Community College Wilmington, NC, Kelly Strayhorn Theater Pittsburgh, One Dance Week Bulgaria (Plovdiv), Vara Konserthus (Sweden), Kungsbacka Teater (Sweden), Emens Auditorium Indiana, New York Live Arts, Dance Theater Workshop, The Duo Theatre, Gibney, Tangente Montréal, and 92Y. Company creative residencies have been presented and hosted by Dance Theater Workshop, New York Live Arts Studio Series, Contemporary Arts Center technical residency, PearlArt Pittsburgh, Kelly Strayhorn Theater & Alloy Studios, Vara Konserthus Sweden, LevyDance at ODC Theater San Francisco (Rainin Foundation/NEA), CPR-Center for Performance Research Mellon Residency, MAD at Stella Adler, Arts Umbrella Vancouver, Point Park University, and SITE Sweden.

​Bell has been a cultural ambassador for contemporary dance in Bulgaria (America for Bulgaria/Trust for Mutual Understanding/Derida Dance Center) and Turkey (the U.S Embassy & Motto Dans Kolectif). Through these engagements she was featured on the local news in Istanbul and met with the Mayor of Sofia. She has been an extensive collaborator for acclaimed director and composer Karmina Sîlec for her groundbreaking work in vocal theatre and opera. She was an collaborator and movement advisor for Fauvel (Slovenia 2015), Threnos (Slovenia 2020, BABA (San Francisco 2023), and The Old Man and the Sea (Arizona State University & University of North Carolina Chapel Hill 2024 with Sîlec, Paola Prestini, and Beth Morrison Productions). She was a master lecturer at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia (2012-2024), and an artist-in-residence at Harvard University and two-time visiting lecturer at Harvard University (Office of the Arts and Theater, Dance, & Mdia). She has also held adjunct professor positions at Ball State University in Indiana, Georgian Court University in New Jersey, Marymount Manhattan College, LINES B.F.A. Program at Dominican University and Barnard College. She has a B.A. in history from Yale University (named a Yale Scholar) and an MFA in choreography from Purchase College Conservatory of Dance (Patricia Kerr Ross Awardee). She was a University of Minnesota Theater Arts & Dance Cowles Visiting Artist and an artist in residence at Cornish College of the Arts (Seattle). Her body of work was featured in the Harvard University Theater, Dance & Media course Contemporary Repertory: Dance Authorship in the 21st Century University of Oklahoma named her the Brackett Distinguished Visiting Artist Chair in 2021 and she was the 2019 Honoree at CPR-Center Performance Research’s Gala in New York City and a 2018 Honoree at Michiyaya’s Gala in New York City.

She has won awards, notably a first prize for choreography at the Solo-Tanz Theater Festival in Stuttgart, Germany in 2011 for Grief Point and a 2015 National Dance Project Production Award from the New England Foundation for the Arts. Her work Conductivity won a second prize for the performer at the Solo-Tanz Festival. Grief Point. and Conductivity toured through Germany and Brazil. February 3 was named "Sidra Bell Day" by Mayor Thomas Roach in the City of White Plains, New York. In 2012, she was commissioned as the choreographer for the feature film TEST, set in San Francisco during the height of the AIDS crisis in 1985. TEST was awarded two grand jury prizes from Outfest. 

Currently, she is mining her living archive in an action installation entitled RETURN TO FORM that includes ephemera, objects, costumes, sculpture 3D renderings, print books, film, documentary footage, interviews, live performances, and photographs. With the support of NPN Storytelling Grant and Arts Westchester, it has been presented at Gibney and at Greenburgh Public Library.

As a solo performer, she has recently collaborated with sound artists Sita Shay, SaaWee and guests at Joe’s Pub, Union Stage D.C., and the Bach Festival in Virginia. She was a solo artist in residence at Yaddo (2022 and 2023 Patricia Highsmith-Plangman Residency Awardee, Saratoga Springs) and at Djerassi Artist Residence Program (California).

Her essays have been published in Antiracism in Ballet Teaching, Edited By Kate Mattingly, Iyun Ashani Harrison, and Dance Magazine's "Why I Dance."

Learn more at SidraBell.com.

From: NoCal/Brooklyn. LA Opera: Dog Days (2015, debut); anatomy theater (2016); The Source (2016); The Hubble Cantata (2017); Soldier Songs (2018); prism (2018); In Our Daughter's Eyes (2022).

Sound designer Garth MacAleavey is Director of Sound and Technical Design of National Sawdust. Recent credits include Spatial...no problem by Lee Scratch Perry and Mouse on Mars; Soldier Songs for Opera Philadelphia; the New York Philharmonic’s Sound On: Leading Voices; Ricky Ian Gordon’s Ellen West; Ted Hearne’s Dorothea; Michael Gordon’s Aquanetta; and Nick Cave’s The Let Go at Park Ave Armory.