In celebration of our 10th Anniversary in spring 2021, Experiments in Opera will premiere Everything for Dawn, an epic new live opera featuring ten 15-minute episodes each written by a different librettist/composer combo.  A marathon performance of daring ambition, Everything for Dawn is the epitome of what Experiments in Opera stands for—fun, intimate storytelling, with a strong feeling of an artistic community at work. The ten composers who will each be writing a 15-minute episode of the full opera are: Clarice Assad, Jason Cady, Matthew Welch, Paul Kerekes, Phil Kline, Pauline Kim, Melissa Dunphy, Alex Temple, Aaron Siegel, and Kamala Sankaram.

Everything for Dawn is an original coming-of-age opera spanning the 1990s. Dawn, a community college student and riot-grrrl, is dealing with the impact of her father’s suicide. Her personal tragedy becomes public when his secret paintings become celebrated as outsider art. The opera examines the questionable idea of “outsider art,” the stigmatization of mental health issues and the cyclic nature of trauma through a mix of humor, pathos and real-world characters.